Select a calendar:
Filter October Events by Event Type:
Events for the 3rd week of October
-
Center for Systems and Control (CSC@USC) and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering
Mon, Oct 16, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Bin Hu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Talk Title: Dissipativity Theory for Optimization and Machine Learning Research
Series: Fall 2017 Joint CSC@USC/CommNetS-MHI Seminar Series
Abstract: Empirical risk minimization (ERM) is a central topic for machine learning research, and is typically solved using first-order optimization methods whose convergence proofs are derived in a case-by-case manner. In this talk, we will present a simple routine which unifies the analysis of such optimization methods including gradient descent method, Nesterov's accelerated method, stochastic gradient descent (SGD), stochastic average gradient (SAG), SAGA, Finito, stochastic dual coordinate ascent (SDCA), stochastic variance reduction gradient (SVRG), and SGD with momentum. Specifically, we will view all these optimization methods as dynamical systems and then use a unified dissipativity approach to derive sufficient conditions for convergence rate certifications of such dynamical systems. The derived conditions are all in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). We solve these resultant LMIs and obtain analytical proofs of new convergence rates for various optimization methods (with or without individual convexity). Our proposed analysis can be automated for a large class of first-order optimization methods under various assumptions. In addition, the derived LMIs can always be numerically solved to provide clues for constructions of analytical proofs.
Biography: Bin Hu received his B.S in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Science and Technology of China, and received the M.S. in Computational Mechanics from Carnegie Mellon University. He received the Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota, advised by Peter Seiler. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the optimization group of Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is working with Laurent Lessard and closely collaborating with Stephen Wright. He is interested in building connections between control theory and machine learning research. His current research focuses on tailoring robust control theory (integral quadratic constraints, dissipation inequalities, jump system theory, etc) to unify the study of stochastic optimization methods (stochastic gradient, stochastic average gradient, SAGA, SVRG, Katyusha momentum, etc) and their applications in related machine learning problems (logistic regression, deep neural networks, matrix completion, etc). He is also particularly interested in the generalization mechanism of deep learning.
Host: Insoon Yang, insoonya@usc.edu
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
-
Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things and Ming Hsieh Institute for Electrical Engineering Joint Seminar Series on Cyber-Physical Systems
Wed, Oct 18, 2017 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sajal K. Das, Professor, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla
Talk Title: Smart Living: The Next Frontier
Abstract: We live in an era in which our physical and personal environments are becoming increasingly intertwined and smarter due to the advent of pervasive sensing, wireless communications, computing, and actuation technologies. Indeed our daily living in smart cities and connected communities depend on a wide variety of smart service systems and cyber-physical infrastructures, such as smart energy, transportation, healthcare, supply-chain, etc. Alongside, the availability of low-cost wireless sensor networks (WSNs), Internet of Things (IoTs), and rich mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) are also empowering humans with fine-grained information and opinion collection through crowdsensing about events of interest, thus resulting in actionable inferences and decisions. This synergy has led to the cyber-physical-social (CPS) convergence with human in the loop that exhibits complex interactions, inter-dependencies and adaptations between engineered/natural systems and human users with a goal to improve quality of life experience what we call smart living. However, the main challenges are posed by the scale, heterogeneity, big data, and resource limitations (e.g., energy) in context recognition and situation awareness using sensors, IoTs and CPS networks. This talk will highlight unique research issues and challenges in smart living and CPS systems, solutions for energy-efficient data gathering and fusion, lifetime optimization and security in WSNs, and trade-off between energy and information quality in multi-modal context recognition. Our research is based on online and randomized algorithms, graph theory, game theory, trust model, and information theory. Case studies and experimental results will be presented for energy efficient homes and smart healthcare applications. The talk will be concluded with directions for future research.
Biography: Dr. Sajal K. Das is a professor of Computer Science and Daniel St. Clair Endowed Chair at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla. During 2008-2011, he served the NSF as a Program Director in the Computer and Network Systems Division. Prior to 2013, he was a University Distinguished Scholar Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and founding director of Center for Research in Wireless Mobility and Networking (CReWMaN) at the University of Texas at Arlington. His research interests include wireless and sensor networks, mobile and pervasive computing, cyber-physical systems and smart environments including smart grid and smart healthcare, distributed and cloud computing, security and privacy, big data and IoT, biological and social networks, and applied graph theory and game theory. He has published over 600 research articles in these areas, 52 book chapters, and 5 US patents. He coauthored four books - "Smart Environments: Technology, Protocols, and Applications" (John Wiley, 2005); "Handbook on Securing Cyber-Physical Critical Infrastructure: Foundations and Challenges" (Morgan Kaufman, 2012); "Mobile Agents in Distributed Computing and Networking" (Wiley, 2012); and "Principles of Cyber-Physical Systems: An Interdisciplinary Approach" (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His h-index is 75 with more than 23,500 citations according to Google Scholar. Dr. Das is a recipient of 10 Best Paper Awards in prestigious conferences (e.g., ACM MobiCom and IEEE PerCom) and numerous awards for research, teaching, mentoring and professional services, including IEEE Computer Society's Technical Achievement Award for pioneering contributions to sensor networks and mobile computing. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier's Pervasive and Mobile Computing journal and serves as Associate Editor of several journals including IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, and Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing. A founder of IEEE PerCom, IEEE WoWMoM, IEEE SMARTCOMP, and ICDCN conferences, he has served on numerous ACM and IEEE conference committees as General Chair, Technical Program Chair, or Program Committee member. Dr. Das is an IEEE Fellow for pioneering contributions to parallel, distributed and mobile computing.
Host: Paul Bogdan
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - EEB 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
-
Debdeep Jena - Munushian Seminar speaker, Friday, October 20th at 2:00pm in EEB 132
Fri, Oct 20, 2017 @ 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Debdeep Jena, Cornell University
Talk Title: The Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Revolution in Electronic, Photonic, and Energy Systems
Abstract: Wide-bandgap nitride materials and devices have revolutionized the electronics and photonics industries in the last two decades. The optical device impact is moving from visible lighting and lasers to deep-UV photonics for biological applications. By exploiting the high electrical breakdown fields, and the high mobility of 2-dimensional electron gases, GaN HEMTs are now capable of generating enormous amounts of microwave power at high frequencies, and have become very attractive for RF amplifiers that power communications. At the same time, both lateral GaN HEMTs, and vertical GaN FETs are making inroads into high-voltage power electronics. Surprisingly, GaN also has a significant role to play in low-power energy-efficient electronics by exploiting internal polarization fields driven by the Berry phase. This talk will review these successes and discuss the physics underlying these revolutionary advances of the past two decades. Then, the same physics and a slew of new nitride materials to augment the conventional nitrides and to take Wide-bandgap electronics well into the future into areas of quantum computation and communications will be discussed.
Biography: Dr. Debdeep Jena is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University. His research and teaching interests are in the MBE growth and electronic and photonic device applications of quantum semiconductor heterostructures (III-V nitrides, oxides, and 2D crystal semiconductors). By combining experiment and theory, his group explores fundamental speed, power, and efficiency limits of electronic and photonic devices based on a deep investigation of charge, heat, and spin transport. He has authored more than 200 scientific publications including articles in Science, Nature Journals, Physical Review Letters, Electron Device Letters, and Applied Physics Letters. During his research career, he has received the International MBE Young Scientist award in 2014, the IBM faculty award in 2012, the ISCS Young Scientist award in 2012, the most valuable contribution awards at the Workshop for Compound Semiconductor Materials and Devices (WOCSEMMAD) in 2014, 2010 and 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award in 2006, a best student paper award at the Electronic Materials Conference in 2002, and a young author best paper award from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in 2000. He is most proud of the Joyce award for excellence in undergraduate teaching which he received in 2010. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: minghsiehee.usc.edu/about/lectures/munushian
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 132
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: minghsiehee.usc.edu/about/lectures/munushian