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SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for the 5th week of February
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L.A. Opera: Il Turco in Italia
Sun, Feb 27, 2011 @ 12:30 PM - 05:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Student Activity
*This trip is for current USC students only. You must use the provided transportation to participate. Space is limited and advance registration is required. RSVP here http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/visionsandvoices/RSVP/reserve.php?RSVPEvtCode=83 beginning Wednesday, February 2, at 9 a.m. Check-in for the event will begin at 11:45 a.m. on campus. Buses will depart at 12:30 p.m. and return to campus at 5 p.m. Lunch will be provided at check-in.
L.A. Opera music director James Conlon will conduct Rossiniâs zaniest comedy, which has been described as The Barber of Seville meets Così fan tutte. Nino Machaidze stars as Fiorilla, a woman determined to rid herself of the two men in her lifeâher exasperated husband and a tedious admirerâin favor of a more exotic suitor, a pompously beguiling Turk. The great Thomas Allen returns in the part of the poet Prosdocimo.
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.eduLocation: Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, Los Angeles
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Helicopter Accident Investigation
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Aviation Safety and Security Program
University Calendar
This course examines helicopter rotor systems, controls, performance variables, flight hazards and material characteristics involved in helicopter operations and accidents.
Location: Aviation Safety & Security Campus
Audiences: Aviation Professionals
Contact: Harrison Wolf
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Hazard Effects and Control Strategues (HAZSS)
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Aviation Safety and Security Program
University Calendar
System Safety Analysis requires a clear understanding of sources of harm (hazards) inherent to a system. System safety analysis should identify the energy sources within the system, target the attack and the barriers that reduce the risk. The purpose of this course is to understand hazard effects and control strategy methodologies.
Location: Aviation Safety & Security Campus
Audiences: Aviation Professionals
Contact: Harrison Wolf
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Signal Recovery from Randomized Measurements Using Structured Sparsity Models
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Marco F. Duarte, IPAM Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Computer Science, Duke University
Talk Title: Signal Recovery from Randomized Measurements Using Structured Sparsity Models
Abstract: We are in the midst of a digital revolution spawned by the proliferation of sensing devices with ever increasing fidelity and resolution. The resulting data deluge has motivated compression schemes that rely on transform coding, where a suitable transformation of the data provides a sparse representation that compacts the signal energy into a few transform coefficients. This standard approach, however, still requires signal acquisition at the full Nyquist rate, which cannot be achieved in many emerging applications using current sensing technology. The emerging acquisition paradigm of compressive sensing (CS) leverages signal sparsity for recovery from a small set of randomized measurements. The standard CS theory dictates that robust recovery of a K-sparse, N-length signal is possible from M=O(K log(N/K)) measurements. New sensing devices that implement this measurement process have been developed for applications including optical and seismic imaging, communications, and biosensing.
In this talk, we show that it is possible to substantially decrease the number of measurements M without sacrificing robustness by leveraging more concise signal models that go beyond simple sparsity and compressibility. We present a modified CS theory for structured sparse signals that exploits the dependencies between values and locations of the significant signal coefficients; we provide concrete guidelines on how to create new recovery algorithms for structured sparse signals with provable performance guarantees that require as few as M=O(K) measurements. We also review example applications of structured sparsity for natural images, signal ensembles, and multiuser detection.
Biography: Marco F. Duarte received the B.Sc. degree in computer engineering (with distinction) and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Rice University, Houston, TX, in 2009. During 2009-2010, he was a Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Program of Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University. He is currently the NSF/IPAM Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at Duke University, where he works on applications of deterministic matrix constructions in compressive sensing devices.
Dr. Duarte received the Rice University Presidential Fellowship and the Texas Instruments Distinguished Fellowship in 2004, and the Hershel M. Rich Invention Award in 2007 for his work on the single pixel camera. He was a coauthor on a paper with Chinmay Hegde and Volkan Cevher that won the Best Student Paper Award at the 2009 International Workshop on Signal Processing with Adaptive Sparse Structured Representations (SPARS). His research interests include compressive sensing, low-dimensional signal models, dimensionality reduction, and distributed signal processing.
Host: Prof. Shrikanth Narayanan
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mary Francis
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Computer Engineering Seminar
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Weikang Qian, University of Minnesota
Talk Title: Digital yet Deliberately Random: Synthesizing Logical Computation on Stochastic Bit Streams
Abstract: Most digital circuits process information deterministically as zeros and ones. For example, the arithmetic unit of a modern computer performs calculations on deterministic integer or floating-point values represented in binary radix. However, digital computation need not be deterministic. In my research, I consider an alternative paradigm: digital circuits that compute on stochastic sequences of zeros and ones. Such circuits can implement complex arithmetic operations with very simple hardware. Also they are highly tolerant of soft errors (i.e., bit flips). In the first part of my talk, I will present a general method for synthesizing combinational circuits that compute on stochastic bit streams. The method can be used to synthesize arbitrary polynomial functions. Through polynomial approximations, it can also be used to synthesize non-polynomial functions.
Schemes for probabilistic computation can exploit physical sources to generate random bit streams. Generally, each source has a fixed bias and so provides bits that have a specific probability of being one versus zero. If many different probability values are required, it can be difficult or expensive to generate all of these directly from physical sources. In the second half of my talk, I will describe techniques for synthesizing circuits that transform source probabilities into target probabilities, entirely through combinational logic. I will conclude my talk by discussing potential applications of the design methodology for emerging nanoscale technologies, such as nanowire crossbar arrays and carbon nanotubes.
Biography: Weikang Qian is a final-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Automation from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2006. He has research interests in diverse fields such as computer-aided design of integrated circuits, circuit design for emerging technologies, and fault-tolerant computing. In recognition of his doctoral research, he received the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship at the University of Minnesota. One of his papers was nominated for the William J. McCalla Best Paper Award at the 2009 International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), a top conference in the field of electronic design automation.
Host: Sandeep Gupta
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Estela Lopez
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BME 533 - Seminar in Biomedical Engineering
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 12:30 PM - 01:50 PM
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Buddy Ratner, University of Washington
Host: Department of Biomedical Engineering, USC
Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta
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Graduate Seminar
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 12:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Hong Shen, Department of Chemical Engineering University of Washington
Talk Title: Biomaterial-engineering the Immune System
Series: Graduate Seminar
Abstract: Our research interfaces biomaterials, the immune system and engineering design. We use materials with defined properties to probe how the immune system interacts with biomaterials at both cellular and molecular levels. Built upon our understanding, we design biomaterials to exploit intracellular pathways of immune cells for safe and effective therapeutics, such as tissue implants, non-viral gene delivery systems and vaccines. These biomaterials also provide an excellent tool for us to further dissect the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which immune responses are triggered and sustained. A challenge of current vaccines is to achieve a spectrum of immune responses in a single construct. In this talk, I will mainly discuss how we bring together the aforementioned research interests to address this challenge.
More Info: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/g-02-28-11.htmLocation: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Petra Pearce
Event Link: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/10-11/g-02-28-11.htm
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CS Colloquium
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 01:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Sasha Alexander Sherstov, Microsoft Research
Talk Title: Limits of Communication
Abstract: Consider a function f whose arguments are distributed among several parties, making it impossible for any one party to compute f in isolation. Initiated in 1979, communication complexity theory studies how many bits of communication are needed to evaluate f. I will prove that:
1. some natural and practical problems require high communication to achieve any advantage at all over random guessing;
2. solving n instances of any known communication problem on a quantum computer incurs Omega(n) times the cost of a single instance, even to achieve exponentially small correctness probability.
The proofs work by recasting the communication problem geometrically and looking at the dual problem in a novel way. Our results resolve open problems dating back to 1986.
Biography: Alexander Sherstov earned his Ph.D. in computer science in August 2009 at the University of Texas at Austin, under the direction of Prof. Adam Klivans, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research. He has broad research interests in theoretical computer science, including complexity theory, computational learning theory, and quantum computing.
Host: Prof. Ming-Deh Huang
Location: SAL 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
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Poetry in Conversation: Billy Collins and Carol Muske-Dukes
Mon, Feb 28, 2011 @ 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Receptions & Special Events
Admission is free.
Reception and book signing to follow.
Billy Collins, U.S. poet laureate from 2001 to 2003 and author of nine collections of poetry, is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal. Following a reading of his work, Collins will engage in conversation with USC professor and California poet laureate Carol Muske-Dukes on the art, craft and foibles of writing poetry.
Billy Collinsâs work has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Scholar. He has published nine collections of poetry: Questions About Angels, The Art of Drowning, Picnic, Lightning, Taking Off Emily Dickinsonâs Clothes, Sailing Alone Around the Room, Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry and Ballistics. His numerous honors include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He was appointed United States poet laureate from 2001 to 2003 and was named New York poet laureate from 2004 to 2006. Billy Collins is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York.
Carol Muske-Dukes is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Sparrow, a National Book Award finalist. She has written three novels, Life After Death, Saving St. Germ and Dear Digby, and a collection of essays entitled Married to the Icepick Killer: A Poet in Hollywood. She is a professor of English and creative writing and founding director of the PhD program in literature and creative writing at USC. She has received many awards and honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and several Pushcart Prizes. In 2008, she was appointed California poet laureate by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Photo of Billy Collins: Steven Kovich
For further information on this eventLocation: George Finley Bovard Administration Building (ADM) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Business and Economics Minor Workshop
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Workshops & Infosessions
If you're interested in doing a business or economics minor, please attend this workshop to learn about the requirements and application process. We will have representatives from the Marshall School of Business and the College here to explain all the details!
RSVP by emailing viterbi.studentservices@usc.edu with "RSVP Minor Workshop 3/1" in the subject.Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Undergrad
Contact: Jeffrey Teng
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EPSTEIN INSTITUTE SEMINAR
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:50 PM
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Placid Ferreira, Department Head & Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Talk Title: "Heterogeneous Integration and Manufacturing at the Nanoscale"
Abstract: Nanoscience â the âscience of the smallâ â produces stunning revelations that, almost daily, redefine the realm of the possible. Yet, the manufacturing processes and systems to transform this new knowledge into technologies and products that benefit us in our daily life are crucial missing elements. At Illinois, our research group, working in the Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS) Center, a NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), is exploring and developing new methodologies and tools that exploit chemical, mechanical, and electronic phenomena and processes for manufacturing at the nanoscale.
This talk will describe heterogeneous integration in product design as a motivation for a repertoire of micro and nanoscale manufacturing technologies and explore how emerging processes such as electrochemical patterning, microtransfer printing and electro-jet writing provide new possibilities for integrating mechanical, optical and electrical functions into materials. It will also examine challenges in enabling technologies such as positioning and sensing associated with nanoscale manufacturing.
Biography: Dr. Placid M. Ferreira is the Head and the Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois. From 2003 to 2009, he was the director of the Center for Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS), an NSF-sponsored Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. He graduated with a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University in 1987, M.Tech (Mechanical) from IIT Bombay, 1982 and B.E. (Mechanical) for University of Bombay in 1980. He has been on the mechanical engineering faculty at Illinois since 1987, serving as the associate head for graduate programs and research from 1999 to 2002.
Professor Ferreira's research and teaching interests are in the area of industrial automation and include computer-controlled machine-tools, nanomanufacturing and metrology, computational geometry and solid modeling with applications to automated process planning, and the discrete-event control of large-scale flexibly automated systems.
Professor Ferreira received NSF's Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1990, SME's Outstanding Young Investigator Award in 1991 and the University of Illinois' University Scholar Award in 1994. He has served as an associate editor and editor for IIE Transactions on Design and Manufacturing and editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (2003-2007) and on the editorial board for the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing.
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - Room 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Georgia Lum
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CS Colloquium
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Guy Rothblum, Princeton University
Talk Title: Differential Privacy: Recent Developements and Future Challenges
Abstract: Consider a database of sensitive information about a set of participants. Statistical analysis of the data may yield valuable results, but it also poses serious threats to the participants' privacy. A successful research program has, in the last few years, attempted to address these conflicting concerns, formulating the rigorous privacy guarantee of differential privacy [Dwork McSherry Nissim and Smith '06] and showing that in some cases data analyses can provide accurate answers while protecting participants' privacy.
After reviewing some of this past work, I will introduce two new general-purpose tools for privacy-preserving data analysis:
1. A new "boosting" framework for improving the accuracy guarantees of weak differentially private algorithms.
2. Robust privacy guarantees for differentially private algorithms under composition.
Using these tools we will show that, computational complexity aside, differential privacy permits surprisingly rich and accurate data analyses. I will then highlight some of the intriguing challenges that remain open for future work in this field. No prior knowledge will be assumed.
Biography: Guy Rothblum is a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University, supported by a Computing Innovation Fellowship. He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at MIT, and his M.Sc. in computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. His research interests are in theoretical computer science and computer security, especially privacy-preserving data analysis, cryptography and complexity theory.
Host: Prof. Ming-Deh Huang
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
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Got a Brand? Tell Me A Little About Yourself (30 sec. pitch)
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Do you know how to talk to employers at networking or hiring events? Do you want to know what a 30 second elevator speech is? Come to this workshop to help prepare for the question, âTell Me A Little About Yourselfâ
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Lockheed Martin Information Session
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join representatives of this company as they share general company information and available opportunities.
co-sponsored with ACM & VCSLocation: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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SWE Summer Powwow
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Come join SWE for an hour in a roundtable discussion on how to best spend your summer. We'll be providing coffee, tea, doughnuts, and finger sandwiches. Hear some expert advice and share your own experiences with others about how to:
Make the Most of a Summer Without an Internship
Study Abroad
Maximize Your Internship
Other Summer Activities
The discussion will be led by several Trojans including Vanessa Kuroda, Tina Chou, and Harry McCoy who have been around the block so to speak and know how to get the most experience out of those three short, summer months. Start preparing now to make your break both fun and super productive, not to mention kick back for a bit with your friends at SWE!Location: Mark Taper Hall Of Humanities (THH) - 210
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Society of Women Engineers
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AIChE Industry vs. Academia Panel
Tue, Mar 01, 2011 @ 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Not sure whether to continue on to graduate school or immediately go into industry? Come out to hear current professors and industry professionals talk about their experiences and ask them for advice!
Speakers in this event include Dr Joe Qin, a chemical engineering professor in Viterbi School of Engineering and Frank He, a USC alumnus who is now working at Jacobs Engineering as a project engineer. Food will be served!Location: Hedco Pertroleum and Chemical Engineering Building (HED) - 116
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: USC American Institute of Chemical Engineers
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Damage Assessment for System Safety (DASS)
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 08:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Aviation Safety and Security Program
University Calendar
Sophisticated mathematical models and methods have been developed to estimate the level of impact of a hazardous condition. This course is intended to provide an overall understanding of these methods to help managers and system safety analysis reviewers understand the analysis conducted and results obtained by the experts in the field.
Location: Aviation Safety & Security Campus
Audiences: Aviation Professionals
Contact: Harrison Wolf
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Expand Your Brand - Career Module presented by Lockheed Martin
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Presented by Lockheed Martin:
Wondering how to get noticed by a potential employer? Have you always wondered what to say in order to stand out from a crowd? This session will help you learn how to network and conduct yourself in front of employers. Spend real time with an industry recruiter and ask every question youâve always wanted to know. Get real insider tips to land your next opportunity!
This event is co-sponsored by VCS & ACM.Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Munushian Seminar
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Werner Goetz, Senior Director, Philips Lumileds Lighting Company
Talk Title: High-power LED Technology and Solid State Lighting
Abstract: The rapid adoption of LEDs in general illumination is fueled by high-power phosphor-conversion and direct color blue and red LED technology. Over the last several years technology development has boosted the efficacy of white high-power LEDs to greater than 100 lm/W even for devices with warm-white correlated color temperature and high color rendering index at operating conditions. In combination with advances in production cost reduction, LED-based luminaires are winning the battle against their conventional counterparts in applications where their energy efficiency, long life, and ruggedness lead to a cost of ownership advantage.
This presentation will provide an overview of high-power LED technology, applications, and discuss challenges for future efficacy improvement and cost reduction.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/munushianLocation: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/munushian
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Closing the Gap on Missing Sources of Organic Aerosol in the Atmosphere
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Christopher Hennigan, Carnegie Mellon University
Talk Title: Closing the Gap on Missing Sources of Organic Aerosol in the Atmosphere
Abstract: Aerosols, or particulate matter, are ubiquitous components of the atmosphere that exert important impacts on human health and global climate, though our understanding of these effects is far from clear. A better characterization of aerosol physical and chemical properties, including their sources and fate, is vital in obtaining a more accurate assessment of their contribution to climate change and in devising mitigation strategies with public health in mind. Extensive ambient measurements have demonstrated that organic compounds comprise a significant fraction of aerosol mass in many locations globally. Our knowledge of this organic aerosol (OA), however, is incomplete, as evidenced by the systematic underprediction of OA concentrations by state-of-the-art computer models. Recent research efforts have intensified to identify this âmissingâ source of OA, with many hypotheses emerging. Measurements conducted in Atlanta point to liquid water associated with aerosols as an important OA source that has not been considered previously. This mechanism involves the dissolution and subsequent reaction of soluble organic gases in the aerosol aqueous phase. It is likely different from processes occurring in cloud and fog water due to extreme concentration differences. Previous studies have ignored this possibility due to the relatively small amount of water associated with fine particles (aerosols with diameters smaller than 2.5 µm); however, our results provide strong evidence that this pathway contributes significantly to ambient OA concentrations. This mechanism is likely to be important in other locations, as well, and may represent the dominant source of OA missing from current models.
Host: Sonny Astani Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Erin Sigman
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A Clean-Slate Design of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using On-Off-Division Duplex
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dongning Guo , Northwestern University
Talk Title: A Clean-Slate Design of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Using On-Off-Division Duplex
Abstract: We introduce a novel paradigm, called rapid on-off-division duplex
(RODD), for designing the physical and medium access control (MAC)
layers of a wireless ad hoc network formed by half-duplex radios. A
node equipped with a half-duplex radio cannot simultaneously transmit and
receive useful signals at the same frequency. Unlike in conventional
designs, where a node's transmission frames are scheduled away from
its reception, RODD lets each node transmit its signal through a
unique on-off duplex mask (or signature) over every frame interval,
and receive a signal through each off-slot. Over the period of a
single frame, every node can transmit a message to its peers, and
simultaneously receive a message from each peer. Thus RODD achieves
virtual full-duplex communication using half-duplex radios without
complicated scheduling at the frame level. The throughput of RODD is
determined under some simple settings, which is significantly larger
than that of certain random access schemes. RODD is especially
efficient in case the dominant traffic is simultaneous broadcast from
nodes to their one-hop peers. Design issues such as peer discovery,
synchronization and coding schemes will also be addressed.
Biography: Dongning Guo joined the faculty of Northwestern University, Evanston,
IL, in 2004, where he is currently an Associate Professor in the
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received
the B.Eng. degree from the University of Science & Technology of
China, the M.Eng. degree from the National University of Singapore,
and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ. He was an R&D Engineer in the Center for Wireless Communications
(now the Institute for Infocom Research), Singapore, from 1998 to
1999. He has held visiting positions at Norwegian University of
Science and Technology in summer 2006 and Chinese University of Hong
Kong in 2010-2011. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on
Information Theory in the area of Shannon Theory.
Dongning Guo received the Huber and Suhner Best Student Paper Award in
the International Zurich Seminar on Broadband Communications in 2000
and is a co-recipient of the IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in
Wireless Communications in 2010. He is also a recipient of the
National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER)
Award in 2007. His research interests are in information theory,
communications, and networking.
Host: Alex Dimakis
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos
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AME Department Seminar
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Thilo Hoelscher , Professor and Director of Brain Ultrasound Research Laboratory Departments of Radiology and Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: Therapeutic Ultrasound Applications in the Human Brain - From Noninvasive Surgery to Local Drug Delivery
Abstract: Despite its initial purpose of being a purely diagnostic tool the knowledge of ultrasound induced biomechanisms increased rapidly during the last years, changing significantly the scope of how ultrasound might be used in the future. Noninvasive surgery and local drug delivery became major research developments in the field of therapeutic ultrasound in the brain. Image-guided therapy using ultrasound, temporary opening of the blood-brain barrier, local drug delivery using acoustically active carriers or the controlled induction of cell modulations are major topics of current therapeutic ultrasound research activities. Besides conventional ultrasound techniques the development of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) systems broadened the variety of potential applications significantly, including brain tumor treatment, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases or neuromodulation.
The rapidly increasing knowledge of disease mechanisms and progressing development in medical device technologies, such as ultrasound, provide new insights of how diseases might be treated in the near future. The activities in the field of therapeutic ultrasound are research areas at the interface of engineering and biomedical sciences with the highest future potential.
The presentation will give an overview of some of these applications using different ultrasound approaches and will provide an inside of current research activities in this field at the UCSD Brain Ultrasound Research Laboratory.
Host: Dr. V. Eliasson
More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcomingLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: April Mundy
Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming
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NBC Universal Information Session
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join representatives of this company as they share general company information and available opportunities.
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: All Viterbi Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Free Kindle Giveaway with RPI Study Abroad Session!
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
On Wednesday, March 2nd, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) faculty, staff, and ISP alumns will host an info session on campus on the topic of the International Scholars Program (ISP) and related degree programs like the Rensselaer MBA and M.S. in Systems Engineering.
The International Scholars Program is a full-immersion experience within the Energy Systems or Global Enterprise Management discipline. While earning a Rensselaer M.S. or MBA, students spend a summer term abroad in Rome, Italy, and Shanghai, China, gaining international exposure with project teams and top corporations like IBM and SAP. Employers are looking not only for applicants with advanced degrees from top-tier universities, but also experience working in project teams and exposure to international business and economic cultures. Having all three guarantees to put you at the top of the candidate pile and set you apart from your peers.
Attendees will have the opportunity to learn how an advanced degree from Rensselaer, specifically the ISP, will lead to better jobs and more money! We will discuss the academics, project work, application process, and requirements and will be happy to answer any other questions you may have. In addition, there will be a FREE KINDLE giveaway for students who register for this event below! (But you must bring a copy of your resume!)
Pre-register here (http://apply.ewp.rpi.edu/register/?id=05b431b951d043f9a8adb3092dd259bf) for your chance to win a FREE KINDLE!
The event is sponsored by ASBME, NSBE, IEEE, EWH, AICHE, and SWE.Location: Waite Phillips Hall Of Education (WPH) - B27
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering
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Avenue Q
Wed, Mar 02, 2011 @ 07:00 PM - 11:30 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Student Activity
*This trip is for current USC students only. You must use the provided transportation to participate. Space is limited and advance registration is required. Due to high demand, tickets will be distributed on a lottery basis. To sign up for the lottery, click on the link http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/visionsandvoices/RSVP/reserveLotto.php?RSVPEvtCode=85 on Monday, February 7, anytime between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. Check-in for the event will begin at 6:15 p.m. on campus. Buses will depart at 7 p.m. and return to campus at 11:30 p.m. Dinner will be provided at check-in.
Like an adult version of Sesame Street, Avenue Q features a cast of people and puppets who tell their stories in a smart, risqué and hilarious way. The showâs puppet stars deal with problems ranging from unrequited love to racism to Internet-porn addiction. Avenue Q has won three Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and spawned numerous touring productions. The last time Avenue Q came to town, the Los Angeles Times called it âone of the jauntiest musicals to come around in a long while . . . An occasion for unadulterated fun.â
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu
Location: Pantages Theatre, Hollywood
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Words in Your Face: Poetry, Performance and Politics
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 06:30 AM - 08:00 AM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Receptions & Special Events
Join us for an evening of captivating performances by internationally recognized spoken-word poets Shihan, Mayda del Valle, Gina Loring and Rudy Francisco. The soundtrack to the evening will be provided by Los Angelesâbased DJ Brutha Gimel. Their energizing performances will be followed by a discussion exploring the role of the arts and artists in politics, education, community building and the public sphere.
For bios of the artists, visit the event page: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873362
Admission is free.
Organized by Javon Johnson (American Studies and Ethnicity).
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu
Location: George Finley Bovard Administration Building (ADM) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Multimodal Signal Processing: Signals from, to, and for humans
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Panayiotis (Panos) Georgiou, University of Southern California
Talk Title: Multimodal Signal Processing: Signals from, to, and for humans
Abstract: The 90's saw an explosion of ideas in merging traditional signal processing techniques with personal communication and entertainment supported by www technologies. We are presently experiencing yet another paradigm change in human interaction and communication such as through social media and in online information sharing. Notably, there has been significant movement in employing information and communications technologies towards transforming access and participation of people in their health and well-being.
My research lies in the exciting convergence of signal processing, multimedia, and speech applications centered on novel processing of signals from, to, and for humans. This effort entails a range of challenges in the sensing, recognition, interpretation, and context exploitation of complex human behavior, both at the explicit and implicit levels. Importantly, the effort includes the creation of algorithms and models that are inspired by, and emulate, how humans make use of the behavioral signal information in specific, societally-meaningful application settings.
In this talk, using specific examples, I will focus on two aspects of my work that aim at capturing an exploiting human interaction and their environment in a context aware way: (1) The convergence of multimodal signal processing and evidence based assessment in observational practice in mental health. Specifically I will discuss our recent efforts in instrumenting, collecting, and analyzing multimodal data for assessing behavioral cues relevant to the field of family psychology. The approach relies on array signal processing and machine learning techniques based on training data labeled by domain experts. We exploit both existing data and pursue new multimodal data acquisition approaches.
(2) The inherently rich nature of the human communication channel raises interesting challenges when one or more aspects are compromised due to human or environmental factors. We have been developing speech-to-speech translation technologies especially targeting cross-lingual/cross-cultural urban healthcare settings. Many open questions remain including what information is relevant and how it needs to be captured and transferred from source to target (e.g. lexical and paralinguistic) and how conceptual information encoded in the speech signal can be modeled in a communication-channel framework. I will highlight some of the advances and open questions in these two domains.
Biography: Panayiotis G. Georgiou received his B.A. and M.Eng degrees with Honors from Cambridge University (Pembroke College), U.K. in 1996. He received his MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Southern California in 1998 and 2002 respectively. During the period 1992-96 he was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship from Cambridge-Commonwealth Trust.
Since 2003 he has been a member of the Speech Analysis and Interpretation Lab, first as a Research Associate and currently as a Research Assistant Professor. His interests span the fields of Human Social and Cognitive Signal Processing. He has worked on and published over 70 papers in the fields of statistical signal processing, alpha stable distributions, speech and multimodal signal processing and interfaces, speech translation, language modeling, immersive sound processing, sound source localization, and speaker identification. He has been an Investigator, and co-PI on several federally funded projects notably including the DARPA Transtac âSpeechLinksâ and the NSF (Large) âAn Integrated Approach to Creating Enriched Speech Translation Systemsâ. He is currently serving as guest editor of the Computer Speech and Language journal. He has received best paper awards for his pioneering work in analyzing the multimodal behaviors of users in speech- to-speech translation and for automatic classification of married couplesâ behavior using audio features.
His current focus is on multimodal environments, behavioral signal processing, and speech-to-speech translation.
Host: Professor Richard Leahy
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Talyia Veal
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CS Colloquium
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Haryadi Gunawi, UC Berkeley
Talk Title: Towards Reliable Storage Systems
Abstract: Three trends will dominate the storage systems of tomorrow: increasingly massive amounts of data, the incredible growth of software complexity, and the increasing use of cheap and less reliable hardware. These trends present us with a huge challenge: How can we promise users that storage systems work robustly in spite of their massive software complexity and the broad range of hardware failures that can arise? Addressing this question is not straightforward as current approaches scatter recovery code in thousands of lines of intricate, low-level C code. As a result, reliability problems are often found in current storage systems.
In this talk, I will present how we build a new generation of more robust and reliable storage systems via simpler designs and powerful testing frameworks. Specifically, I will first present new online and offline reliability frameworks (I/O Shepherding and SQCK) that advocate a higher-level strategy where the logic of reliability policies can be described clearly and concisely. I will then describe my most recent work in advancing the current state-of-the-art of cloud testing via FATE and DESTINI, a failure testing service and a framework for declarative recovery specifications. Finally, I will close this talk with my future plans in the area of cloud storage systems.
Biography: Haryadi Gunawi is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2009. His current research focuses on operating systems and large-scale storage systems. Beyond that, his research experience also spans cross-disciplinary areas such as software engineering, distributed systems, networking, and databases. He has won numerous awards including the 2010 NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship, a co-winner of the 2009 departmental best thesis award, an Honorable Mention for the 2009 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, and an NSF CISE Award under the Data-intensive Computing program.
Host: Prof. Ramesh Govindan
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
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Andrew J. Viterbi Distinguished Lecture in Communication
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 04:30 PM - 05:30 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Elwyn Berlekamp, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
Talk Title: "Adventures in Coding Theory"
Series: Distinguished Lecturer Series
Abstract: The inventors of error-correcting codes were initially motivated by problems in communications engineering. But coding theory has since also influenced several other fields, including memory technology, theoretical computer science, game theory, portfolio theory, and symbolic manipulation. This talk will recall some forays into these subjects.
Biography: Elwyn Berlekamp has been Professor of Mathematics and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley since 1971, half-time since 1983, and Emeritus since 2002. He also has been active in several small companies in the sectors of computers-communications and finance. He is now chairman of Berkeley Quantitative LP, a small money-management company. He was chairman of the Board of Trustees of MSRI from 1994-1998, and of the International Computer Science Institute from 2001-2003. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Berlekamp has 12 patented inventions, some of which were co-authored with USC Professor Emeritus Lloyd Welch. Some of Berlekampâs algorithms for decoding Reed-Solomon codes are widely used on compact discs; others are NASA standards for deep space communications. He has more than 100 publications, including two books on algebraic coding theory and seven books on the mathematical theory of combinatorial games, including the popular Dots-and-Boxes Game: Sophisticated Childâs Play.
Host: Dr. Alexander A. Sawchuk
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/viterbi_lecture.htmLocation: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center (GER) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mayumi Thrasher
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/viterbi_lecture.htm
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Raytheon Information Session
Thu, Mar 03, 2011 @ 05:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Join representatives of this company as they share general company information and available opportunities.
Location: Grace Ford Salvatori Hall Of Letters, Arts & Sciences (GFS) - 106
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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Contemporary Middle Eastern CinemaFri, Mar 04, 2011
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Receptions & Special Events
Admission is free.
Reservations required. Check the event page http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873369 for festival schedule and reservation information.
This three-day film festival will present and explore a panorama of emerging and established cinemas from the Middle East, from the nascent film industries of the Arabian Peninsula to the historically rich film cultures of Egypt and Iran. The festival will highlight unifying themes in Middle Eastern cinemas, as well as discuss the idiosyncratic identities and complex construction and definition of national cinemas in countries that are abounding with cultural diversity.
Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.eduLocation: Eileen L. Norris Cinema Theatre (NCT) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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EE-Electrophysics Seminar
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Nidhi, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCSB
Talk Title: Self-Aligned N-Polar GaN HEMTs: Towards Next-Generation Nitride Electronics
Abstract: III-Nitrides have emerged as a versatile new material family with unique material properties such as large piezoelectric polarization, high saturation velocity, high breakdown electric field and bandgap ranging from near IR (0.7 eV for InN) to deep UV (6.4 eV for AlN). This wide range of band-gap allows them to be extensively used in opto-electronics in a large range of wavelength, optical storage and high efficiency photovoltaics using InGaN alloys. Recently, AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) have also been widely used as power amplifiers for wireless communication applications and as power switches for rectification.
In this talk, I will emphasize on the N-polar orientation of GaN and its application towards high frequency electronics. N-polar GaN-based HEMTs offer several advantages over the more established Ga-polar technology such as the potential of ultra low ohmic contact resistance (20 Ω-µm demonstrated) and a natural back-barrier for charge confinement. The development of N-polar GaN electronics started late due to materials and processing challenges, but has been eventful with several significant achievements in the recent past. I will talk about the self-aligned MIS-HEMT technology we developed at UCSB and its development towards becoming a competitor to the established Ga-polar technology. Finally, I will discuss future directions for III-Nitride electronics and other exciting possibilities employing the novel materials.
Biography: Nidhi is a Ph.D candidate under Prof. Umesh Mishra in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCSB (University of California Santa Barbara). Her graduate work involved design and fabrication of N-polar GaN-based self-aligned MIS-HEMTs for very high frequency applications, like mm-wave power and possibly digital applications due to gate-first self-aligned design. She received the M. S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UCSB in 2008. She graduated second in her class of Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India with a Bachelor of Technology degree in 2006. Her research interests include deep submicron devices for high frequency applications, nanoscale semiconductor devices, power electronic devices and novel device structures on new materials for faster and energy-efficient electronics with expanded functionality.
Host: EE-Electrophysics
More Info: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eepLocation: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Marilyn Poplawski
Event Link: http://ee.usc.edu/news/seminars/eep
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Got a Brand? Writing an Effective Cover Letter
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Career Connections
Workshops & Infosessions
Do you need a cover letter? What is the purpose and what should it contain? If you need help writing a cover letter come to this workshop and learn how to make a cover letter that will be another powerful marketing tool.
Location: Ronald Tutor Hall of Engineering (RTH) - 211
Audiences: All Viterbi Students
Contact: RTH 218 Viterbi Career Services
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W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;Engineering Deepwater Drilling and Production: Rage Over the Macondo Well
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 01:00 PM - 01:50 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering Student Affairs
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Iraj Ershaghi, Omar B. Milligan Professor and Director, Petroleum Engineering Program, Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering
Talk Title: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium;Engineering Deepwater Drilling and Production: Rage Over the Macondo Well
Abstract: Prof. Iraj Ershaghi will present "Engineering Deepwater Drilling and Production: Rage Over the Macondo Well" as part of the W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Program.
Host: W.V.T. Rusch Engineering Honors Colloquium
More Info: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/Location: Seeley G. Mudd Building (SGM) - 101
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Amanda Atkinson
Event Link: http://viterbi.usc.edu/students/undergrad/honors/schedules/
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Betrayal of Trust: Critical Issues in Global Healthcare A Lecture by Laurie Garrett
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Receptions & Special Events
Admission is free.
Reception to follow in Hoyt Gallery.
Laurie Garrett is one of Americaâs most eloquent and forceful speakers on global healthcare, infectious disease and disease prevention. She will deliver a multimedia talk that uncovers the reality of healthcare in the United States, Europe, Russia and Africa, providing a new understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities of delivering quality healthcare globally.
The only person to win the three âPâs of journalismâthe Pulitzer, the Polk and the PeabodyâGarrett makes plain the science behind the new threats to public health, both natural and manmade. She is particularly adept at navigating the politics that help and hinder how we prepare, treat and respond to these threats. A senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, Garrett is the best-selling author of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. She has written for Foreign Affairs, Esquire and the Washington Post and appears frequently on television shows such as Nightline, Charlie Rose and Oprah. Garrett is former president and now a member of the National Association of Science Writers and has been awarded three honorary PhDs, the latest from Georgetown University.
Organized by Pamela Schaff (Pediatrics and Keck Educational Affairs), Erin Quinn (Family Medicine and Keck Admissions) and Lyn M. Boyd-Judson (Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics). Co-sponsored by the Keck School of Medicineâs Program in Medical Humanities, Arts and Ethics; the USC Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics; and the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics.
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.eduLocation: Health Sciences Campus, Mayer Auditorium
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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Explore LA: LA Live Dinner and a Movie with ASBME!
Fri, Mar 04, 2011 @ 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering Student Organizations
Student Activity
Unfortunately, our spring hiking trip got canceled because of bad weather, but no need to worry! More chances to socialize with your favorite people at ASBME are on the way! Join ASBME for dinner at Yardhouse on March 4th and a movie afterwards (potentially the Adjustment Bureau)! The event will be partially or fully funded for members. If you are interested, please fill out this form: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHRZekc2SzllMGlpNmhoZ0ZVenNRWmc6MQ
Location: LA Live
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering
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Contemporary Middle Eastern Cinema
Sat, Mar 05, 2011
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Receptions & Special Events
Admission is free.
Reservations required. Check the event page http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873369 for festival schedule and reservation information.
This three-day film festival will present and explore a panorama of emerging and established cinemas from the Middle East, from the nascent film industries of the Arabian Peninsula to the historically rich film cultures of Egypt and Iran. The festival will highlight unifying themes in Middle Eastern cinemas, as well as discuss the idiosyncratic identities and complex construction and definition of national cinemas in countries that are abounding with cultural diversity.
Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.eduLocation: Eileen L. Norris Cinema Theatre (NCT) -
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
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JETS TEAMS
Sat, Mar 05, 2011 @ 09:00 AM - 02:00 PM
Viterbi School of Engineering K-12 STEM Center
Student Activity
JETS TEAMS competition for high school student teams
Audiences: High School Student Teams
Contact: Larry Lim
