Undergraduates from all over the world compete for grants that enable them to spend months in Los Angeles doing individual research with professors from the Viterbi School of Engineering.
This years group was large and diverse: ten students from India and China, 18 from the U.S.
Here are the groups:
IIT Kharagpur, Year Four
Every summer for four years, ten outstanding undergraduates from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur have come to the Viterbi School of Engineering for intensive individual research with top USC faculty.
This year an outstanding group of faculty worked with the students on research, including Adam Fincham (AME), Noah Malmstadt (CMS), Hossein Hashemi (EE), Urbashi Mitra (EE), Jay Kuo (EE), Shri Narayanan (EE,CS), Milind Tambe (CS), Maged Dessouky (ISE), Paul Ronney (AME), and Priya Vashishta, Sr. (CMS).
Associate Deans Raghu Raghavendra, and Margery Berti also work with the program, which is administered by Doctoral Programs Coordinator Tracy Charles. Vinod Gupta, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus who founded InfoUSA, funds the program.
Seated, front: (left to right) Sagar Chakraborty, “Increasing Liposome Stability with Hydrogel Cores for Detergent-Assisted Protein Insertion”; Sunav Choudhary, “ML Estimation of Channel Characteristics with Application to Cognitive Radio.”; Kunal Datta, ”Non linear Transient Response and Phase Noise Analysis of Regenerative Frequency Dividers with Fractional Synchronous Outputs"; Rahul Gupta, “Speaker Segmentation and Interruption Detection in Conversation Using Multimodal Cues”; Saroj Kumar, “Stability of Flames in Heat Recirculating Burners”
Standing, back: Associate Dean Margery Berti; Rahul Saxena, “MSNE and SSE Analysis in Security Games;” Pankaj Rajak, “1. Study of Argon System Using Molecular Dynamics and Its Statistical Property Determination and ”2. Determination of DNA Sequence Using Molecular Dynamics;” J. Dhikshith Reddy, “Capacitated Facility Location Under Uncertain Demand and Supply;” Priyesh Srivastava, “Generation of Breaking Waves for Surfing in Laboratory”; R. Vignesh, “Faster Non-Local Means Algorithm with Early Termination Scheme;” Doctoral Programs Coordinator Tracy Charles.
From Many Schools to Viterbi
Eighteen interns from all over the U.S. spending the summer doing individual research with Viterbi School professors reported on their research.
The Viterbi summer intern program brings undergraduate students to USC on the basis of competitive applications, and this year attracted a strong group from numerous elite institutions, along with current USC students. "Many of these students return to the Viterbi School as grad students," sad Associate Dean for Doctor Programs Margery Berti.
The intensive work with Viterbi professors in many departments led to tangible research results, presented in an intense session attended by deans Berti and Raghu Raghavendra, along with program facilitator Tracy Charles.
Seated, from left: David Chartash, U of Western Ontario, Prof. Krishna Nayak, "Assessment of Tissue Blood Flow in Humans Using Arterial Spin Labelled Magnettic Resonance Imaging;" Thomas Cummins, USC, Prof. Chongwu Zhou, "Microfluidic-Microfilter Device Integration;" Devraj Dasgupta, George Mason, Prof. Krishna Nayak, "Optimization of Echo Times in Fat-Water MRI;" Collin Edington, Carnegie Mellon, Prof Tzung Hsiai, "Implementation of Electro-Impedance Spectroscopy for the Detection of Atherosclerosis:" Matthew Fedynyshyn, USC , Prof Murali Annavaram "The KNOWME Project;" Jenna Kelleher, U.C. Berkeley, Prof. Tzung Hsiai, "Development of a 3-Sensor Polymer System for Fluid Shear Stress Analysis;" Brian Kim, Duke, Prof Ellis Meng, "An Exploration and Characterization of the Measurement of Impedance of Liquids in Microdevices;" Jason Kim, Northwestern, Prof. Ellis Meng, "Canula Material Testing for the Implantable Drug Delivery Device;" Joshua Lee, USC, Prof Murali Annavaram, "Reorganizing Processors Internal Memory Structures for Improved Power and Performance Behavior"
Standing, from left; Garrett Marcotte, Princeton, Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme, "Robot Sensor Networks with Compressed Sensing;" Mrinal Pahwa, U Minnesota-Twin Cities, Prof Ellis Meng, "Theoretical Modeling of Impedance of Liquids in MEMS Devices;" Aadarsh Patel, USC, Prof. Michael Zyda , COSMOPOLIS-Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) Social and Cultural Model Embedding Technologies;" Cauligi "Raghu" Raghavendra, Viterbi School Associate Dean for Strategic Inititatives; Sabrina Porter, Carnegie Mellon, Prof. Jean-Pierre Bardet, "A Review of Risk Strategies for Megacities;" Jose Andres Sanchez, M.I.T., Prof. Jean-Pierre Bardet, "Synthetic Sporting Surfaces;" Jordan Talia, U Michigan Ann Arbor, Prof Ellis Meng, "Modeling the Rabbit and Rat Eye for use in Intraocular Drug Delivery;" Nan Wang, U.C. Berkeley, Prof. Amy Rechenmacher, "Evolution of Force Chains in Shear Bands in Sands Grain-scale processes;" Sky Wang, U.C. Berkeley, Prof. Tzung Hsiai, "Investigation of the role of shear stress and calcification in plaque vulnerability;" Christopher Wolla, Clemson, Prof. Tzung Hsiai, "Electrocardiographic Characterization of Embryonic Zebrafish and Neonatal Mice;" Tracy Charles. Viterbi School Doctoral Programs Coordinator and Summer intern facilitor.
Tsinghua University: 10 Hopeful Engineers.
Located in Beijing, Tsinghua University is a well-known training ground for outstanding Chinese students. Funding for Tsinghua students was provided by Mr. Feng Deng, a Tsinghua undergraduate alumnus who obtained a masters degree in computer engineering at USC in 1993 and went on to a highly successful career as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Today Deng and several partners run the North Light Venture Capital company.
Front row: Zhuo Zhang, Prof. Chongwu Zhou, “Multi-hop Network Optimization and Maximal Flow Algorithm;” Peng Sun, Prof. Urbashi Mitra, “Underwater Acoustic Communication System Design;” Ying Xiong, Prof. Gerard Medioni,” A Framework for Robust Estimation Based on Minimum Variance of Parameters;” Yun Wang, Prof. Shri Narayanan, “Interpretation of Human Movements from Motion Capture Data;” “Yanqin Jin, Prof. Milind Tambe, “Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem (DCOP) and Distributed Coordination of Exploration and Exploitation (DCee) ;”
Back row, standing: Cheng Lu, Prof. Viktor Prasanna, “Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies (Cisoft) IAM Triple Store Benchmarking Project;” Ting Yao, Prof. Craig Knoblock, “Find Maps on a Given Website;” Weiquan Cao, Prof. Jay Kuo, “SIFT Algorithm and Methods to Improve It;” Gengcheng Liu, Prof. Joe Qin, “Multivariable Model Predictive Control;” Runwei Zhang, Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme, “Flying on the Database;” Liang Zhao, Prof. Grace Lu, “Temperature Dependence of Photoconductivity in Doped ZnO Nanowire;” Lu Zhang, Prof. Gerard Medioni, “An Example-Based Approach for Facial Landmarks Detection."
