Seminars

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.  (CST)
WEB 333’s Fishbowl

Dr. Kiran Kuchi
Professor, Department Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

Title: “Orthogonal Time Frequency Multiplexing (OTFDM): A Novel Waveform Targeted for IMT-2030”

Abstract
The landscape of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) is rapidly evolving with the recent release of the ITU WP 5D recommendation, delineating the framework for IMT-2030. This initiative aims for inclusivity, ubiquitous connectivity, and sustainability while setting goals for coverage advancements and energy efficiency. IMT-2030 necessitates utilizing higher frequency bands and addresses challenges like hyper-low latency and high mobility. To meet these demands, a new waveform, Orthogonal Time Frequency Multiplexing (OTFDM), is proposed. OTFDM offers simultaneous transmission of data and Reference Signals with low PAPR, high energy efficiency, and support for very high mobility and hyper-low-latency. Results demonstrate its potential for future wireless communication systems.

Biography

Professor Kiran Kuchi is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. He leads 5G-advanced and 6G research and standards development efforts at 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Program), a global body that develops cellular communications specifications. Professor Kuchi is the author of more than 200 international patents, some of them are declared as 5G standards essential patents (SEPs) to TSDSI and 3GPP.  Prof. Kuchi founded WiSig Networks Pvt Ltd, at IITH technology incubator. IITH and WiSig jointly developed and commercialized 5G base station and user equipment (UE) IPs and NB-IoT SoC.

For more on Dr. Kuchi, please see his LinkedIn page at in/kiran-kuchi-88113b2

Please join on Tuesday, 4/19/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, April 19, 2024

10:20 a.m.  (CST)
ETB 1020

Dr. Jason O’Kane
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University                                                                                                                                                                      

Title: “Robot Planning Near the Boundaries of Feasibility”

Abstract
The effectiveness of mobile robots operating in the physical world depends on their ability to sense and move through their environments.  Unfortunately, sensors provide only limited (and sometimes incorrect) information and actuators provide constrained (and sometimes unreliable) movement capabilities. These realities motivate a careful study of the information requirements of the problems our robots intend to solve.  In this talk, He will present an overview of his group’s ongoing research to enable robots to succeed in spite of strong limitations in sensing, motion, communication, and computation.  This work covers a variety of robotic tasks and spans from foundational results to deployments in the field.

Biography
Jason M. O’Kane is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University. He holds the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the B.S. degree from Taylor University, all in Computer Science.  His work has been recognized with a number of awards including the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, the Most Valuable Professor Award from the University of South Carolina, the Outstanding Graduate in Computer Science Award from Taylor University, the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and the Engineering Genesis Award from Texas A&M. His research spans algorithmic robotics, planning under uncertainty, and computational geometry.

For more on Dr. Kane please see his TAMU Profile Website at https://engineering.tamu.edu/cse/profiles/okane-jason.html

Please join on Friday, 4/19/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, April 12, 2024

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Jennifer Dworak
Professor @ Southern Methodist University, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Title: “Keeping Customers Happy (and Safe)! Designing Circuits to Enhance Defect Detection and Avoid Errors and Silent Data Corruption“

Abstract
The impact of failing integrated circuits (ICs) can vary from an annoyance to a catastrophic failure.  Errors in circuit operation may arise due to defects that are present when a circuit is manufactured, latent defects that develop further over time and cause failures early in a circuit’s lifetime, and defects that arise later in the circuit’s lifetime due to aging.  Unfortunately, companies such as Meta have recently found that errors arising from hardware defects are occurring in the field at much higher rates than expected.  New ways of testing and monitoring circuits efficiently and effectively are required.

Biography
Jennifer Dworak is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Southern Methodist University. Her research interests include manufacturing test, hardware security, and the reliability of digital circuits and systems.  She is a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award and a 2012 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award funded by Oak Ridge Associated Universities.  She is a co-author on multiple technical articles, including two papers that won Best Paper Awards from the VLSI Test Symposium and a paper that won a TTTC Naveena Nagi Award.  Prof. Dworak also holds two patents on cybersecurity locks, keys, traps and honeypots and one patent on a laser-powered device for enhanced security.  She has given over 30 invited talks and been an invited panelist at multiple technical meetings in several countries.  Most recently, she has co-led the effort that led to the Texoma Semiconductor Tech Hub, a consortium of 52 organizations led by SMU, being designated as an official EDA Tech Hub. Prof. Dworak holds PhD, MS, and BS degrees in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, USA.

For more on Dr. Dworak please see her SMU Website at https://www.smu.edu/lyle/departments/ece/people/faculty-and-staff/jennifer-dworak

Please join on Friday, 4/12/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, April 5, 2024

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Parthasarathy (Partha) Ranganathan
VP / Technical Fellow | Google

Title: “A 6-Word Story on the Future of Infrastructure: AI-Driven, Software-Defined, Uncomfortably Exciting“

Abstract
We are at an interesting inflection point in the design of computing systems. On one hand, demand for computing is accelerating at phenomenal rates, powered by the AI revolution and ever deeper processing on larger volumes of data, and amplified by smart edge devices and cloud computing. On the other hand, Moore’s law is slowing down. This is challenging traditional assumptions around cheaper and more energy-efficient systems every generation and leading to a significant supply-demand gap for future computing systems. In this talk, we discuss how this current computing landscape motivates a significant rethinking of how we design future infrastructure. We present two broad themes around (1) efficient systems design through custom silicon accelerators and (2) efficient systems utilization through software-defined infrastructure. We will summarize our experience in these areas and discuss key learnings and future opportunities for innovation. Looking ahead, we will highlight some additional grand challenges and opportunities for the community, specifically touching on key themes around agility, modularity, reliability, and sustainability, as well as the disruptive potential of cloud computing, and the opportunities beyond compute, around storage.

Biography
Parthasarathy (Partha) Ranganathan is currently a VP, Technical Fellow at Google where he is the area technical lead for hardware and datacenters, designing systems at scale. Prior to this, he was a HP Fellow and Chief Technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs where he led their research on system and data centers. Partha has worked on several interdisciplinary systems projects with broad impact on both academia and industry, including widely used innovations in energy-aware user interfaces, heterogeneous multi-cores, power-efficient servers, accelerators, and disaggregated and data-centric data centers. He has published extensively (including being the co-author on the popular “Datacenter as a Computer” textbook), is a co-inventor on more the 100 patents, and has been recognized with numerous awards. He has been named a top-15 enterprise technology rock star by Business Insider, one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by MIT Tech Review, and is a recipient of the ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award, Rice University’s Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award, and the IIT Madras Distinguished Alumni Award. He is one of few computer scientists to have his work recognized with an Emmy award. He is also a Fellow of the IEEE and ACM and has served on the board of directors for OpenCompute.

Please join on Friday, 4/5/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, March 22, 2024

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Dr. Alok N. Choudhary
Harold Washington Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science Departments
Northwestern University

Title: “AI for Science”

Abstract
“AI for Science” seeks to explore and develop Machine Learning and Data Mining (“AI”) approaches for accelerating scientific discoveries as well as designs. An example of this is learning from data to build predictive models that can enable exploration of scientific questions without relying upon underlying theory. Given that modern instruments, supercomputing simulations, experiments, sensors and IoT are creating massive amounts of data at an astonishing speed and diversity, “AI for Science” has the potential to significantly accelerate science discoveries. E.g., can AI learn chemistry from data? Or how can AI replace or reduce the need for expensive simulations or experiments to perform discoveries quickly or evaluate a feasible design space? This talk will present some learnings that address some of the questions above using various materials design and discovery and other examples.

Biography
An Dr. Alok Choudhary is Harold Washington Professor in the ECE and CS departments at Northwestern University. He was the founder, chairman and chief scientist of 4C insights, a big data analytics and marketing technology software company (4C was recently acquired by MediaOcean). He received the National Science Foundation’s Young Investigator Award in 1993. He was listed by Adweek in “trailblazers and pioneers in Marketing technologies”. He is a fellow of IEEE, ACM and AAAS and a recipient of the NSF Young Investigator Award. He has published more than 400 papers in various journals and conferences and has graduated 45+ PhD students, including more than 10 women PhDs. He serves on the board or advisory boards of several companies. He is a co-author and co-editor of a recent book “AI for Science: A Deep Learning Revolution”.

Please join on Friday, 03/22/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, March 1, 2024

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)

Dr. James Caverlee
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Texas A&M University

ETB 1020

Title: “Thoughts on Large Language Models: Data Efficiency, Bias, and Long-Tails”

Abstract

In this talk, I will share some recent work from our lab and from Google DeepMind on several big challenges in Large Language Models including: 1) data efficiency: since pre-training LLMs is hugely expensive, can we develop data efficient methods to more intelligently select training examples? 2) bias: while advances in techniques to minimize explicit bias can superficially enable LLMs to avoid the perception of bias, can we indirectly probe LLMs to reveal their intrinsic bias? And develop methods towards mitigating this bias? 3) long-tails: LLMs can demonstrate strong performance on popular concepts, but in many cases there is a gap in the treatment of rare (or tail) concepts. Can we bridge this gap?

Biography

Dr. James Caverlee is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and a Visiting Researcher at Google DeepMind. His research focuses on connecting people to information, with an emphasis on algorithms and systems that are trustworthy, resilient, and responsible.

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 03/01/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, February 23, 2024

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)

Dr. Anand Sivasubramaniam
Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Pennsylvania State University

ETB 1020

Title: “Revisiting Memory Hierarchy Management in the GPU Context”

Abstract

As GPUs become mainstream to take on the computational challenges of Big Data applications, it is increasingly critical that we continue to maintain a steady stream of data flowing into their plentiful computational engines, to sustain their throughput capabilities. Despite on-chip caches and high bandwidth memories, these storage capacities are just not sufficient to hold the large working sets exhibited by Big Data applications close to the computational engines. There are several reasons why this problem is not just more acute in the GPU context, but also requires a different set of solutions than those employed for this decades-old problem in the CPU context. In this talk, apart from highlighting these issues, I will present 2 recent management solutions we have implemented on today’s GPUs. The first explicitly differentiates spatial and temporal locality in pages, and places data selectively in GPU memory and/or its caches based on this differentiation. In the second work, I will show how we have extended the GPU memory hierarchy to spill beyond its memory into host memory, and even into SSDs, and develop a bypass/placement strategy for selectively placing pages.

Biography

Dr. Anand Sivasubramaniam is a Distinguished Professor at Penn State, where he has been on the faculty since 1995, immediately after completing his PhD from Georgia Tech. His research interests are broadly in computer systems, covering both hardware and software aspects towards improving performance, energy efficiencies and system reliability/availability. He has published around 300 articles in highly competitive venues, and his work has been funded by NSF, DARPA, and several industries. He is an ACM and IEEE Fellow, recognized for his work and contributions to power management of computer systems.

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 02/23/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.

Friday, February 9, 2024

10:20 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. (CST)
ETB 1020

Dr. Edward Knightly
Sheafor-Lindsay Professor , Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rice University

Title: “Curved Beams, Flying Metasurfaces, and Emerging Capabilities for 6G”

Abstract

Next generation wireless networks promise unprecedented performance by exploiting wide bandwidths available in millimeter wave to sub-Terahertz spectrum. At such frequencies, transmission is necessary highly directive in order to overcome path loss. In this talk, I will debunk two myths of such networks: the first myth is that intelligent surfaces or smooth specular-reflecting surfaces are required to overcome blocked paths via reflected paths. Instead, I will show the theory and experimental results for curving beams around obstacles. The second myth is that highly directional rooftop backhaul links are inherently immune to interception by an eavesdropper. Instead, I will show the theory and experimental results for intercepting a roof-top sub-THz backhaul link without detection by using a metasurface-equipped UAV.

Biography
Dr. Edward Knightly is the Sheafor–Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Rice University. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.S. from Auburn University. He is an ACM Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, and a Sloan Fellow. He received the IEEE INFOCOM Achievement Award, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Award for Research on New Opportunities for Dynamic Spectrum Access, the George R. Brown School of Engineering Teaching + Research Excellence Award, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He won eight best paper awards including ACM MobiCom, ACM MobiHoc, IEEE Communications and Network Security, and IEEE INFOCOM. He serves as an editor-at-large for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and serves on the scientific council of IMDEA Networks in Madrid and the scientific advisory board of INESC TEC in Porto. He served as the Rice ECE department chair from 2014 to 2019. His research interests include design, prototyping, and in-the-field demonstration of next generation mobile and wireless networks, with a focus on networking, sensing, and security in diverse spectrum spanning from sub-6 GHz to millimeter wave and terahertz.

More on CESG Seminars: HERE

Please join on Friday, 02/09/24 at 10:20 a.m. in ETB 1020.