Ramtin Zand from the University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, will give a talk on Wednesday April 3, 2019 in the Storey Innovation Center (Room 2277) from 10:15 am - 11:15 am. Benefits of alternatives to von-Neumann architectures for emerging applications such as neuromorphic computing include avoidance of the processor-memory bottleneck, reduced energy consumption, and area-sparing computation. However, viable solutions to the challenge of designing theses emerging computing systems span the interrelated fields of machine learning, computer architecture, circuit design, and the potential to leverage the complementary characteristics of emerging device technologies. The objective of this research is to exploit technology-specific advantages to advance new transformative opportunities for leveraging the cooperating benefits of well-established CMOS devices, while simultaneously embracing the strengths of emerging technologies. Moreover, an orthogonal dimension of technology heterogeneity is also non-determinism enabled by either low-voltage CMOS or probabilistic emerging devices. It can be realized using probabilistic devices within a reconfigurable network to blend deterministic and probabilistic computational models. Thus, we leverage the new and powerful prospect of technology heterogeneity both at design-time and at run-time to develop energy-efficient and reliability-aware computing systems. Herein, consider the probabilistic spin logic "p-bit" device as a fabric element comprising a crossbar-structured resistive weighted array. Programmability of the resistive network interconnecting p-bit devices can be achieved by modifying the resistive states of the array's weighted connections. This allows field programmability for a wide range of classification problems and recognition tasks to allow fluid mappings of probabilistic and deterministic computing approaches. In particular, a low-energy Deep Belief Network (DBN) is implemented in the field using recurrent layers of co-processing elements to form an n _ m 1 _ m 2 _ ... _ m i weighted array as a configurable hardware circuit with an n-input layer followed by i _ 1 hidden layers. Cross-layer simulations indicate that the proposed design can achieve approximately three orders of magnitude reduction in energy consumption compared to the most energy-efficient CMOS-only designs, while realizing at least 90X device count reduction for considerable area savings. This area of research provides several possibilities for future work, such as: 1) leveraging evolutionary algorithm-based optimization methodologies to explore the neuromorphic hardware design space in various architecture-to-device granularities to realize an optimized circuit-level implementation of Deep Neural Networks, and 2) realizing robust stochastic neuromorphic architectures with a natural defense mechanism against various types of adversarial attacks. Biography Ramtin Zand received his M.Sc. degree in Digital Electronics from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2012. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, FL, with the graduation date of May 2019. He has five years of industry experience as Senior Hardware Design Engineer and is currently a senior Graduate Research Assistant of an NSF and SRC jointlysupported project of the Energy-Efficient Computing from Devices to Architectures (E2CDA) program. He has authored or co-authored 17 conference proceedings papers, 13 journal articles (8 Transactions), and one book chapter, and received research recognition from ACM/IEEE including a best paper recognition at ACM GLSVLSI and a featured paper of the issue in IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing (TETC) in 2018. Ramtin is the recipient of the Daniel D. Hammond scholarship and the Alireza Seyedi Doctoral Research Innovation Endowed Scholarship. He is a Student Member of IEEE and a reviewer for various IEEE Transactions and conferences. His research interests include: Machine Learning and Neuromorphic Computing, Emerging Nanoscale Electronics including Spin-based Devices, Reconfigurable and Adaptive Computer Architectures, and Low-Power and Reliability-Aware VLSI Circuits.

Dr. Jeremy Blackburn from the Computer Science Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham will give a talk on Monday April 1, 2019 in the Storey Innovation Center (Room 2277) from 10:15 am - 11:15 am. ABSTRACT: The Web has been one of the most impactful technologies ever, and over the past twenty years or so, has helped advance society in ways no one thought possible. Ubiquitous connectivity has enabled instant communication with anyone in the world. Social media has helped us strengthen existing relationships, and form new ones. The vast amount of content on the Web has broadened our outlook, and let us learn about things we never even knew existed. Unfortunately, along with these benefits has come a set of worrying problems. Powerful new communication mediums have been hijacked to spread hate speech and extremist ideology, and social media has been exploited to wage information warfare. Although these problems are not necessarily new, the scale and speed, coupled with advances in technology, make them fundamentally different than past incarnations. To top it all off, we know very little about these socio-technical problems, making it difficult to even begin to solve them. In this talk, I will present our work towards measuring and understanding these new problems. In particular, I will show how seemingly isolated communities in the Web, where hate speech festers, are not self-contained and perpetrate attacks on mainstream communities. Next, I will show how these seemingly tiny communities have outsized influence in terms of spreading "fake news" throughout the greater Web. Then, I will show how Web born phenomena, i.e., memes, are created, evolve, and are harnessed to spread hateful ideology and propaganda. Finally, I will touch on some of the risks that researchers hoping to address these new socio-technical problems face. BIO: Jeremy Blackburn is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In a nutshell, Jeremy’s work can be described as studying jerks on the Internet and has been covered in the media by The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Nature News, the BBC, and New Scientist, among others. Although his foundations are in large-scale distributed systems, he has spent the majority of his career measuring and understanding bad behavior on the world’s largest distributed system, the World Wide Web. His research has ranged from studying how cheating behavior spreads like a disease through a global network of online video game players, to understanding and predicting toxic behavior in the world’s most popular multiplayer video game, and more recently, understanding online hate speech, harassment campaigns, and the influence of fringe communities on the greater Web. In addition to this line of work, Jeremy has published on more traditional Computer Science topics like middlebox enabling cryptographic protocols, privacy preserving Web surfing technologies, mobile application performance, and network measurements.

Is your computer or laptop running slow, getting too hot, or riddled with viruses? Students in the USC College of Engineering's Association for Computing Machinery are hosting its annual Fix-It Day on March 30, 2019! On Fix-It Day, student ACM members will repair your laptop or desktop for free, (but you are welcome to make a donation)! You do not have to be affiliated with the university to participate. Computers will be fixed on a first-come first-served basis from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. If your computer cannot be fixed, the students will recycle it for you, free of charge. Here's a quick note on what to expect: We cannot fix broken hardware such as screens or other damaged components. If you would like a replacement part installed, you need to bring it with you. Examples of tasks that we can do:

• Virus removal
• password reset
• Installation or uninstallation of programs (if you would like a program installed, please bring any software disks and license keys)
• PC tune-up
• Full PC diagnosis
• Simple data recovery
• Some mechanical problems, such as loose hinges, as long as replacement parts are not required
• OS installation (please bring disks, recovery media, and license keys)

PLEASE back up all data before you come. We are not responsible for damage or loss of data or hardware of any kind. You must sign a waiver before your computer will be worked on. https://www.facebook.com/events/367877034044272/

Oscar Chaparro from the University of Texas at Dallas will give a talk on Thursday March 28, 2019 in the Storey Innovation Center (Room 2277) from 10:15 am - 11:15 am. Abstract: User-written bug reports are the main information source for software developers to triage and fix the reported software bugs. Unfortunately, many bug reports are unclear, ambiguous, and/or miss critical information. In consequence, developers are often unable to reproduce the bugs, let alone fix them in the code. Current bug reporting technology, which is mostly passive and does not verify the information provided by the users, provides little help in improving the quality of bug reports. This presentation focuses on my research aimed at improving the quality of bug reports and bug resolution tasks that rely on bug reports. The presentation includes summaries of my prior research, describing: (1) empirical work on the discovery of discourse patterns used by reporters to describe bugs; (2) an automated approach for detecting missing information in bug reports; and (3) the use of query reduction to improve bug localization and duplicate bug report detection. The presentation will also present my current work on providing automated feedback to reporters on the quality of the steps to reproduce in their bug reports, and will conclude with my long-term research plans for transforming bug reporting and resolution via intelligent and interactive conversation systems. Short bio: Oscar Chaparro is a Ph.D. candidate in Software Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, advised by Dr. Andrian Marcus. His research interests lie in software maintenance and evolution. His current research aims at improving the quality of bug reports written by end users and assisting software developers during bug triage and resolution. He has authored several publications in top software engineering venues, such as ESEC/FSE, and obtained the IEEE TCSE Distinguished Paper Award at ICSME’17. He served on the organizing and program committee of the DySDoc3 workshop in 2018. Oscar received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and has four years of industry experience in software research and development.

Thursday March 21, 2019 in the Storey Innovation Center (Room 2277) from 10:15 am - 11:15 am. Abstract In smart cities, location-aware services that inspect the future locations of moving objects became an integral part with the spread of location sensing devices (e.g., in-car gps, smart phones, smart watches). These services play a vital role in many applications such as traffic management, mobile advertising, ride hailing, and map routing. In this talk, I will present my vision for smart location-aware services, and I will walk through some of my contributions in this domain. I will focus on the data management with an eye on the analytic aspects of my solutions. Bio Abdeltawab Hendawi is a Postdoc Research Associate in Computer Science at the University of Virginia. He obtained his MSc and PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His research interests are centered on big data management and analytics with more focus on smart cities related applications. His work has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Best Paper Award at ACM SIGSPATIAL MobiGIS 2012; Best Design/Plan Poster Award and Best Overall Poster Award at the U-Spatial Symposium 2013; Best Demo Paper Award at ACM SIGSPATIAL 2014; Data Science Research Fellowship at the University of Washington 2014; Best and Second Best Demo Paper Awards at IEEE MDM 2015; Hobby Postdoc Research Fellowship at the University of Virginia 2015; Blue Sky Ideas Award 2016 and Best Runner-up Vision Paper Award at ACM SIGSPATIAL 2016; Best Poster Award at the UVa Research Symposium 2018; and Best Demo Paper Award Runner-up at ACM SIGSPATIAL 2018. Dr. Hendawi is the founding co-chair of the IEEE Big Spatial Data workshop 2016 to 2018.

SEMINAR RICHARD CARLIN, PH.D. HEAD, SEA WARFARE AND WEAPONS DEPARTMENT Engineering and Innovation at the ONR; Interests and Processes Tuesday, February 12, 2019 Bert Storey Innovation Center, Rm. 1400 550 Assembly St Columbia, SC 29201 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Dr. Richard T. Carlin is department head of ONR's Sea Warfare and Weapons Department at the Office of Naval Research (ONR). As department head, he overseas a broad range of science and technology (S&T) programs for surface ships, submarines, and undersea weapons with an annual budget of approximately $500million per year. Carlin entered the Senior Executive Service in January 2002 and has 14 years of federal service. Prior to his current position as department head, Carlin was the director for the Undersea Weapons and Naval Materials Division with responsibilities in undersea weapons and countermeasures, advanced energetics, structural materials, materials for power systems, acoustic transducers, maintenance reduction technologies, and blast mitigation materials. During his career at ONR, he also served as the acting chief scientist in 2004 and as director for the Mechanics and Energy Conversion Division from 2001 to 2005. Prior to his appointment as a division director, Carlin was the program officer for Electrochemistry S&T and Undersea Weapons Propulsion with programs covering numerous electrochemical and thermal power technologies. Additionally, Carlin serves as the Navy S&T executive on numerous Navy, Department of Defense, and interagency energy advisory groups, including the Navy’s Task Force Energy Executive Steering Committee, DDR&E’s Energy Security Task Force, and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Interagency Task Force. He also serves as a U.S. panel member on the NATO RTO Applied Vehicle Technology Panel, and is a member of the Department of the Navy Awards Review Panel Before joining ONR in August 1997, Carlin held several positions in academia, industry, and government. From 1995 to 1997, he was a senior scientist at Covalent Associates, Inc., performing contract research in areas of lithium batteries, supercapacitors, and ionic liquids catalysis. From 1992 to 1995, Carlin held the position of Electrochemistry Division chief at the Frank J. Seiler Research Laboratory (FJSRL) located at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. At FJSRL, he led research on the use of ionic liquids as electrolytes for batteries, supercapacitors, and metal-alloy electrodepositions, and as solvents for gas absorption and catalysis. Carlin was an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa from 1989 to 1992 where he taught both undergraduate and graduate level course and directed a research program in the study and application of ionic liquids as solvents and electrolytes. From 1982 to 1985, he was employed at Air Products and Chemicals as a senior research chemist carrying out research on the use of ionic liquids as gas-separation membranes. He received his Bachelor of Science in honors chemistry from the University of Alabama in 1977, and his doctorate degree in inorganic chemistry from Iowa State University in 1982. His thesis work at Iowa State focused on the synthesis, characterization, and structure of air-sensitive metal-metal bonded clusters of molybdenum and tungsten. Carlin received his training in electrochemistry as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Robert A. Osteryoung at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Carlin has published more than 100 technical papers and one book chapter, and he is a co-inventor on seven U.S. patents. He has given numerous presentations including invited talks at international venues in Japan, France, Turkey, Crete and Scotland. Carlin was awarded the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Medal in August 2008. In January 2001, he received Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research Development, & Acquisition) Awards for the Rapid Transition of Foreveready Missile Battery for Strategic System Programs and for Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery for Advanced Seal Delivery System. He was awarded the Chief of Naval Research’s Award of Merit for Group Achievement in August 2000 for Superior Group Effort While Serving on the ONR Diversity Committee. Additionally, his discovery of a novel battery technology was recognized with the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command S&T Achievement Award in 1993.

Prof. Amit P. Sheth Director, Kno.e.sis Center of Excellence, Wright State University Abstract: During a WEF2019 conversation that also included Satya Nedella (Microsoft CEO), Steven Pagliuca (CEO of Bain Capital) said: “Every company now is an AI company. The industrial companies are changing, the supply chain...every single sector, it’s not only tech.” In tandem with 55% global growth rate, South Carolina companies are also undergoing AI-driven transformation. This provides an exciting context for UofSC to offer regional, national, and global leadership in AI. UofSC’s AI Institute can provide the nerve center of a campus-wide effort, resulting in highly sought-after graduates, research prominence, and technological innovations with significant economic impact. The detailed nature of the AI Institute would evolve through extensive conversations across the campus with other stakeholders. In this talk, I seek to share some principles, defining characteristics, and the steps the AI Institute can take to convert the vision into reality. I will present the following details:

• Planned subareas of research focus and prominence with an eye on regional economic impact and international research recognition
• Expected core and affiliated faculty size/composition, achieved via recruiting exceptional talent; robust multidisciplinary collaborations with most colleges across campus as well as industry and public partners; and a strong industry network to benefit students
• External funding to power the growth – types of funds and funding sources,
• Outcomes, impacts, and success measures: student success, research prominence, per capita faculty funding growth, faculty recognition, technology-driven economic impact, and improving Carnegie R1 standing and CSE standing.
• Recent AI success has been due to unprecedented computational power enabling the training of deep neural networks. I will argue that future successes will be due infusing knowledge in the learning process and using semantic – cognitive – perceptual computing, which I will illustrate by an example research and application effort in personalized digital health.

Date and Time: Monday, February 11, 10:00 am – 11:00 am. Location: Storey 2277

Speaker: Christian Kaestner Affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University Location: Innovation Center, Room 2277 Time: Jan 25 (11am-12) Abstract: Breaking the API of a package can create severe disruptions downstream, but package maintainers have flexibility in whether and how to perform a change. Through interviews and a survey, we found that developers within a community or platform often share cohesive practices (e.g., semver, backporting, synchronized releases), but that those practices differ from community to community, and that most developers are not aware of alternative strategies and practices, their tradeoffs, and why other communities adopt them. Most interestingly, it seems that often practices and community consensus seems to be driven by implicit values in each community, such as stability, rapid access, or ease to contribute. Understanding and discussing values openly can help to understand and resolve conflicts, such as discussions between demands for more stability and a pursuit of frequent and disruptive innovations. Bio: Christian Kästner is an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Magdeburg, Germany, for his work on virtual separation of concerns. For his dissertation he received the prestigious GI Dissertation Award. His research interests include understanding collaboration in open source and correctness and understanding of systems with variability, including work on implementation mechanisms, tools, variability-aware analysis, type systems, feature interactions, empirical evaluations, and refactoring.

DISSERTATION DEFENSE Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of South Carolina Author : Bridgette Parsons Advisor : Dr. Jose Vidal Date : Dec 14th, 2018 Time : 1:30 pm Place : Meeting room 2267, Innovation Center Abstract Modeling believable human behavior for use in simulations is a difficult task. It requires a great deal of time, and frequently requires coordination between members of different disciplines. In our research, we propose a method of partially automating the process, reducing the time it takes to create the model, and more easily allowing domain experts that are not programmers to adjust the models as necessary. Using Agent-Based modeling, we present MAGIC (Models Automatically Generated from Information Collected), an algorithm designed to automatically find points in the model's decision process that require interaction with other agents or with the simulation environment and create a decision graph that contains the agent's behavior pattern based upon raw data composed of time-sequential observations. We also present an alternative to the traditional Markov Decision Process that allows actions to be completed until a set condition is met, and a tool to allow domain experts to easily adjust the resulting models as needed. After testing the accuracy of our algorithm using synthetic data, we show the results of this process when it is used in a real-world simulation based upon a study of the medical administration process in hospitals conducted by the University of South Carolina's Healthcare Process Redesign Center. In the healthcare study, it was necessary for the nurses to follow a very consistent process. In order to show the ability to use our algorithm in a variety of situations, we create a video game and record players' movements. However, unlike the nursing simulation, the environment in the game simulation is more prone to changes that limit the appropriate set of actions taken by the humans being modeled. In order to account for the changes in the simulation, we present a simple method using the addition of a hierarchy of rules with our previous algorithm to limit the actions taken by the agent to ones that are appropriate for the current situation. In both the healthcare study and the video game, we find that there are multiple distinct patterns of behavior. As a single model would not accurately represent the behavior of all of the humans in the studies, we present a simple method of classifying the behavior of individuals using the decision graphs created by our algorithm. We then use our algorithm to create models for each cluster of behaviors, producing multiple models from one set of observational data. Believability is highly subjective. In our research, we present methods to partially automate the process of producing believable human agents, and test our results with real-world data using focus groups and a pseudo-Turing test. Our findings show that under the right conditions, it is possible to partially automate the modeling of human decision processes, but ultimately, believability is greatly dependent upon the similarity between the viewer and the humans being modeled.