CPS Events
Closing the Gap between Heuristic Algorithms and Optimal Control
Abstract:
Motion planning is a well-studied and important problem in robotic automation. Interestingly, it has been addressed by the computational geometry and control systems community almost independently over the last two decades. In this talk I'll present an overview of the various approaches to robot motion planning as well as some of the popular ideas and techniques taken from both academic communities. In doing so, we'll uncover a remarkable mathematical connection between seemingly distinct approaches to the problem that helps to bring existing ideas together to solve important automation problems.
Bio:
Brian Paden received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering in 2011 and 2013 respectively from UC Santa Barbara followed by a Ph.D. in Robotics from MIT in 2017. His research interests include optimal control, convex optimization, and software engineering in robotics applications. During his graduate studies he was affiliated with UCSB’s Center for Control, Dynamical Systems, and Computation and MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. He is presently a staff robotics engineer with Samsung’s Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC). In 2018 he was awarded SSIC’s inventor of the year and was also a co-author on a paper awarded Best Paper at the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering.
Closing the Gap between Heuristic Algorithms and Optimal Control
Abstract:
Motion planning is a well-studied and important problem in robotic automation. Interestingly, it has been addressed by the computational geometry and control systems community almost independently over the last two decades. In this talk I'll present an overview of the various approaches to robot motion planning as well as some of the popular ideas and techniques taken from both academic communities. In doing so, we'll uncover a remarkable mathematical connection between seemingly distinct approaches to the problem that helps to bring existing ideas together to solve important automation problems.
Bio:
Brian Paden received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering in 2011 and 2013 respectively from UC Santa Barbara followed by a Ph.D. in Robotics from MIT in 2017. His research interests include optimal control, convex optimization, and software engineering in robotics applications. During his graduate studies he was affiliated with UCSB’s Center for Control, Dynamical Systems, and Computation and MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. He is presently a staff robotics engineer with Samsung’s Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC). In 2018 he was awarded SSIC’s inventor of the year and was also a co-author on a paper awarded Best Paper at the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering.
Microarchitectural Analysis and Optimization of Datacenter Workloads
Abstract:
Data centers represent the nucleus of online activity and today represent over 25% of the overall microprocessor market. Data centersnow process a large number of worldwide compute cycles and areresponsible for a significant fraction of the planet's energyconsumption. As a result, improving the efficiency and performance ofdata center processors only by a single percent leads to billions ofdollars savings for cloud providers and their customers. Existingprocessors have been designed for traditional server applications andhence have not been optimized for contemporary Hyperscale workloads.In this talk, we will present an analysis of data center workloadsbased on a new cluster-wide profiling mechanism named AsmDB. We showhow AsmDB can be used to determine performance bottlenecks and presentnew prefetching techniques to improve the performance and efficiencyof the studied data center workloads.
Bio:
Heiner Litz is an Assistant Professor at the University of California,Santa Cruz working in the field of Computer Architecture and Systems.His research focuses on Data Center systems, in particular, onimproving the performance, cost, utilization, and efficiency of largedistributed computer systems. Before joining UCSC, Heiner Litz was aresearcher at Google and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at StanfordUniversity. Dr. Litz received his MSc and Ph.D. from the University ofMannheim, Germany.
Goal-Conditioned Imitation Learning
Abstract:
Designing rewards for Reinforcement Learning (RL) is challenging because it needs to convey the desired task, be efficient to optimize, and be easy to compute. The latter is particularly problematic when applying RL to robotics, where detecting whether the desired configuration is reached might require considerable supervision and instrumentation. Furthermore, we are often interested in being able to reach a wide range of configurations, hence setting up a different reward every time might be impractical.
Bio:
Dr. Mariano Phielipp works at the Intel AI Lab inside the Intel Artificial Intelligence Products Group. His work includes research and development in deep learning, deep reinforcement learning, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Since joining Intel, Dr. Phielipp has developed and worked on Computer Vision, Face Recognition, Face Detection, Object Categorization, Recommendation Systems, Online Learning, Automatic Rule Learning, Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Representation, Energy Based Algorithms, and other Machine Learning and AI-related efforts. Dr. Phielipp has also contributed to different disclosure committees, won an Intel division award related to Robotics, and has a large number of patents and pending patents. He has published on NeuriPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, IROS, IEEE, SPIE, IASTED, and EUROGRAPHICS-IEEE Conferences and Workshops.
Morphologically Controlled Composites: Emerging Materials for Extreme Environments
Abstract:
This seminar will present an overview of the microstructure and phase stability of hexaboride ceramics of controlled morphologies. Hexaborides are a unique class of non-oxide ceramics with many interesting electronic, magnetic and optical properties. The cubic crystal structure consists of covalently bonded boron octahedra surrounding a loosely-bonded metal ion, which donates electrons to the boron framework and directly influences the compound’s conductivity. Compatible metal ions are restricted in size by the boron sublattice, and therefore readily form solid solutions in mixed-ion compounds. CaB6, SrB6, and BaB6 powders have been produced, along with binary mixtures of each in 10 mol.% increments. Synchrotron radiation and detailed Raman spectroscopy have been used to detail the crystallography and bonding states in the materials. X-ray diffraction was used to study the phases formed, and while the (Ca-Sr)B6 and (Ba-Sr)B6 systems form single solid solutions, the (Ba-Ca)B6 system separates into two solid solution phases. Atomic-resolution TEM was subsequently used to determine defects in the materials. We will also present preliminary results on the formation of carbides. The compositionally diverse TaC1-x phase is an interstitial carbide having a rocksalt crystal structure and mixed covalent, metallic, and ionic bonding. Therefore, this material has an interesting combination of properties that in some respects are intermediate between typical ceramics and metals.
Bio:
Olivia Graeve is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego, Director of the CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems, and Faculty Director of the IDEA Engineering Student Center. She holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and a Bachelor’s degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. Her area of research focuses on the design and processing of new materials for extreme environments, including extremes of temperature, pressure, and radiation. She has been involved in many activities related to the recruitment and retention of women and Hispanic students in science and engineering and has received several prestigious awards including the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the 2006 Hispanic Educator of the Year award by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the 2010 Karl Schwartzwalder Professional Achievement in Ceramic Engineering Award by the American Ceramic Society, among many others. More recently, she has been inducted into the Tijuana Walk of Fame (2014) and to the Mexican Academy of Engineering (2016), and has been named a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2017). In addition, Forbes Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Powerful Women of Mexico (2017).
