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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Northeastern University College of Engineering
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240701T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240701T120000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141126Z
UID:43872-1719828000-1719835200@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Mondays from 10 am-12 pm ET.  Drop in any Monday and stay for a short time or the whole two hours.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours/2024-07-01/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240701T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240701T150000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240618T150504Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240618T150504Z
UID:44312-1719838800-1719846000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:ChE PhD Dissertation Defense: Mohammad Hamrangsekachaee
DESCRIPTION:PhD Dissertation Defense: Endothelial Glycocalyx: Response to Fluid and Solid Mechanics in its Environment \nMohammad Hamrangsekachaee \nLocation: Snell Library 033 and Zoom \nAbstract: Atherosclerosis\, a precursor to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs)\, accounts for 37% of deaths in individuals under 70 years old\, primarily due to endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction. The glycocalyx (GCX)\, a carbohydrate-rich structure on ECs lining the vessel luminal surface\, is crucial for EC function and vascular health by regulating vascular tone\, hemostasis\, permeability\, and mechanotransduction. Therefore\, cellular models emulating the vascular mechanical environment are vital for understanding GCX’s role and its interaction with mechanical surroundings. This dissertation introduces an innovative in vitro model to investigate the combined effects of tissue stiffness and shear stress on endothelial cell function. \nTunable non-swelling gelatin-methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels were fabricated with stiffnesses of 2.5 and 5 kPa\, representing healthy vessel tissues\, and 10 kPa\, corresponding to diseased vessel tissues. Immunocytochemistry analysis showed that on hydrogels with different levels of stiffness\, the GCX’s major polysaccharide components exhibited dysregulation in distinct patterns. For example\, there was a significant decrease in heparan sulfate expression on pathological substrates (10 kPa)\, while sialic acid expression increased with increased matrix stiffness. \nGelMA hydrogels were then integrated into a flow chamber designed to generate physiological flow conditions. The combined effects of fluid shear stress and substrate stiffness were analyzed for heparan sulfate\, sialic acid\, hyaluronic acid\, syndecan-1\, CD44\, and YAP. Under shear stress\, heparan sulfate’s coverage was reduced at 10 kPa\, while sialic acid and CD44 expression increased at 10 kPa. YAP activation\nshowed increased nuclear translocation and decreased phosphorylation at 10 kPa. Our findings revealed that substrate stiffness and mechanical forces significantly influence GCX expression and endothelial cell function. \nThis research highlights the critical role of the mechanical environment on GCX in vascular health\, particularly in the context of atherosclerosis. By developing an innovative in vitro model that integrates tissue rigidity and shear stress\, we have provided a more precise simulation of the vascular environment. This model offers a valuable tool for further understanding EC mechanotransduction and developing targeted treatments for cardiovascular diseases.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/che-phd-dissertation-defense-mohammad-hamrangsekachaee/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240702T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240702T160000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240521T134013Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T190526Z
UID:44002-1719932400-1719936000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Small Talk for Networking: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 3-4 PM ET for our weekly Small Talk for Networking Drop-In Workshop in room 13 International Village or virtually through Zoom.  This workshop series will offer you the ability to practice techniques and use essential tools to improve your conversational skills and connect with others at networking events.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/small-talk-for-networking-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-02/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240702T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240702T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184601Z
UID:44079-1719936000-1719939600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-02/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240703T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240703T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125353Z
UID:44129-1720022400-1720026000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LinkedIn\, CV\, Resume: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab’s empowering LinkedIn\, CV\, and Resume Drop-In Workshops any Wednesday from 4 pm to 5 pm ET. This collaborative space offers valuable advice and peer feedback to enhance your online profile and professional presence. Join this workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/linkedin-cv-resume-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-03/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240708T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240708T120000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141131Z
UID:43873-1720432800-1720440000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Mondays from 10 am-12 pm ET.  Drop in any Monday and stay for a short time or the whole two hours.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours/2024-07-08/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240709T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240709T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184607Z
UID:44080-1720540800-1720544400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-09/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240710T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240710T160000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240708T133751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240708T133751Z
UID:44419-1720623600-1720627200@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate Student Fellowship Writing Club-Hosted by NU CommLab and NetSI
DESCRIPTION:Join the NU CommLab and NetSI sponsored weekly graduate student fellowship writing club for support in writing your fellowship application!  The fellowship writing club meets virtually on Wednesdays from 3-4pm from July 10- August 21.  We will offer you an opportunity to ask questions to faculty\, staff and students who have reviewed\, mentored or applied and received fellowships.  We will provide fellowship writing tips and guidance as well as offer writing and draft review sessions.  Register to join our Zoom Sessions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-student-fellowship-writing-club-hosted-by-nu-commlab-and-netsi/2024-07-10/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240710T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240710T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125353Z
UID:44130-1720627200-1720630800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LinkedIn\, CV\, Resume: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab’s empowering LinkedIn\, CV\, and Resume Drop-In Workshops any Wednesday from 4 pm to 5 pm ET. This collaborative space offers valuable advice and peer feedback to enhance your online profile and professional presence. Join this workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/linkedin-cv-resume-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-10/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240711T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240711T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T191427Z
UID:44140-1720713600-1720717200@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Mock Interview: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Thursday from 4-5pm ET\, we’ll delve into the intricacies of interviews\, unveiling effective preparation strategies for any interview scenario. Engage in an interactive setting as we dissect the overall interview experience\, discuss common interview scenarios\, and share insights on what to do during critical moments. Join this hybrid workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/mock-interview-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-11/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240711T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240711T180000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240701T135456Z
UID:43936-1720717200-1720720800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Poster Design and Presentation: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:The CommLab will host drop-in workshops for poster design and presentation to focus on crafting the best visual communication of your research and telling your research story! We will discuss techniques and implement communication strategies to successfully showcase your work. No matter where you are in the process\, whether it is just in the idea phase or you are trying to polish your final poster\, we are happy to help you.  Join us any Thursday from 5-6pm\,  on Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/poster-design-and-presentation-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-11/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240715T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240715T120000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141131Z
UID:43874-1721037600-1721044800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Mondays from 10 am-12 pm ET.  Drop in any Monday and stay for a short time or the whole two hours.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours/2024-07-15/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240716T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240716T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184607Z
UID:44081-1721145600-1721149200@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-16/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240717T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240717T160000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240708T133751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240708T133751Z
UID:44421-1721228400-1721232000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate Student Fellowship Writing Club-Hosted by NU CommLab and NetSI
DESCRIPTION:Join the NU CommLab and NetSI sponsored weekly graduate student fellowship writing club for support in writing your fellowship application!  The fellowship writing club meets virtually on Wednesdays from 3-4pm from July 10- August 21.  We will offer you an opportunity to ask questions to faculty\, staff and students who have reviewed\, mentored or applied and received fellowships.  We will provide fellowship writing tips and guidance as well as offer writing and draft review sessions.  Register to join our Zoom Sessions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-student-fellowship-writing-club-hosted-by-nu-commlab-and-netsi/2024-07-17/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240717T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240717T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125353Z
UID:44131-1721232000-1721235600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LinkedIn\, CV\, Resume: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab’s empowering LinkedIn\, CV\, and Resume Drop-In Workshops any Wednesday from 4 pm to 5 pm ET. This collaborative space offers valuable advice and peer feedback to enhance your online profile and professional presence. Join this workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/linkedin-cv-resume-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-17/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T120000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240820T182625Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182625Z
UID:45089-1721300400-1721304000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Jagatpreet Nir PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Announcing:\nPhD Dissertation Defense \nName:\nJagatpreet Nir \nTitle:\nLow Contrast Visual Sensing and Inertial-Aided Navigation in GPS-Denied  Environments \nDate:\n7/18/2024 \nTime:\n11:00:00 AM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Hanumant Singh (Advisor)\nProf. Martin Ludvigsen\nProf. Michael Everett\nProf. Pau Closas \nAbstract:\nField robots perform complex tasks\, necessitating high autonomy and reliable navigation capabilities. Integrating complementary sensors at the hardware level is crucial to maintaining navigation estimates even during sensor failure. This work is motivated by the need for robust and accurate navigation systems for robotic field applications\, particularly in diverse and challenging environments. The development of such systems involves balancing design requirements with constraints such as size\, weight\, power\, computational capacity\, and cost. Underwater navigation exemplifies navigation in Visually Degraded Environments (VDEs)\, where Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remote Operated Vehicles ( ROVs) navigate in challenging conditions. This thesis focuses on exploring methods to enhance the robustness of visual-inertial odometry systems in VDEs. \nThe current state-of-the-art Visual Inertial Odometery (VIO) techniques provide high-accuracy navigation estimates in texture-rich scenes. However\, robots operating in harsh and unpredictable environments\, such as underwater\, often encounter VDEs due to low texture\, uneven illumination\, or backscatter. During prolonged visual degradation\, the Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) become the primary sensor as visual measurements are unreliable. In this reserach\, we address the problem of designing an underwater VIO navigation system and algorithmic pipelines to ensure reliable navigation estimates during several seconds of visual degradation\, emphasizing the importance of selecting better Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) IMUs for dependable performance within a cost budget. \nA robust VIO system designed for underwater settings is introduced. Our contributions include a general system design approach for underwater VIO\, an algorithmic formulation for fusing deep learning-based Visual Odometry (VO) with IMUs data. The underwater datasets depict visual degradation in real-world settings with a time-synchronized 8-bit grayscale camera and IMU. Our hybrid VIO pipeline integrates IMU measurements with VO estimates from a deep-learning VO engine\, combining deep learning with classical sensor fusion techniques to achieve accurate metric and gravity-aligned trajectory estimates even in visually degraded conditions. The proposed system outperforms traditional VIO methods\, demonstrating robustness with consistent trajectory estimates and minimal drift during complete visual outages. The extensible design allows for the incorporation of new sensors\, addressing various underwater navigation challenges. \nTo conclude\, this thesis focuses on environments where exteroceptive sensing\, like cameras\, is compromised for extended periods\, relying on proprioceptive sensors such as IMUs to navigate. The aim is to quantify navigation accuracy in harsh environments and improve system design at both hardware and software levels. Specifically\, underwater visual-inertial navigation for small vehicles is used to demonstrate the principles and algorithms developed. The outlined methodology showcases sensor selection\, sensor-fusion algorithms\, and individual improvements to build enhanced visual-inertial systems for VDEs and the applicability of the proposed approach from controlled settings to field tests. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/jagatpreet-nir-phd-dissertation-defense/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T123000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240820T182954Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182954Z
UID:45085-1721302200-1721305800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Mehrshad Zandigohar PhD Proposal Review
DESCRIPTION:Announcing:\nPhD Proposal Review \nName:\nMehrshad Zandigohar \nTitle:\nDeployable and Multimodal Human Grasp Intent Inference in Prosthetic Hand Control \nDate:\n7/18/2024 \nTime:\n11:30:00 AM \nLocation: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_N2QyNzc1MWMtOWJmMi00NGNmLThlNzctN2JlNjU2Y2I1MmI1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22a8eec281-aaa3-4dae-ac9b-9a398b9215e7%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22de13c261-ac42-49d7-8950-6dec3adaca4e%22%7d\nISEC 532 – \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Gunar Schirner (Advisor)\nProf. Deniz Erdogmus\nProf. Mallesham Dasari\nProf. Mariusz P. Furmanek \nAbstract:\nFor transradial amputees\, robotic prosthetic hands promise to regain the capability to perform daily living activities. Among robotic control methods for prosthetic hand actuators\, coarse-grained grasp types are a common means of effortless yet effective control. However\, to advance next-generation prosthetic hand control design\, it is crucial to address current shortcomings in robustness to out of lab artifacts\, generalizability to new environments and deployment of such compute-intensive grasp estimators. \nFirst and foremost\, current control methods based on physiological modality such as electromyography (EMG) are prone to yielding poor inference outcomes due to motion artifacts\, muscle fatigue\, and many more. Similarly\, methods based on visual modality are also susceptible to its own artifacts\, most often due to object occlusion\, lighting changes\, etc. To address such drawbacks of single modality approaches\, we present a multimodal evidence fusion framework for grasp intent inference using eye-view video\, eye-gaze\, and EMG from the forearm processed by neural network models. Given the lack of a synchronized multimodal dataset for evaluating multimodal grasp estimation\, we propose our own customized HANDSv2 dataset with the most complete EMG profile and visual data synchronized in time. Our experimental results indicate that fusing both modalities\, on average\, improves the instantaneous upcoming grasp type classification accuracy while in the reaching phase by 13.66% and 14.8%\, relative to EMG (81.64% non-fused) and visual evidence (80.5% non-fused) individually\, resulting in an overall fusion accuracy of 95.3%. \nAlthough visual grasp classification has shown promising results\, the generalizability to unseen object classes remains a significant challenge within the research community. This limitation arises from the fixed number of grasp types available in existing models\, contrasted with the virtually infinite variety of objects encountered in the real world. The poor performance of grasp detection models on unseen objects negatively affects users’ independence and quality of life. To address this\, we propose Grasp Vision Language Model (Grasp-VLM). Grasp-VLM takes advantage of the zero-shotness capability of large vision language models and teach them to perform human-like reasoning to infer the suitable grasp type estimate based on the object’s physical characteristics suitable for previously unseen objects\, resulting in better generalizability in real-life scenarios. Our initial results show a significant 49% accuracy of Grasp-VLM over unseen object types compared to 15.3% accuracy of the current State-of-the-Art. \nLastly\, given the computational intensity of such models\, which often contain billions of parameters\, deploying them to edge devices poses a serious challenge. To mitigate this\, we investigate Hybrid Grasp Network (HGN)\, a deployment infrastructure that combines an edge-specialized model for low-latency operations with a cloud-based universal model ensuring high generalization\, effectively balancing performance and resource constraints. \nThe holistic approach presented in this dissertation tackles four essential areas of robotic prosthetic hand control design. Handsv2 provides a customized dataset filling the gap for a multimodal synchronized dataset. Our multimodal fusion approach effectively outperforms single modality approaches providing accurate and robust grasp type estimations during the entire grasping timeline. In addition\, Grasp-VLM addresses the lack of generalizability to new object types providing a more realistic grasp estimation. Lastly\, our HGN design aims at providing a real-time solution investigating both speed and accuracy objectives.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/mehrshad-zandigohar-phd-proposal-review/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T191427Z
UID:44141-1721318400-1721322000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Mock Interview: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Thursday from 4-5pm ET\, we’ll delve into the intricacies of interviews\, unveiling effective preparation strategies for any interview scenario. Engage in an interactive setting as we dissect the overall interview experience\, discuss common interview scenarios\, and share insights on what to do during critical moments. Join this hybrid workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/mock-interview-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-18/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240718T180000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240701T135456Z
UID:43937-1721322000-1721325600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Poster Design and Presentation: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:The CommLab will host drop-in workshops for poster design and presentation to focus on crafting the best visual communication of your research and telling your research story! We will discuss techniques and implement communication strategies to successfully showcase your work. No matter where you are in the process\, whether it is just in the idea phase or you are trying to polish your final poster\, we are happy to help you.  Join us any Thursday from 5-6pm\,  on Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/poster-design-and-presentation-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-18/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240720T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240720T140000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240617T153424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240617T153424Z
UID:44302-1721480400-1721484000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate School of Engineering Campus Tour - In Person
DESCRIPTION:Want to learn more about Northeastern’s Boston campus? Then we welcome you to sign up for a Graduate School of Engineering campus tour! Led by one of our expert Graduate Student Ambassadors\, we’ll show you key locations on campus\, in addition to resources specific to Engineering\, and answer your questions about Boston. Please complete the registration form linked below to select the date and time that works best for you. Tours are open to all students interested in learning more about the Graduate School of Engineering. We can’t wait to meet you!
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-school-of-engineering-campus-tour-in-person-6/2024-07-20/
ORGANIZER;CN="Graduate School of Engineering":MAILTO:coe-gradadmissions@northeastern.edu
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T120000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240731T141131Z
UID:43875-1721642400-1721649600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:CommLab Drop-In Writing Hours
DESCRIPTION:Graduate students\, are you looking for a place for focused research writing time?  Join the CommLab drop-in writing hours any Mondays from 10 am-12 pm ET.  Drop in any Monday and stay for a short time or the whole two hours.  CommLab Fellows will be available to provide feedback on your writing.  We will be meeting in 13 International Village.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/commlab-drop-in-writing-hours/2024-07-22/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240722T143000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240820T182500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182500Z
UID:45091-1721653200-1721658600@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Miead Tehrani Moayyed PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nMiead Tehrani Moayyed \nTitle:\nRF Channel Models for Static and Mobile Scenarios: From Simulations to Models for Large-scale Emulations and Digital Twins \nDate:\n7/22/2024 \nTime:\n1:00:00 PM \nLocation:\nRoom: EXP-601A \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Stefano Basagni (Advisor)\nProf. Tommaso Melodia\nProf. Milica Stojanovic \nAbstract:\nThe extremely high data rates provided by communications at higher frequency bands\, such as mmWave\, can address the unprecedented demands of next-generation wireless networks. However\, several impairments limit wireless coverage at higher frequencies\, necessitating accurate models of wireless scenarios and large-scale testing to test and realize the potential of these new technologies. Large-scale accurate simulations and wireless network emulators now offer a time- and cost-effective solution for performing these tests in a lab before field deployment. This dissertation focuses on modeling\, calibration\, and validation of realistic RF scenarios for wireless network emulation at scale. The contributions of this work include: (i) Investigating the characteristics of the wireless channel at higher frequencies (mmWave) and evaluating the performance of mmWave communications on top of the NR standard for 5G cellular networks; (ii) developing a streamlined framework to create realistic RF scenarios with mobility support for Finite Input Response (FIR)-based emulators like Colosseum\, starting from rich inputs such as precise ray tracing methods or real-field measurements\, and (iii) creating an accurate AI-assisted propagation model that integrates joint measurements and simulations\, achieving the desired accuracy and reasonable computational requirements for real-time Digital Twin (DT) wireless networks. Particularly: \n(i) We derive channel propagation models via ray tracing simulations for mmWave transmissions with applications to V2X communications. We analyze aspects related to blockage modeling\, the effects of antenna beamwidth\, beam alignment\, and multipath fading in urban scenarios\, emphasizing the importance of capturing diffuse scattered rays for improved large-scale and small-scale radio channel propagation models. Furthermore\, we compare the performance of mmWave 5G NR with the 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard in a realistic environment and demonstrate the impact of MIMO technology on improving the performance of 5G NR cellular networks. As transmitted radio signals are received as clusters of multipath rays\, identifying these clusters provides better spatial and temporal characteristics of the channel. We address the clustering process and its validation across a wide range of frequencies in the mmWave spectrum below 100 GHz. We analyze how the clustering solution changes with narrower-beam antennas and provide a comparison of the cluster characteristics for different types of antennas. \n(ii) Our framework for modeling wireless scenarios for large-scale emulators optimally scales down the large set of channel input to the fewer parameters allowed by the emulator using efficient clustering techniques and Channel-Impulse Response (CIR) re-sampling. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework by modeling realistic scenarios for Colosseum\, starting with rich input from commercial-grade ray tracing software\, Wireless InSite (WI) by Remcom. To support mobility\, we implement a mobile channel simulator on top of the WI ray-tracer\, consisting of two steps: (a) spatially sampling the mobile channels using the ray-tracer\, and (b) parsing the ray tracing outputs to extract the channels for each time instant of emulation. We also develop a Software-Defined Radio (SDR)-based channel sounder to precisely characterize emulated RF channels. The sounder framework is fully containerized\, scalable\, and automated to capture the gains and delays of the channel CIR taps. \n(iii) We extend these efforts to develop the first Digital Twins for Mobile Networks (DTMN) on Colosseum\, using the RF testbed Arena as a use case. This use case demonstrates the scope and capabilities of Colosseum as a DT\, providing the research community with a set of tools to replicate real-world environments. We compare key network performance metrics\, namely throughput and SINR\, of the Arena/Colosseum DTMN to validate the fidelity of our twinning process. Furthermore\, we present an AI-assisted propagation model to generate realistic\, real-time\, and scalable scenarios for DTMNs. This model seamlessly integrates measurements with ray tracing\, providing a high-resolution\, realistic channel model. We study the computational complexity and configuration trade-offs associated with ray tracing for high-fidelity prediction\, generating a large dataset to train this enhanced AI model. Our proof of concept highlights the accuracy and generalization capabilities of our AI model across previously unseen transmitter (TX) locations and unfamiliar environments\, outperforming state-of-the-art approaches and achieving significant improvements in accuracy. We analyze the computational complexity of our AI model\, comparing it to high-fidelity ray tracing. Profiling reveals a three-order-of-magnitude acceleration\, enabling real-time propagation prediction with reasonable accuracy. We explore key ray tracing parameters contributing to the discrepancy between measurements and simulations and demonstrate the integration of measurements into channel prediction\, thereby calibrating the model.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/miead-tehrani-moayyed-phd-dissertation-defense/
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T113000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T123000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240820T182406Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182406Z
UID:45093-1721734200-1721737800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Andrea Lacava PhD Proposal Review on 7/23
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nAndrea Lacava \nTitle:\nEnabling Intelligent nextG Cellular Networks through the Open RAN  Architecture \nDate:\n7/23/2024 \nTime:\n11:30:00 AM \nLocation:\nEXP 501 \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Tommaso Melodia (Advisor)\nProf. Francesca Cuomo (Advisor)\nProf. Stefano Basagni\nProf. Ioannis Chatzigiannakis \nAbstract:\nThe 5th generation (5G) and beyond of cellular networks will support heterogeneous use cases at an unprecedented scale\, thus demanding automated control and optimization of network functionalities\, customized to the needs of individual users. However\, achieving such fine-grained control over the Radio Access Network (RAN) is unfeasible with the current cellular architecture. \nTo bridge this gap\, the Open RAN paradigm and its specification introduce an “open” architecture with abstractions that facilitate closed-loop control and enable data-driven\, intelligent optimization of the RAN at the user-level. This thesis focuses on the design and development of system-level solutions to enable intelligent control in the next generation of cellular networks through the Open RAN architecture. The main research areas explored in this thesis include (i) the design and evaluation of platforms for the creation\, datasets generation and testing of the Open RAN architecture solutions; (ii) the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) models for various deployments and networking scenarios; and (iii) innovative methodologies for agile spectrum\, infrastructure\, and AI management within Open RAN. Among the significant contributions of this thesis are ns-O-RAN\, the first open-source simulation platform that integrates a functional 5G protocol stack in Network Simulator 3 (ns-3) with an O-RAN-compliant E2 interface\, and the pioneering architectural design and implementation of the dApps\, the real-time controllers for the O-RAN architecture. Furthermore\, the solutions proposed in this thesis are leveraged to investigate various network optimization use cases deemed critical in cellular networks. The results demonstrate that our approach outperforms traditional Radio Resource Management (RRM) heuristics\, enhancing overall RAN conditions at scale in both simulations and state-of-the-art experimental testbeds. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/andrea-lacava-phd-proposal-review-on-7-23/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125640Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T184607Z
UID:44082-1721750400-1721754000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LeetCode Mock Interviews – CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Tuesday from 4-5 PM for our weekly LeetCode Mock Interview Workshop via Zoom. This workshop is tailored towards programming jobs and prior coding knowledge is expected. Boost your LeetCode problem-solving confidence for interviews by building your speaking skills while solving programming problems.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/leetcode-mock-interviews-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-23/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T210000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240723T220000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240820T182749Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182749Z
UID:45087-1721768400-1721772000@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Zhenglun Kong PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Name:\nZhenglun Kong \nTitle:\nTowards Efficient Deep Learning for Vision and Language Applications \nDate:\n7/23/2024 \nTime:\n9:00:00 PM \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Yanzhi Wang (Advisor)\nProf. David Kaeli\nProf. Dakuo Wang\nProf. Weiyan Shi \nAbstract:\nMachine learning and AI have been advancing rapidly in recent years\, leading to numerous applications across diverse fields such as autonomous vehicles\, entertainment\, science\, healthcare\, and assistive technologies—significantly enhancing daily life. However\, this advancement has been accompanied by a significant increase in the size of deep neural network (DNN) models\, which poses considerable economic challenges. The substantial costs associated with the training\, inference\, and deployment of large vision and language models require extensive computational resources and time\, proving especially taxing for smaller entities and individuals. This also complicates deployment on resource-constrained devices and in areas with limited infrastructure. \nA major challenge is deploying AI models on devices with limited capacity\, such as wearables\, sensors\, and mobile phones. These edge devices\, often operating offline and requiring real-time processing\, are critical for many applications but struggle to support large models. My dissertation research addresses these pressing issues with the aim of enabling the practical implementation of AI. We ensure the effectiveness of AI models while adapting them for use in constrained environments by tackling fundamental AI challenges from four angles: \n1. Managing Massive Computation: We introduce a novel token pruning framework that reduces the latency of Vision Transformers (ViT) by up to 41% compared to existing works on mobile devices. Additionally\, we propose a quantization framework for large language models (LLMs)\, achieving an on-device speedup of up to 2.55x compared to FP16 counterparts across multiple edge devices. \n2. Mitigating Training Costs: We develop fast\, accurate\, and memory-efficient training methods by utilizing a hierarchical data redundancy reduction scheme\, which achieves up to a 40% speedup in ViT pre-training with minimal accuracy loss. \n3. Merging Multiple Models: We propose an efficient way to merge multiple LLMS\, yielding a more advanced and robust LLM while maintaining the model  size\, as well as  reducing knowledge interference. \n4. Co-designing Speed-aware Deep Neural Networks: We consider memory access cost\, the degree of parallelism\, and practical latency in the design of 2D and 3D object detection models for practical deployment.
 By addressing these areas\, my research aims to enable the effective and efficient use of AI models in constrained environments\, ensuring their practical implementation across various applications. \n 
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/zhenglun-kong-phd-dissertation-defense/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T160000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240708T133751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240708T133751Z
UID:44422-1721833200-1721836800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Graduate Student Fellowship Writing Club-Hosted by NU CommLab and NetSI
DESCRIPTION:Join the NU CommLab and NetSI sponsored weekly graduate student fellowship writing club for support in writing your fellowship application!  The fellowship writing club meets virtually on Wednesdays from 3-4pm from July 10- August 21.  We will offer you an opportunity to ask questions to faculty\, staff and students who have reviewed\, mentored or applied and received fellowships.  We will provide fellowship writing tips and guidance as well as offer writing and draft review sessions.  Register to join our Zoom Sessions.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/graduate-student-fellowship-writing-club-hosted-by-nu-commlab-and-netsi/2024-07-24/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240724T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T125353Z
UID:44132-1721836800-1721840400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:LinkedIn\, CV\, Resume: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab’s empowering LinkedIn\, CV\, and Resume Drop-In Workshops any Wednesday from 4 pm to 5 pm ET. This collaborative space offers valuable advice and peer feedback to enhance your online profile and professional presence. Join this workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/linkedin-cv-resume-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-24/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T153000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240820T182301Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240820T182301Z
UID:45095-1721916000-1721921400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Rui Lou PhD Dissertation Defense
DESCRIPTION:Announcing:\nPhD Dissertation Defense \nName:\nRui Luo \nTitle:\nShared Assistance Methods for Human-in-the-loop Robot Systems \nDate:\n7/25/2024 \nTime:\n2:00:00 PM \nLocation:\nEXP 701A. \nCommittee Members:\nProf. Taskin Padir (Advisor)\nProf. John Peter Whitney\nProf. Yanzhi Wang\nDr. Mark Zolotas \nAbstract:\nFully autonomous robot systems\, though highly desired\, face substantial theoretical and practical challenges when being deployed into a dynamic environment where human co-exists. To tackle this challenge\, this thesis investigates the concept of human-in-the-loop (HITL) systems\, which incorporate human input to enhance robot functionality. HITL systems offer a pragmatic alternative\, combining human versatility with robotic precision. \nThis research aims to address critical questions in one specific HITL system which  prioritizes the dominant role of human within the system\, positioning the robot primarily in an assistive capacity that adheres to human commands to facilitate the achievement of a shared goal. It explores two primary paradigms of shared assistance methods—Shared Control (SC) and Shared Autonomy (SA)—and discuss the system designs as well as specific algorithms to implement the three critical components in a HITL systems: human intention estimation\, modulation of human inputs and robot autonomy\, and the human-robot communication channel. \nDue to the variety of use cases and their specific challenges\, four distinct HITL systems are developed and analyzed to exemplify how shared assistance methods could be incorporated to assist human operators: an assistive wheelchair for indoor navigation\, a human-centered robot system design for industrial tasks\, a mobile bi-manual robot for tele-manipulation\, and a VR-based customizable shared control system for fine teleopeartion.  Although each system represents a comprehensive robotic solution\, the research contributions for each work vary. \nIn the assistive wheelchair navigation system\, the focus was on human intent estimation via low-throughput interface utilizing a recursive Bayesian filter\, with significant efforts dedicated to developing a real-time user interface serving as the communication channel. In the human-robot collaboration system for industrial setting\, the emphasis was on human state estimation through camera-based posture tracking and exploring the interplay between robot behavior and human ergonomics. For the two teleoperation systems\, the primary focus was on the real-time modulation of human inputs and robot autonomy to aid in achieving dexterous manipulation tasks. A novel VR-based user interface was developed to enable users to customize the level of robotic autonomous assistance. Each system was validated through a pilot study involving 10-20 human subjects\, accompanied by extensive data analysis to provide insights into designing HITL systems for various applications. \nIn conclusion\, this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of HITL systems\, highlighting their potential to enhance human productivity\, ergonomics\, and quality of life in various applications through concrete examples. The integration of human intent estimation and real-time shared control methods into robotic systems demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of HITL approaches. Our extensive experimental analysis underscores the critical role of human feedback in designing practical HITL systems that can be deployed in real-world scenarios.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/rui-lou-phd-dissertation-defense/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125021Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240603T191427Z
UID:44142-1721923200-1721926800@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Mock Interview: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:Join the CommLab any Thursday from 4-5pm ET\, we’ll delve into the intricacies of interviews\, unveiling effective preparation strategies for any interview scenario. Engage in an interactive setting as we dissect the overall interview experience\, discuss common interview scenarios\, and share insights on what to do during critical moments. Join this hybrid workshop series through Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/mock-interview-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-25/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240725T180000
DTSTAMP:20260512T231046
CREATED:20240517T125712Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240701T135457Z
UID:43938-1721926800-1721930400@coe.northeastern.edu
SUMMARY:Poster Design and Presentation: CommLab Drop-In Workshops
DESCRIPTION:The CommLab will host drop-in workshops for poster design and presentation to focus on crafting the best visual communication of your research and telling your research story! We will discuss techniques and implement communication strategies to successfully showcase your work. No matter where you are in the process\, whether it is just in the idea phase or you are trying to polish your final poster\, we are happy to help you.  Join us any Thursday from 5-6pm\,  on Zoom.
URL:https://coe.northeastern.edu/event/poster-design-and-presentation-commlab-drop-in-workshops/2024-07-25/
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