November
2, 2021
How a Team of Young Caltech/JPL Researchers Transformed the Field of Earth
Observation with Spaceborne Radars
5:00 PM PDT
Online
Register at
caltech.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WCvOKqXBTbSJ_dvRL4n6PA
Forty
years ago, in November 1981, a team of young JPL scientists and engineers
conducted the first experiment ever flown on the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle
Imaging Radar-A (SIR-A) imaged large areas of our planet and led to the
discovery of a network of ancient paleo rivers in Egypt and North Africa.
The
SIR-A was followed by a series of progressively more advanced imaging radar
systems (SIR-B, SIR-C and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission), conducted by
the same team, that demonstrated the scientific benefit of multispectral and
interferometric systems in mapping and monitoring our planet. They formed the
technical foundations for the dozen of international and commercial free
flying radars presently orbiting Earth as well as the radar systems that
mapped Venus and Titan.
This
talk, given by the leader of that team, Dr. Charles Elachi, will cover the
history of how this team conceived and accomplished these advances that
dramatically expanded our ability to map and monitor the changes on our planet.
This
lecture is organized by the W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS), a
joint think tank of the Caltech Campus and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL).
Presented by: W. M. Keck Institute for
Space Studies/IEEE Buenaventura AESS and MTTS chapters
November
15, 2021
VDL Communication, Computation, and Privacy Trade-off in Machine Learning for
Smart Environments
10:00 AM PST
Online
Speaker: Damla Turgut
Register at
www.ieee-bv.org/meet/2021-11-com
Overview
Smart
assistive environments adapt to the needs and preferences of disabled or
elderly users who need help with the activities of daily living. However, the
needs and requests of users vary greatly, both due to personal preferences
and type of disability. As handcrafting an environment is prohibitively
expensive, in recent years significant research was done in systems that use
machine learning to create a predictive model of the user. Machine learning,
however, typically requires large amounts of data. A stand-alone smart
environment, however, only has access to the data collected from its user
since it was deployed. A possible solution is to perform centralized,
cloud-based learning by pooling the training data collected from multiple
users. However, uploading data collected from the personal habits of elderly
and disabled users create significant security and privacy concerns.
In
this talk, we investigate the type of data sharing necessary for learning
user models in smart environments and propose several novel considerations.
We point out that data sharing is only ethical if the user derives a benefit
from it. This implies that the decision to share data must be periodically
revisited, it is not a commitment extending indefinitely in the future. We
study the data sharing decisions made by users under several machine learning
frameworks: local, cloud, and federated learning. We show that most users
only benefit from data sharing for a limited interval after the deployment of
the system. We also investigate machine learning techniques that predict
whether the user will benefit from sharing the data before the data is
shared.
About the
Speaker
Dr. Damla Turgut is Charles Millican
Professor of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She
is the co-director of the AI Things Laboratory. She held visiting researcher
positions at the University of Rome ``La Sapienza'', Imperial College of
London, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Her research interests
include wireless ad hoc, sensor, underwater, vehicular, and social networks,
edge/cloud computing, smart cities, smart grids, IoT-enabled healthcare and
augmented reality, as well as considerations of privacy in the Internet of
Things. Dr. Turgut serves on several editorial boards and program committees
of prestigious ACM and IEEE journals and conferences. Her most recent honors
include the NCWIT 2021 Mentoring Award for Undergraduate Research (MAUR), the
UCF Research Incentive Award, and the UCF Women of Distinction Award. Since
2019, she serves as the N2Women Board Co-Chair where she co-leads the
activities of the N2Women Board in supporting female researchers in the
fields of networking and communications. She is an IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer,
IEEE Senior Member, and the Chair-Elect of the IEEE Technical Committee on
Computer Communications (TCCC).
Presented by: IEEE Communications Society
Chapters
November
16, 2021
Ocean Oscillations, Blocking High Pressure Systems and Downslope Winds:
Explaining the California Drought/Fire Cycle
7:00 PM PST
Online
Speaker: Roy Clark
Register at
www.ieee-bv.org/meet/2021-11-cycle
Overview
California
weather conditions have always alternated between flood and drought. Most of
the rainfall comes from winter storms that form in the Gulf of Alaska and
move south along the coast. Under the right conditions, so called
atmospheric rivers form and substantial additional rainfall is produced as
a relatively narrow band of moist air flows in from the Pacific Ocean. The
source of the water is of course evaporation from the ocean surface. This
depends on the wind speed and the ocean surface temperature. There is no
requirement for an exact energy balance at the ocean surface between the
solar heating and the wind driven cooling. This leads to the formation of
natural ocean oscillations that produce quasi-periodic changes in ocean
temperature. In the Pacific Ocean there are two main oscillations. There is
the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the central equatorial Pacific
Ocean with a period in the 3-to-7-year range and the Pacific Decadal
Oscillation (PDO) in the N. Pacific Ocean with periods in the 10 to 25 and
50-to-70-year range. The PDO influences the ocean surface temperature in the
Gulf of Alaska which determines the amount of moisture that can be carried
south by the winter storms. The ENSO influences the temperatures in the
equatorial Pacific Ocean that determine the location and magnitude of the
atmospheric rivers. The detailed ocean weather interactions are complex.
In
addition, in S. California there is a natural transition between on-shore and
off-shore flow. On shore flow is associated with cooler ocean temperatures
and higher humidity. Offshore flow is associated with higher temperatures and
lower humidity. This is usually associated with a high-pressure dome inland.
There is a natural down flow of dry air at the center of the high-pressure
dome that is heated by compression. In addition, as air flows from the inland
desert plateau to the coast it is heated as it descends to lower altitudes.
This produces the dry, hot, downslope winds known in California as Santa Ana
or diablo winds. These conditions lead to rapid drying of the vegetation and
a high fire risk.
Over
the past 100 years or so, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 has
increased by approximately 120 parts per million (ppm) from 280 to 400 ppm.
The current annual average rate of increase in the CO2
concentration is near 2.4 ppm per year. Radiative transfer calculations show
that the 120 ppm increase in CO2 has produced an increase in the
downward long wave infrared (LWIR) flux from the lower troposphere to the
surface of approximately 2 W m-2. The current rate of increase in
the LWIR flux is near 0.034 W m-2 per year. These changes in flux are
too small to have any effect on ocean oscillations, high pressure dome
formation or downslope winds. There has been no significant change in S.
California rainfall levels over the last 100 years. Tree ring analysis shows
that California has seen both wetter and drier periods over the last 1200
years. California will continue to see floods, droughts and fires. Short term
variations should not be used to predict long term trends.
About the
Speaker
Roy Clark received his MA in chemistry
from Oxford University and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Sussex
University (UK; 1976). He has over 40 years of experience in new product and
process development with emphasis on optical and spectroscopic measurements
in adverse environments. He has integrated complex optical diagnostic systems
into high energy laser and hypersonic combustion test facilities. His
spectroscopic experience extends from 200 nm to 200 cm-1 including work with
circular and linearly polarized light. One of his technical interests is
time-based metrology using optical sensors, such as the use of thermographic
phosphor fluorescence decay time to measure temperature. He has worked at
large and small companies in S. California including Rockwell, Boeing,
Physical Optics Corporation, and Hughey and Phillips. He has also provided
consulting services for optical systems development. He has 13 technical and
scientific publications and 8 US Patents. Roy has been an IEEE member for 14
years.
Roy
began his own research on climate change in 2007. His particular interest is
the determination of the surface temperature from first principles using the
time dependent flux terms. He has published several technical articles in
this area and wrote the book The Dynamic Greenhouse Effect.
This
event is made possible through the support of the IEEE Foundation and its grant to
the Buenaventura Section program, Engineering Resilience to Wildfires and
Drought.
Presented by: IEEE Buenaventura
Sustainable Engineering Program
Flyer (PDF)
Volunteers
Needed: FIRST Lego League Robotics Tournament
Once
again IEEE Buenaventura Section is supporting middle school robotics by
hosting/sponsoring the annual FIRST Lego League Robotics Tournament on Sunday, November 21. There will be 24
teams of young robot enthusiasts that will compete for a chance to go to the
regional tournament. The IEEE has been generous in its support over many
years both financially and in providing volunteers. It is a lot of fun and
you will be greatly impressed with what these young people accomplish and
their enthusiasm.
If
you are available to volunteer from 8 AM
4 PM we can definitely use you in a variety of rolls from
assisting judges, monitoring the games, and other jobs. If you cannot help on
Sunday we will also need some volunteers on Saturday,
November 20 from 3 PM 6 PM to help set up the school.
Please email Bob Rumer <bobrumer@verizon.net> to volunteer
or ask questions. Feel free to pass this on to anyone you
think might enjoy volunteering.
Funding
is made possible in part from donors to the IEEE Foundation.
Webinar
Series from IEEE
IEEE AESS Distinguished
Lecturer Series IEEE
Aerospace & Electronic Systems Society
This initiative allows AESS to continue providing members with the
respected and reputable Distinguished Lecturer program.
November 11: Alfonso Farina: Green Radar: A Review and
Perspectives for Signal and Data Processing of Passive Coherent Location
Radar (PCLR)
November 15: Roberto Sabatini: The Future of Air and Space
Transport Towards Multi-Domain Traffic Management
IEEE
CS Distinguished Lecturer Series IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Computer Society free interactive webinars through its
Distinguished Visitors Program.
November 2: Thomas Misa: Moores Law 1965 2016
November 3: Janet Abbate: Five Historical Lessons About Gender
in Computing
November 4: Latifur Khan: Big Stream Data Analytics and
Applications
November 5: Samvel Shoukourian: Armenia: Echoing to World
Community and Building a New Heritage in Computer Science and Engineering
November 11: Jon Peddie: Mesh Shaders and the History of
Computer Graphics
November 12: Salil Kanhere: Transparent, Trustworthy and
Privacy-Preserving Supply Chain
IEEE CS
Build Your Career Webinar Series IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Computer Society free interactive webinars on transferable
business skills.
November 18: Elsa Valesco Paul: Persuasive Conversations: Why
Low Impact Words Dont Work
IEEE
Innovations at Work IEEE
Educational Activities
Engage with industry experts and innovators on the latest advancements in
technology and engineering, STEM education, and more.
November 9: Clean Energy Decarbonization Science, Targets,
Policies, and Technologies
November 11: Academic Job Hunting Pathways to Secure a Faculty
Position
November 16: The Benefits of Digital Transformation for
Organizations
IEEE-USA Career Webinars
IEEE-USA
IEEE-USAs vision is to serve the U.S. IEEE member by being the
technical professional's best resource for achieving lifelong career vitality
and by providing an effective voice on policies that promote U.S. prosperity.
November 3: EVO 2.0: Bringing
thought leaders directly to career-minded professionals, recent grads and
college students
November 10: The Unorthodox Manager
November 17: Thinking for Engineers - How to Boost Your
Creativity
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