All Seminars
| Title: Towards Accessible IR: Helping children search the Web |
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| Seminar: Computer Science |
| Speaker: Pavel Serdyukov of Delft University of Technology |
| Contact: Eugene Agichtein, eugene@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-23 at 3:00PM |
| Venue: MSC W301 |
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| Abstract: Developing children's abilities to find and understand information is a key to their development as young adults. The Internet offers children exciting new ways to meet people, learn about different cultures and develop their creative potential. However, children's ability to use the Internet is severely hampered by the lack of appropriate search tools. Most Information Retrieval (IR) systems are designed for adults: they return information in a form that is unsuitable for children and they do not provide enough assistance to make the search for appropriate content rewarding and fun. The talk will present the state-of-the-art and recent research on children’s search behavior and describe problems and challenges that lie ahead, with regard to adapting current IR systems for children. It will also give an overview of the current studies being conducted in the scope of the EU-funded research project “PuppyIR”: on finding web-content appropriate for children, on analyzing query logs to understand children’s information needs and on providing query assistance functionality. \\ Pavel Serdyukov is a researcher at the Multimedia Information Retrieval Lab, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Twente University in 2009. His research interests include expert/entity search in enterprises, accessible search, geographical multimedia search and search in social media. He is currently leading a research effort aimed at studying how to modify traditional views on relevance ranking to satisfy children's information needs on the Web. He is also a co-organizer of the Entity track at TREC 2010 and SIGIR 2010 Workshop on Accessible Search Systems. More information and publication record can be found at http://dmirlab.tudelft.nl/users/pavel-serdyukov. |
| Title: Levels and sublevels of rings |
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| Colloquium: N/A |
| Speaker: Detlev Hoffmann of University of Nottingham |
| Contact: Skip Garibaldi, skip@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-23 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: MSC W303 |
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| Abstract: The level (resp.\ sublevel) of a ring is the smallest number $n$ such that $-1$ (resp.\ $0$) can be written as a sum of $n$ (resp.\ $n+1$) nonzero squares in the ring if such an $n$ exists, otherwise it is defined to be infinity. A famous result by Pfister from the 1960s states that the level of a field, if finite, is always a $2$-power, and each $2$-power can in fact be realized as the level of a suitable field. This answered a question posed by van der Waerden in the 1930s. In the case of fields, level and sublevel coincide, but this need not be true for other types of rings. We will give a survey of various known results about levels and sublevels of rings and mention some open problems. |
| Title: Edge Partitions of Graphs by Trees |
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| Seminar: Combinatorics |
| Speaker: Grant Zhang of University of Alabama Huntsville |
| Contact: Ron Gould, rg@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-23 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: W302 |
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| Abstract: Let tp(G) denote the minimum number of subsets into which the edge set of a graph G can be partitioned so that each subset induces a tree. For a connected graph G of order n, it is known that tp(G) <= (n+1)/2. The clique number of a graph G is the maximum t such that G contains a complete subgraph of order t. In this talk we consider the problem of determining tp(G) for a connected graph G of order n and clique number t. |
| Title: Simulating a Pipelined CPU |
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| Undergraduate Honors Thesis Defense: N/A |
| Speaker: Aaron Bush of Emory University |
| Contact: Shun Yan Cheung, |
| Date: 2010-04-21 at 3:00PM |
| Venue: MSC W303 |
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| Abstract: The CS355 course in Computer Architecture teaches both entry-level and advanced pipelined CPU technology. For most of the computer components discussed in lectures, the course uses a circuit simulation program that allows students to gain an interactive experience with basic computer technology. However, the course has always lacked a simulation program for the pipelined CPU. Due to the complex nature of pipelining and the success with using the simulation software for other circuits, we have developed two versions of the pipelined CPU using the simulation program. By offering students a hands-on understanding of instruction pipelining, our simulated processors will greatly enhance the course. |
| Title: Algebraic Integral Geometry |
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| Seminar: Analysis and Differential Geometry |
| Speaker: Professor Joseph Fu of University of Georgia |
| Contact: Vladimir Oliker, oliker@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-20 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: MSC W301 |
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| Abstract: A recently developed theoretical framework, due largely to S. Alesker, A. Bernig and the speaker, reduces many problems of classical integral geometry to algebra. In some cases the algebraic problems are then easy to solve, and in others they are not. I will describe the reduction in general terms and illustrate how it gives concrete information in a few examples. I will also state a mysterious conjecture that is completely algebraic in nature but represents the key to understanding the integral geometry of complex projective space and complex hyperbolic space. |
| Title: On generalized Folkman numbers |
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| Seminar: Combinatorics |
| Speaker: Andrzej Dudek of Carnegie Mellon University |
| Contact: Vojtech Rodl, rodl@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-16 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: MSC W301 |
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| Abstract: Extending the previous results on Folkman numbers for cliques we are interested in the following generalization. For a given graph G and a number of colors r let F(G,r) be the order of the smallest graph H such that the clique number of H equals the clique number of G and any r-coloring of the vertices of H yields a monochromatic and induced copy of G. In this talk we give a relatively small upper bound on F(G,r) as a function of the order of G and its clique number. |
| Title: Experimental Design for Medical Applications |
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| Seminar: Computational Mathematics |
| Speaker: Matthias Conrad of Emory University |
| Contact: Pascal Philipp, pphilipp@emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-14 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: MSC W201 |
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| Abstract: Many problems in medicine are governed by a models with unknown parameters. To have a meaningful representation of the model, these parameters need to be evaluated from observations. Experimentalists face the dilemma between accuracy of the parameters and costs of an experiment. The choice of the design of an experiment is important if we are to recover precise model parameters. It is important to know when and what kind of observations should be taken. Taking the wrong measurement can lead to inaccurate estimation of parameters, thus resulting in inaccurate representations of the dynamical system. Each experiment has its own specific challenges. However, optimization methods form the basic computational tool to address eminent questions of optimal experimental design. We present a methodology for the design of such experiments that can optimally recover parameters in a dynamical system, biomedical systems in particular. We show that the problem can be cast as a stochastic bilevel optimization problem. We then develop an effective algorithm that allows for the solution of the design problem. The advantages of our approach are demonstrated on a few basic biological models as well as a design problem for the energy metabolism to estimate insulin resistance. |
| Title: Understanding and Supporting People in Dynamic Information Environments |
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| Seminar: Computer Science |
| Speaker: Sue Dumais of |
| Contact: Eugene Agichtein, eugene@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-14 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: 290 PAIS |
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| Abstract: The Web is a dynamic, ever-changing collection of information, yet most of the tools that we have for interacting with Web content, such as browsers and search engines, focus on a single snapshot of the information. In this talk, I will present descriptive analyses of how web content changes over time, how people re-visit web pages over time, and how re-visitation patterns are influenced by user intent and changes in content. These results have implications for browser and site design, search algorithms, and crawling. I will describe a new prototype that supports people in understanding how information they interact with changes over time, by highlighting how a Web page has changed since your last visit. Finally, I will describe a new retrieval model that represents and use features about the temporal evolution of web pages to improve ranking and inform crawl policy. Susan Dumais is a Principal Researcher and manager of the Context, Learning and User Experience for Search (CLUES) Group at Microsoft Research. She has been at Microsoft Research since 1997 and has published widely in the areas of human-computer interaction and information retrieval. Her current research focuses on personal information management, user modeling and personalization, novel interfaces for interactive retrieval, and implicit measures of user interest and activity. She has worked closely with several Microsoft groups (Bing, Windows Desktop Search, Live Search, SharePoint Portal Server, and Office Online Help) on search-related innovations. Prior to joining Microsoft Research, she was at Bellcore and Bell Labs for many years, where she worked on Latent Semantic Indexing (a statistical method for concept-based retrieval), combining search and navigation, individual differences, and organizational impacts of new technology. |
| Title: Reality-Based Interaction and Next Generation User Interfaces |
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| Seminar: Computer Science |
| Speaker: Robert J.K. Jacob of Department of Computer Science, Tufts University |
| Contact: Eugene Agichtein, eugene@mathcs.emory.edu |
| Date: 2010-04-12 at 3:30PM |
| Venue: MSC W201 |
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| Abstract: I will describe the notion of Reality-Based Interaction (RBI) as a unifying concept that ties together a large subset of the emerging generation of new, non-WIMP user interfaces. It attempts to connect current paths of research in HCI and to provide a framework that can be used to understand, compare, and relate these new developments. Viewing them through the lens of RBI can provide insights for designers and allow us to find gaps or opportunities for future development. I will then discuss work in my research group on a variety of next generation interfaces, such as brain-computer interfaces, tangible interfaces, and eye movement-based interaction techniques, along with some of the software issues they raise and our work on developing new software models and abstractions for non-WIMP interfaces. Robert Jacob is a Professor of Computer Science at Tufts University, where his research interests are new interaction media and techniques and user interface software. He was also a visiting professor at the Universite Paris-Sud and at the MIT Media Laboratory, in the Tangible Media Group. Before coming to Tufts, he was in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the Naval Research Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and he is a member of the editorial board of Human-Computer Interaction and the ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. He was Papers Co-Chair of the CHI 2001 conference, Co-Chair of UIST 2007, and Vice-President of ACM SIGCHI. He was elected to the ACM CHI Academy in 2007, an honorary group of people who have made extensive contributions to the study of HCI and have shaped the field. |
| Title: Some Quotients of the Boolean Lattice are Symmetric Chain Orders |
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| Undergraduate Honors Thesis Defense: N/A |
| Speaker: Jeremy McKibben-Sanders of Emory University |
| Contact: Dwight Duffus, |
| Date: 2010-04-12 at 4:00PM |
| Venue: W302 |
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| Abstract: |