EE Graduate Seminar

From Backpack to Briefcase: Transition from
the Academic World to Corporate Culture

George W. Reynolds
Director, Industry and University Initiatives
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems

11:30-12:45pm Friday 16 March 2012, ITE 237

This seminar explores the pitfalls that new hires can encounter as they transition to the corporate world from academia. We explore the personal characteristics that people will evaluate, over and above performance. We will learn the importance of having appropriate, unbiased mentors and how to choose them, as well as strategies to develop key relationships that add value to our career growth and non-technical education. The importance of image and appropriate wardrobe for success will be addressed in addition to what top executives look for when selecting staff with leadership potential.

George Reynolds is a licensed professional engineer with over forty years of experience with the Westinghouse Electric and Northrop Grumman Corporations. His current responsibilities include establishing key strategic relationships with selected universities for long-term research, business and recruitment partnerships. He is also responsible for sector wide initiatives that include knowledge management and introducing lean thinking into engineering and manufacturing organizations.

Mr. Reynolds has served as industry liaison for the Lean Aerospace/ Advancement initiatives at MIT since its inception in 1992. He also serves as the chairman and/or member of numerous engineering Advisory Boards for major universities, and is the past Chairman of the Aerospace Industries Associations Engineering Management Committee. Mr. Reynolds was selected as National Black Engineer of the Year for Professional Achievement in Industry in 1991, and Black Engineer of the Year for Corporate Support of Engineering Education in 2008. He is one of three people in the nation to receive two of these awards. In 2001, he was awarded the Distinguished Black Marylander Award.

Mr. Reynolds holds a B.S. in Engineering from Howard University, an M.S. in Engineering Administration from George Washington University, and is a graduate of the Program for Management Development at Harvard School of Business. He is also a Johns Hopkins Fellow in the Management of Change. He holds a black belt in Six Sigma and is an expert in Lean Thinking. Mr. Reynolds holds a commercial pilots license with multi-engine and jet ratings.

Host: Prof. Joel M. Morris

• American Red Cross, National Headquarters -- 2012 Summer Internship Opportunities -- i.d. 9250181
• Maryland Clean Energy Center -- Administrative Support -- i.d. 9250278
• The Forum Caterers -- Banquet Supervisor -- i.d. 9250171
• On Assignment Lab Support -- Safety Coordinator -- i.d. 9250258
• Fastenal Company -- Sales Support -- i.d. 9250193
• Black Rocket Productions -- Video Game Design: Instructors/Assistant Instructors -- i.d. 9250251
• Maryland Clean Energy Center -- Website Management -- i.d. 9250280

• UMBC Office of Student Judicial Programs -- UMBC Student Parking Appeals Board -- i.d. 9250267

Cyber-Physical Social Systems: Research Challenges

Ram D. Sriram
Chief, Software and Systems Division
Information Technology Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology

1:00pm 6 April 2012, ITE325 UMBC

We are witnessing a new revolution in computing and communication. The Internet, which has spanned several networks in a wide variety of domains, is having a significant impact on every aspect of our lives. The next generation of networks will utilize a wide variety of resources with significant sensing capabilities. Such networks will extend beyond physically linked computers to include multimodal information from biological, cognitive, semantic, and social networks. This paradigm shift will involve symbiotic networks of people (social networks), intelligent devices, and mobile personal computing and communication devices (mPCDs), that will form net-centric societies (NCS) or cyber-physical social systems (CPSS). mPCDs are already equipped with myriad sensors, with regular updates of additional sensing capabilities. Additionally, we are witnessing the emergence of “intelligent devices,” such as smart meters, smart cars, etc., with considerable sensing and networking capabilities. Hence, these devices – and the network — will be constantly sensing, monitoring, and interpreting the environment; this is sometimes referred to as the Internet of Things (IOT). The symbiosis of IOT and social networks will have significant implications for both the market for advanced computing and communication infrastructure and the future markets – for nearly 4.5 billion people — that CPSS will create. In this seminar, I will provide an overview of the Software and Systems Division at NIST, followed by a discussion of research challenges for CPSS with a specific focus on smart healthcare.

Dr. Ram D. Sriram is currently the chief of the Software and Systems Division, Information Technology Laboratory, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Before joining the Software and Systems Division, Sriram was the leader of the Design and Process group in the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division, Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, where he conducted research on standards for interoperability of computer-aided design systems. He was also the manager of the Sustainable Manufacturing Program. Prior to joining NIST, he was on the engineering faculty (1986-1994) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was instrumental in setting up the Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory. Sriram has co-authored or authored nearly 250 publications, including several books. Sriram was a founding co-editor of the International Journal for AI in Engineering. In 1989, he was awarded a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. In 2011, Sriram received the ASME Design Automation Award for his work on computer-supported collaborative design. Sriram is a Fellow of ASME and AAAS, a member (life) of ACM, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a member (life) of AAAI. Sriram has a B.Tech. from IIT, Madras, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

Host: Yelena Yesha

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense

Clustering and Visualization Techniques
for Aggregate Trajectory Analysis

David Trimm

1:00pm Thursday 15 March 15th 2012, ITE 365

Analyzing large trajectory sets enables deeper insights into multiple real-world problems. For example, animal migration data, multi-agent analysis, and virtual entertainment can all benefit from deriving conclusions from large sets of trajectory data. However, the analysis is complicated by several factors when using traditional analytic techniques. For example, directly visualizing the trajectory set results in a multitude of lines that cannot be easily understood. Statistical analysis methods and non-direct visualization techniques (e.g., parallel coordinates) produce conclusions that are non-intuitive and difficult to understand. By using two complementary processes—clustering and visualization—a new approach is developed to analyzing large trajectory sets. First, clustering techniques are developed and refined to group related trajectories together. From these similar sets, a trajectory composition visualization is created and implemented that clearly depicts the cluster characteristics including application-specific attributes. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated on two separate and unique data sets resulting in actionable conclusions. The first application, multi-agent analysis, represents a rich, spatial data that, when analyzed using this approach, shows ways to improve the underlying artificial intelligence algorithms. Student course-grade history analysis, the second application, requires tailoring the approach for a non-spatial data set. However, the results enable a clear understanding of which courses are most critical in a student's career and which student groups require assistance to succeed. In summary, this research contributes to methods for trajectory clustering, techniques for large-scale visualization of trajectory data, and processes for analyzing student data.

Committee

• Dr. Penny Rheingans (chair)
• Dr. Marie desJardins
• Dr. Anupam Joshi
• Dr. Marc Olano
• Dr. Sreedevi Sampath