USC WiSE, Women in Science and Engineering

Our first alumna talk this semester is with Angelica Cobo, Ph.D. on Monday, October 28 from 2 - 3pm PT on Zoom!

This event is open to the USC community. To register for this webinar, visit tinyurl.com/WiSEAngelicaC

🎤 Talk - Beyond Graduation: Advancing in The Medical Device Industry

About Angelica:

Angelica Cobo has over 11 years of experience as a project lead, Research & Development engineer, and researcher in the Medical Device Industry/Academia-. She has a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD in Biomedical Engineering. During her PhD, she focused on the development of implantable medical devices using Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technologies.

Previously, Angelica worked at Johnson & Johnson as a Senior R&D Engineer and now, she works at Medtronic as a Business Process Program Manager. Angelica was born and raised in Cali, Colombia and now lives in Miami, FL where she loves spending time with her family. She also enjoys traveling, hosting her friends at home, and is a foodie.

14 days left until our WiSE Undergraduate Summer Research Mini Symposium begins! Let’s take a moment to meet some of the brilliant minds behind this summer’s latest research 💫 🔬

First up, say hello to Anusha Deshpande!

Explore more of Anusha’s research at our Mini Symposium on September 5th from 2:00 - 4:30 PM in EEB 248! Don’t miss out—register now at tinyurl.com/wiseminisymposium2024

Save the Date! 📅✨ Join us for the WiSE Undergraduate Summer Research Mini Symposium on September 5th from 2:00 - 4:30 pm PT in EEB 248!

Discover the latest research from our brilliant WiSE researchers and register now at tinyurl.com/wiseminisymposium2024

Stay tuned for talk titles and abstracts. This event is open to all USC students, staff, and faculty!

Last STEM Bytes of the summer! Join us for the final seminar on Monday, July 29, from 9-10 am PT via Zoom.

To register, visit tinyurl.com/STEMBytes7-29

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗷 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗺𝗶
🎤 Talk: Exploring General Purpose LLM Limitations in Performing Professional Tasks

This exploration will discuss why general-purpose large language models (LLMs) cannot independently perform professional tasks, focusing on their limitations in handling complex, context-sensitive tasks, the constraints of their training data, and the ethical challenges they face in professional environments.

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗮
🎤 Talk: Navigating Safe Campus Operations during Epidemics with Reinforcement Learning

SafeCampus incorporates a custom RL environment, leveraging a stochastic epidemic model, to realistically represent university campus dynamics during epidemics. Our results also illustrates the inherent trade-off in characterized by the dilemma between stricter measures, which may effectively reduce infections but impose less educational benefit (more in-person interactions), and more lenient policies, which could lead to higher infection rates.

𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨.

Our next seminar for STEM Bytes is on Monday, July 15 from 9 - 10am on Zoom!

To register, visit tinyurl.com/STEMBytes7-15

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗤𝗶𝗻𝘆𝘂𝗮𝗻 𝗬𝗲
🎤 Talk: Cross-Task Generalization Abilities of Large Language Models

Humans can learn a new language task efficiently with only few examples, by leveraging their knowledge and experience obtained when learning prior tasks. In this talk, I will present my work on (1) benchmarking cross-task generalization abilities with diverse NLP tasks; (2) developing model architectures for improving cross-task generalization abilities; (3) analyzing and predicting the generalization landscape of current state-of-the-art large language models.

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀
🎤 Talk: Privacy in the Era of Large Language Models

In this talk, I will motivate why privacy is needed for large language models, then I will discuss the challenges of providing privacy, the existing solutions, and future directions.

𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨.

Start July off with our next talk on Monday, July 1 from 9 - 10 am PT on Zoom!

To register, visit tinyurl.com/STEMBytes7-1
𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗘𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗻 𝗬𝗮𝗴𝗶𝘇, 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴

🎤 Talk: Heart in Motion: Real-time Cardiac MRI at 0.55T

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗿𝘂𝗺, 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴

🎤 Talk: Modeling the Cue Signal Response Competition in Tumor Cells

Our Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is in full swing!

Special thanks to Cari Kaurloto, Acting Head at the Science & Engineering Library for being a stellar host and guiding our WiSE researchers to become experts at accessing and editing Wikipedia articles 👩‍💻

✨Meet our 2024 - 2025 WiSE Researchers✨

We have an exciting summer planned as we support our students in gaining first-hand laboratory research experience, which they will proudly present at our WiSE Undergraduate Summer Research Mini Symposium coming this fall! 🧬🔬👩‍🔬

To kick off Summer 2024 STEM Bytes Seminar series, our first talk is on Monday, June 17 from 9 - 10 am PT on Zoom!

To register, visit tinyurl.com/STEMBytes6-17

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗼-𝗛𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻, 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

🎤 Talk: Flex Distribution for Bounded-Suboptimal Multi-Agent Path Finding

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗪𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆

🎤 Talk: Serotonin Deficiency from Constitutive SKN-1 Activation Drives Pathogen Apathy

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨.

This month, we are excited to announce the start of our Summer 2024 STEM Bytes Seminar series! Join us on Zoom from 9 – 10 am to hear from our lineup of speakers 🙌

All seminar dates are open for registration. To register your attendance, visit linktr.ee/uscwise

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐌 𝐁𝐲𝐭𝐞𝐬
The USC WiSE program hosts a series of seminars aimed at undergraduate students titled STEM Bytes. The goal of the series is to introduce students to research opportunities in science and engineering at USC, while giving PhD students and postdocs an outlet to present their research in a fun and casual space. Undergraduate and graduate students in various disciplines attend the seminars. This invitation is open to the USC community.

For our final STEM Bytes seminar of the semester, we have a talk coming up on Tuesday, April 23 from 10 - 10:30 am on Zoom!

To register, visit tinyurl.com/StemBytes4-23

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: 𝐄𝐥𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧

🎤 Talk: Transmission biases are key cognitive features that are used by humans and non-human primates in decision making contexts. They allow individuals to decide when to copy behaviors and from whom they should copy. Despite their importance in social learning and by extension the maintenance of culture, these biases have been understudied in our closest relatives, chimpanzees. I will discuss the current state of research and talk about my own research which explores the simultaneous use of rank and payoff bias in foraging decisions in chimpanzees.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.

Up next on STEM Bytes are two exciting seminars on Friday, April 12 from 12 - 1pm on Zoom! To register, bit.ly/STEMBytes4-12

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐠

🎤 Talk: Inferring Ecological Processes from Biodiversity Data Using Bayesian Inference Methods

Metacommunity ecology integrates local and regional dynamics to understand how processes across scales shape community assembly within broader ecological frameworks. However, interpreting metacommunity processes accurately and efficiently from spatiotemporal biodiversity data remains challenging because metacommunity models have many free parameters. One potential solution to this challenge is to use Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). Due to its computational intensity and implementation challenges, the empirical application of ABC on biodiversity data is seldom demonstrated. In my study, I leverage ABC and Random Forests, two statistical techniques that complement each other regarding accuracy and scalability, to demonstrate how one can estimate parameters involved in metacommunity processes from time series data.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: 𝐇𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠

🎤 Talk: ManiFPT: On Defining and Analyzing Fingerprints of Generative Models

Recent works have shown that generative models leave traces of their underlying generative process on the generated samples, broadly referred to as fingerprints of a generative model, and have studied their utility in detecting synthetic images from real ones. However, the extend to which these fingerprints can distinguish between various types of synthetic image and help identify the underlying generative process remain under-explored. In particular, the very definition of a fingerprint remains unclear, to our knowledge. To that end, in this work, we formalize the definition of artifact and fingerprint in generative models, propose an algorithm for computing them in practice, and finally study its effectiveness in distinguishing a large array of different generative models.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

Join USC Women in Science and Engineering Program (WiSE) and Women in Engineering (WIE) for a special workshop led by Mrinalini Lakshminarayanan, Head of Product Strategy and Innovation at Verizon!

𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 - 𝗔𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿

𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Friday, April 19
𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘: 1 - 4pm
𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡: Denney Research Center (DRB), Room 232.

All students are welcome! To RSVP, visit https://forms.gle/Hqb2k49wqNm19bnB8

Happy Friday Trojans🙌

Remember to RSVP and join us at our Presidential Distinguished Lecture featuring the Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering at Brown University, Tejal Desai!

Link: http://USC.EDU/ESVP (code: wiselecture)

Our next STEM Bytes seminar is coming up on Friday, March 29 from 12 - 1pm PT on Zoom! To register, visit tinyurl.com/StemBytes3-29

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐲 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐫

🎤 Talk: ChatGPT, Are You Problematic?: Measuring and Mitigating Social Bias in Large Language Models

This talk will discuss how to define, measure, and mitigate social biases in AI systems like large language models, with a particular focus on homophobic and transphobic biases. We will focus on WinoQueer, a benchmark specifically designed to measure whether large language models (LLMs) encode biases that are harmful to the LGBTQ+ community. The benchmark was applied to several popular LLMs and find that off-the-shelf models generally do exhibit considerable anti-queer bias. Results show that LLM bias against a marginalized community can be somewhat mitigated by finetuning on data written about or by members of that community, and that social media text written by community members is more effective than news text written about the community by non-members. This method for community-in-the-loop benchmark development provides a blueprint for future researchers to develop community-driven, harms-grounded LLM benchmarks for other marginalized communities.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: 𝐉𝐢𝐚𝐪𝐢 𝐋𝐢𝐮

🎤 Talk: On Self-Similar Converging Shock Waves

The Guderley problem is a well-known hydrodynamic problem of a strong shock propagating radially in an ideal gas medium. The shock originates at infinity and collapses to a central point or an axis, where it is reflected and diverges toward infinity. In this talk, I will discuss the recent work on the rigorous proof of the construction of the Guderley solution. As a result, its solution is given in terms of similarity profiles as the Euler equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The proof is based on continuity arguments, nonlinear invariances, and barrier functions.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

Happy International Women's Day! 🎉

Today, we celebrate the brilliant minds, unmatched strength, and unwavering courage of women as proudly highlight the extraordinary achievements of our community over the years!

USC Women in Science and Engineering Program (WiSE) presents...

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

Featuring the Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering at Brown University, Tejal Desai, PhD.

𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Thursday, March 21
𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘: 5 pm PT
𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡: Vineyard Room (located on the first floor of the Davidson Conference Center, DCC)

A reception will take place on the USC Vineyard Room Patio at 4:00pm.

To RSVP, visit WWW.USC.EDU/ESVP or click the link in our bio! (code: wiselecture).

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

Next month's STEM Bytes Seminar will be on Tuesday, March 5 from 10:00 - 10:30 am PT on Zoom!

To register for this seminar, please visit: tinyurl.com/STEM-Bytes3-5

Speaker:

🎤 Thejani Gamage, PhD Student in Mathematics

PhD candidate in the Mathematics Department in Univ. Of Southern California. Research Focus is Financial Mathematics, in particular the optimization problems in Insurance Companies using concepts from Reinforcement Learning. Recipient of the Dornsife Gold Fellowship for Summer 2023. I like reading fictions and cooking dishes from around the world for fun.

Talk: Reinforcement Learning for Stochastic Control

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is one of the 3 pillars of machine learning, along with supervised and unsupervised Learning. RL can theoretically learn how to perform any task by learning via trial and error, essentially how any animal in the animal kingdom learns how to perform a task. Examples of use of RL include playing games (ex. AlphaGo), Robotics and automation, scheduling and optimization, trading, recommender systems etc. Though theoretically sounds limitless, RL is not without its limitations, which mainly include sample in-efficicincy, exploration and exploitation trade off and the sparse-reward problem. These problems and many useful applications of RL have made it one of the most active research topics both in academia and industry.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

𝘎𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘞𝘪𝘚𝘌 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?

Join us at our 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗻𝘇𝗮!

𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Friday, March 1
𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘: 11 am - 1 pm PT
𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡: Denney Research Center (DRB), Room 232

Undergraduate students are welcome to drop in anytime between 11:00 am – 1:00 pm and stay as long as they’d like for some delicious food, fun games and discover more about our WiSE Undergraduate Research Summer Program!

To RSVP, please visit at bit.ly/WiSEInfoExtravaganza

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨

𝗪𝗶𝗦𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝗡𝗢𝗪

𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: April 1

𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: A $3,000 grant the semester in which research is conducted, $500 during each of the Fall and Spring Semesters for participation in the WiSE Research Programming Series, and $500 in advisor support.

𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Submit online application.

For Dornsife and Viterbi application guidelines, visit https://wise.usc.edu/programs/grants-and-awards/undergraduate-students/undergraduate-research-experience/wise-researchers/

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𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙒𝙞𝙎𝙀 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨

The goal of this program is to provide upper level undergraduate students with first-hand experience in laboratory based research, and to thereby encourage promising students to pursue graduate studies in the sciences and/or engineering. Upperclassmen who have an established working relationship with a faculty mentor submit a research project proposal. If awarded, they commit to participating in WiSE programming efforts throughout the academic year and receive a substantial grant to conduct research. For most students this research will be conducted during the summer months.

The next alumna talk we have coming up is on Wednesday, February 21st from 12:00 - 1:00 pm PT on Zoom!

To register for this webinar, visit tinyurl.com/WiSEAllysonM

🎤 Talk: Water and Processes: My Path (So Far) Through Academia

About Allyson:

Allyson L. McGaughey is an Assistant Professor in the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on developing and leveraging mechanistic understanding of relationships between materials fabrication, properties, and performance in separations processes for water reuse, resource recovery, and environmental remediation. Prior to joining UNM, she was a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, working with Professors Rodney D. Priestley and Z. Jason Ren. She received her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington and her master’s and doctoral degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern California, where she worked with Professor Amy E. Childress. During her time at USC, she was selected for several awards, including the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Jenny Wang Excellence in Teaching Award, the USC CEE Best Dissertation Award in environmental engineering, the USC WiSE Merit Award, the USC CEE Outstanding Teaching Assistant and Outstanding Research Assistant awards, and the American Membrane Technology Association and Affordable Desalination Coalition Fellowship.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

Join us for our upcoming STEM Bytes Seminar on Tuesday, February 6 from 9:30 – 10:00 am PT on Zoom!

To register for this seminar, please visit: tinyurl.com/STEM-Bytes2-6
Speaker:

🎤 Nathan Dennler, PhD Student in Computer Science

Nathan is a 5th year Ph.D. Student in the Computer Science department at USC, advised by Stefanos Nikolaidis and Maja Mataric. They focus on designing systems and algorithms that can allow robots to adapt to their users. Apart from their research, Nathan is active in the whacking dance community in Los Angeles and likes sewing and figure skating.

Talk: Assessing Nonuse in Post-Stroke Individuals Using a Robot

An overreliance on the less-affected limb for functional tasks at the expense of the paretic limb and in spite of recovered capacity is an often-observed phenomenon in survivors of hemispheric stroke. The difference between capacity for use and actual spontaneous use is referred to as arm nonuse. Obtaining an ecologically valid evaluation of arm nonuse is challenging because it requires the observation of spontaneous arm choice for different tasks, which can easily be influenced by instructions, presumed expectations, and awareness that one is being tested. To better quantify arm nonuse, we developed the bimanual arm reaching test with a robot (BARTR) for quantitatively assessing arm nonuse in chronic stroke survivors. The BARTR is an instrument that uses a robot arm as a means of remote and unbiased data collection of nuanced spatial data for clinical evaluations of arm nonuse. This approach shows promise for determining the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce paretic arm nonuse and enhance functional recovery after stroke. We show that the BARTR satisfies the criteria of an appropriate metric for neurorehabilitative contexts: It is valid, reliable, and simple to use.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙎𝘾 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮

USC Women in Science and Engineering Program (WiSE) presents...

𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽

𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Thursday, February 8
𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘: 12- 1 pm PT
𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡: Denney Research Center (DRB), Room 232

Kara McCafferty is a director in the USC Office of Gift Planning. Kara works directly with donors to help educate and support them in achieving their philanthropic goals through planned giving opportunities. She previously worked at Ernst & Young LLP in Los Angeles on its private client services team, specializing in gift and estate tax, as well as tax planning. Kara grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Los Angeles in 2016. She received her undergraduate degree in accounting from Florida State University, her graduate degree in accounting from Miami University, and her law degree with tax concentration from St. Louis University.

Lunch provided. Please RSVP at https://forms.gle/xc8pNjrTN5dPbMTn6

The first alumna speaker for our WiSE Alumni Lecture Series this semester is Carolina Amador! Join us on Tuesday, January 23 from 12:00 - 1:00 pm PT on Zoom. To register for this webinar, visit bit.ly/WiSECarolinaA

This event is open to the entire USC community.

🎤 Talk: Career Talk - From Bench to Business

About Carolina:

Carolina is the Associate Director of Corporate Intelligence at BioMarin, focusing on neurological and metabolic disorders. Prior to BioMarin, Carolina spent nearly 5 years at Amgen as the Global & US Competitive Intelligence Lead for the General Medicine portfolio, with experience in CV, metabolic, bone health, neuroscience, nephrology, and inflammation. At her time at Amgen, Carolina also supported Strategic Special projects for Senior Leadership and conducted due diligence to assess digital health start-ups in support of Amgen’s VC arm. She holds a PhD in drug discovery and she is a big contributor to the Los Angeles biotech community through her contributions to the non-profits Biotech Connection LA and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Happy New Year Trojans 🎉

Kick off the new semester with us by joining our first STEM Bytes seminar of 2024 taking place on Tuesday, January 9 from 10:00 - 10:30 am via Zoom!

To register, visit http://tinyurl.com/STEM-Bytes-1-9 or click the link in our bio.

Speaker:

🎤 Kimberly Schoenberger, PhD Student in Marine and Environmental Biology
Talk: Exploring Insular Dwarfism: What Does the Island Fox Say?

Kimberly is a PhD student examining vertebrate evolution through morphology, genomics, and paleontological methods. Her current research with Suzanne Edmands at USC and Xiaoming Wang at the L.A. Natural History Museum seeks to explore the evolutionary history of the island fox and its relationship to the mainland grey fox using both fossil and modern samples. She is passionate about combining skills from her previous work as a video producer and undergraduate research in biological imaging at the University of Washington to effectively and creatively engage audiences with her research.