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Department Events & Announcements

Events

• Apr

  29

  CS Colloquium - Qi Zhu - Beyond Functionality: Tackling Timing and Security Challenges in the Design of Intelligent Engineering Systems

  Department of Computer Science

  12:00 PM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  Abstract:
  Intelligent engineering systems, such as autonomous vehicles, industrial robots, smart buildings and infrastructures, wearable devices and medical systems, have shown great economic and societal promises in recent years. The rapid development of sensing, data processing and analysis, control and communication methods brings new intelligent functionality and propels system advancement. However, the design and implementation of these systems are facing tremendous challenges beyond the traditional scope of functionality, in particular on system timing and security. In many cases, violation of timing and security requirements may in fact lead to incorrect behavior and system failures.
  In this talk, I will discuss timing and security challenges in the design of intelligent engineering systems, with examples from automotive electronic systems and vehicular networks. I will introduce our work in tackling these challenges with design automation techniques, including 1) a timing-driven and contract-based software synthesis framework that automatically explores the large software design space and addresses timing-related metrics such as schedulability, security, performance, extensibility, reliability and fault tolerance; 2) a cross-layer modeling, simulation, synthesis and verification framework for connected vehicle applications; and 3) a new timing paradigm based on weakly-hard constraints for building adaptive and resilient systems.

  Bio:

  Qi Zhu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Northwestern University. He was an Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at the ECE Department in University of California, Riverside from 2011 to 2017, and a Research Scientist at the Strategic CAD Labs in Intel from 2008 to 2011. Dr. Zhu received a Ph.D. in EECS from University of California, Berkeley in 2008, and a B.E. in CS from Tsinghua University in 2003. His research interests include model-based design, synthesis and verification of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet of Things, CPS security, embedded and real-time systems, connected and autonomous vehicles, energy-efficient buildings and infrastructures, and system-on-chip design. He received best paper awards at DAC 2006, DAC 2007, ICCPS 2013, and ACM TODAES 2016. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2016, and the IEEE TCCPS Early-Career Award in 2017. Dr. Zhu is an Associate Editor for IEEE TCAD and IET CPS, and served as a Guest Editor for Proceedings of the IEEE and ACM TCPS. He is the Conference Chair of IEEE TCCPS, and has served on the technical program committee and as organizer for a number of conferences in design automation, embedded and real-time systems, and cyber-physical systems, including DAC, ICCAD, DATE, ASP-DAC, ICCPS, CODES+ISSS, RTSS, RTAS, ICESS, GLVLSI, SAC, SIES, MEMOCODE, SAMOS, FDL, etc. He received the ACM SIGDA Service Award in 2015

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  TIME Monday, April 29, 2019 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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  CONTACT Brianna Mello    brianna.mello@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science

• May

  29

  Bagel Thursday

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  9:00 AM 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)

  EVENT DETAILS

  TBA

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  TIME Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

  LOCATION 3514, Mudd Hall ( formerly Seeley G. Mudd Library)    map it

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• May

  29

  Computer Science End of Year Awards

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  2:30 PM Cohen Commons, Technological Institute

  EVENT DETAILS

  Dear CS Community,
  You're warmly invited to the Computer Science Award Celebration on Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Cohen Commons! Join us as we recognize the outstanding achievements and contributions of our CS community this year.

  Event Details:
  📅 Date: Thursday, May 29, 2025
  🕓 Time: 2:30-4PM
  📍 Location: Cohen Commons (Technological Institute)

  Light refreshments and cookies will be served, and all members of the CS department are welcome!

  Please RSVP by May 23rd so we can plan accordingly: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/2ba023053257473387bc29200e2587e7

  Register Now

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  TIME Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

  LOCATION Cohen Commons, Technological Institute    map it

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• Jun

  4

  CS Seminar: Reusing Deep Learning Models: Challenges and Directions in Software Engineering: An Update (George K. Thiruvathukal)

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  12:00 PM

  EVENT DETAILS

  Wednesday / CS Seminar
  June 4th / 12:00 PM
  Hybrid / Mudd 3514

  Speaker: George K. Thiruvathukal

  Talk Title: Reusing Deep Learning Models: Challenges and Directions in Software Engineering: An Update

  Abstract: Deep neural networks (DNNs) achieve state-of-the-art performance in many areas, including computer vision, system configuration, and question-answering. However, DNNs are expensive to develop, both in intellectual effort (e.g., devising new architectures) and computational costs (e.g., training). Re-using DNNs is a promising direction to amortize costs within a company and across the computing industry. As with any new technology, however, there are many challenges in re-using DNNs. These challenges include both missing technical capabilities and missing engineering practices. We discusschallenges in current approaches to DNN re-use. We summarize studies of re-use failures across the spectrum of re-use techniques, including conceptual (e.g., re-using based on a research paper), adaptation (e.g., re-using by building on an existing implementation), and deployment (e.g., direct re-use on a new device). We outline possible advances that would improve each kind of re-use.

  In this update of my invited presentation at IEEE Services 2023 at the John Vincent Atanasoff Sypmposium on Modern Computing, I will include information about our work in progress on the use of Deep Learning and Pre-Trained Models (PTMs) in science and engineering applications and our efforts to conduct automated longitudinal analysis of same.

  Biography: https://gkt.sh/about/

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  TIME Wednesday, June 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• Jun

  5

  Final Project Demos- Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing Class

  Department of Computer Science (CS)

  9:30 AM

  EVENT DETAILS

  Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing has been working on some awesome projects this quarter, ranging from sensing plants to UV glasses that help you understand your screen time. We would love to invite everyone in the CS department to our poster and demo presentations.

  Where: Mudd 3rd floor Lobby (right in front of the elevator)
  When: June 5th, 9:30-10:50 am
  
  Here are the mid-term evaluation videos
  Harmful Wavelength Detection Glasses
  (really funny and fun to watch) Battery-Free Photosynthesis Sensors for Scalable, Real Time Plant Metabolism Sensing
  Biodegradable repackaging of Chips
  Brace yourself : Smart Knee Health Monitoring System
  From Textile to Motion: Electrohydraulic Actuators with Knitted Electrodes for Everyday Applications
  Adaptive Lighting Growth Environment for Plants

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  TIME Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM

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  CONTACT Wynante R Charles    wynante.charles@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR Department of Computer Science (CS)

• Jun

  15

  2024-2025 Commencement Ceremony

  University Academic Calendar

  All Day

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  2024-2025 Commencement Ceremony

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  TIME Sunday, June 15, 2025

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  CONTACT Office of the Registrar    nu-registrar@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR University Academic Calendar

• Jun

  16

  Northwestern Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  9:00 AM 2705 Ashland Ave

  EVENT DETAILS

  McCormick School of Engineering PhD Hooding and Master's Degree Recognition Ceremony. The most up to date information can be found on our graduation webpage.

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  TIME Monday, June 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

  LOCATION 2705 Ashland Ave   

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  CONTACT Northwestern Engineering Events    northwestern-engineering-events@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Jun

  16

  Northwestern Engineering Undergraduate Convocation

  McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

  2:00 PM 2705 Ashland Ave

  EVENT DETAILSmore info

  McCormick School of Engineering Undergraduate Convocation. The most up to date information can be found on our graduation webpage.

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  TIME Monday, June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

  LOCATION 2705 Ashland Ave   

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  CONTACT Northwestern Engineering Events    northwestern-engineering-events@northwestern.edu EMAIL

  CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science