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  • Systematic Design of Analog Circuits Using Pre-Computed Lookup Tables

    BA1210, University of Toronto

    Friday February 26th, 2016 at 11:10 a.m. Dr. Boris Murmann, Associate Professor at Stanford University, will be presenting “Systematic Design of Analog Circuits Using Pre-Computed Lookup Tables”. Speaker: Dr. Boris Murmann Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University IEEE Fellow, and Program Vice-Chair at ISSCC 2016 Day & Time: Friday, February 26th, 2016 11:10 a.m. – 12:40 p.m. Location: BA1210, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, University of Toronto 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Dustin Dunwell Abstract: The majority of textbook material on analog circuit design is based on the square-law model for MOS transistors. While this model remains useful for teaching, it has become too inaccurate for design in nanoscale CMOS. In circuit simulators, this problem has been solved using complex models equations with hundreds of parameters. Since these descriptions are impractical for manual use, designers tend to shy away from hand-analysis-based optimization and resort to a design style built on iterative and time-consuming “tweaking” in a simulator. This tutorial presents a systematic design methodology that bridges the gap between simulation, hand analysis and script-based optimization. The approach hinges upon Spice-generated look-up tables containing the transistor’s equivalent model parameters (gm, gds, etc.) across a multi-dimensional sweep of the terminal voltages. We interpret and organize these data based on the transistor’s inversion level, employing gm/ID as a proxy and key parameter for design. This width-independent metric captures a device’s efficiency in translating bias current to transconductance and spans nearly the same range in all modern CMOS processes (~3…30 S/A). When combined with other width-independent figures of merit (gm/Cgg, gm/gds, etc.) thinking in terms of gm/ID (rather than gate overdrive) allows us to study the tradeoffs between bandwidth, noise, distortion and power dissipation in a normalized space. The final bias currents and device sizes follow from a straightforward denormalization step using the current density ID/W. Since this entire flow is driven by Spice-generated data, we maintain close agreement between the desired specs and the circuit’s simulated performance. We will detail the inner workings of this approach, and showcase its capabilities using a variety of practical examples. Biography: Boris Murmann joined Stanford University in 2004, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 2003. From 1994 to 1997, he was with Neutron Microelectronics, Germany, where he developed low-power and smart-power ASICs in automotive CMOS technology. Dr. Murmann’s research interests are in the area of mixed-signal integrated circuit design, with special emphasis on data converters and sensor interfaces. In 2008, he was a co-recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the VLSI Circuits Symposium in 2008 and a recipient of the Best Invited Paper Award at the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC). He received the Agilent Early Career Professor Award in 2009 and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award in 2012. He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits and as the Data Converter Subcommittee Chair of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). He currently serves as the program vice-chair for the ISSCC 2016. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

  • Photonics for Microwave Systems and Ultra-Wideband Signal Processing

    GB 120, University of Toronto

    Monday February 29th, 2016 at 3:10 p.m. Professor Willie Ng, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, will be presenting “Photonics for Microwave Systems and Ultra-Wideband Signal Processing”. Speaker: Professor Willie Ng Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California IEEE Fellow Day & Time: Monday, February 29th, 2016 3:10 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Location: GB 120, Galbraith Building, University of Toronto 35 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4 **Refreshments will be served** Contact: Junho Jeong Abstract: This seminar will describe the development and application of photonics technology in microwave antenna systems and ultra-wideband signal processing. It will cover our recent work on the characterization of high frequency modulators and mode-locked lasers, photonic-assisted analog-to-digital conversion, as well as RF-photonic filtering. The seminar will also describe how the broadband capabilities of photonics and wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) technologies can be utilized for high dynamic range antenna remoting and true-time-delay beamforming that cover multiple microwave bands. Biography: Dr. Willie W. Ng is currently a Research Professor ofl Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). Prior to joining USC in 2013, he spent close to three decades at HRL Laboratories, Malibu, CA, where he was a Principal Research Scientist, Program Manager and Department Manager. Under DARPA and U.S. Air Force sponsorships, he led HRL teams that demonstrated a variety of photonic devices/subsystems designed for microwave antenna systems and ultra-wideband signal processing, including RF-photonic filtering and photonics-assisted analog-to-digital conversion. He has given many invited talks in IEEE/OSA Conferences and DARPA Symposiums, and is the author and co-author of over 100 journal articles and conference papers. He holds 26 U.S. patents in the area of photonics technology, with many pending. Cited for pioneering contributions to microwave photonics, he was one of six individuals selected to receive the Excellence in Technology Award in 2005 from the Raytheon Company. Prior to HRL, he was a Member of the Technical Staff at the Rockwell Science Center, Thousand Oaks, Calif., where he developed GaInAsP/InP buried heterostructure lasers and power converters. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, Calif.) under the guidance of Prof. A. Yariv. His thesis work was on the demonstration of GaAlAs/GaAs Distributed Bragg Reflector lasers and Bragg waveguides. He is a fellow of the IEEE, and serves on the 2013-2015 CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics) Technical Committee.

  • Convexity, Sparsity, Nullity and all that… in Data Analysis

    Room VIC300, Ryerson University, 285 Victoria St, Toronto

    Monday March 7th, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. Prof. Hamid Krim, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering of North Carolina State University, will be presenting a distinguished lecture, “Convexity, Sparsity, Nullity and all that… in Data Analysis”. Speaker: Prof. Hamid Krim Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC, US Day & Time: Monday, March 7th, 2016 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Location: Room VIC300, Ryerson University 285 Victoria St, Toronto Map: https://goo.gl/maps/EAvPDLGSqrt Contact: Mehrnaz Shokrollahi Abstract: High dimensional data exhibit distinct properties compared to its low dimensional counterpart; this causes a common performance decrease and a formidable computational cost increase of traditional approaches. Novel methodologies are therefore needed to characterize data in high dimensional spaces. Considering the parsimonious degrees of freedom of high dimensional data compared to its dimensionality, we study the union-of-subspaces (UoS) model, as a generalization of the linear subspace model. The UoS model preserves the simplicity of the linear subspace model, and enjoys the additional stability to address nonlinear data. We show a sufficient condition to use l1 minimization to reveal the underlying UoS structure, and further propose a bi-sparsity model (R0Sure) as an effective algorithm, to recover the given data characterized by the UoS model from errors/corruptions. As an interesting twist on the related problem of Dictionary Learning Problem, we discuss the sparse null space problem (SNS). Based on linear equality constraint, it first appeared in 1986 and has since inspired results, such as sparse basis pursuit, we investigate its relation to the analysis dictionary learning problem, and show that the SNS problem plays a central role, and may naturally be exploited to solve dictionary learning problems. Substantiating examples are provided, and the application and performance of these approaches are demonstrated on a wide range of problems, such as face clustering and video segmentation. Biography: Hamid Krim received his BSc., MSc. and PhD. in Electrical Engineering. He was a member of Technical staff at AT&T Bell Labs, where he has conducted R&D in the areas of telephony and digital communication systems/subsystems. Following an NSF post-doctoral fellowship at Foreign Centers of Excellence, LSS/University of Orsay, Paris, France. He later joined the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, MIT, Cambridge, MA as a Research Scientist, where he was performing and supervising research. He is presently Professor of Electrical Engineering in the ECE department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, leading the Vision, Information and Statistical Signal Theories and Applications group. His research interests are in statistical signal and image analysis, and mathematical modelling, with a keen emphasis on applied problems in classification and recognition using geometric and topological tools. He is currently serving on the IEEE editorial board of SP, and the TCs of SPTM and Big Data Initiative, as well as an AE of the new IEEE Transactions on SP on Information Processing on Networks, and of the IEEE SP Magazine. He is also one of the 2015-2016 Distinguished Lecturers of the IEEE SP Society.

  • Software Development for Aerospace Activities

    Room LG04, George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre

    Thursday March 10th, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. Dr. Elliott Coleshill, Professor at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, will be presenting “Software Development for Aerospace Activities”. Speaker: Dr. Elliott Coleshill, Professor Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology School of Information and Communications Technology Day & Time: Thursday, March 10th, 2016 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Location: Room LG04, George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre 245 Church Street, Ryerson University, M5B 2K3 Contact: Dr. Maryam Davoudpour Abstract: Due to the need for real-time operations, fault tolerance and reaction to internal/external sensory input, robotics and spacecraft systems contain some of the most sophisticated and complex software developed. These systems are required to operate in harsh environments, act autonomously and support human life in critical and non-critical situations. This presentation will walk through the life cycle of software system design for aerospace projects from design and development to verification, validation and real-time operations. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Dr. Coleshill will share stories about his experience working on the International Space Station and satellite systems to track marine ship traffic around the globe. Biography: Dr. Ellliott Coleshill has over 15 years of experience working in the Canadian space industry. Dr. Coleshill completed a PhD in 2010 and a Masters in 2003 from the University of Guleph, with research in image processing, machine vision and robotics. Prior to attending the University of Guelph, he graduated from the Ryerson Applied Computer Science program in 2000 with research in autonomous robotic control. Dr. Coleshill started his career in the space industry at MDA. From 2000 to 2004 he was part of a team that designed and developed the integration and test environment for the International Space Station Mobile Servicing System (Canadarm2/Dextre). In 2004 Dr. Coleshill transitioned into the Systems group where he worked as a software safety engineer, engineering support lead at the Canadian Space Agency during docked robotic operations on the International Space Station and several small research and development concept demonstrations. In August, 2005 Dr. Coleshill received a NASA Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award in recognition of his dedication, commitment and his achievements in support of NASA’s space program. From 2005 to 2007 Dr. Coleshill was the technical lead for designing and developing the concepts and system upgrades for Canadarm2 free flyer capture operations used today for SpaceX operations. In 2007, the Canadian Space Agency presented him with a Certificate of Distinction for his free flyer concept checkout procedures.

  • Silicon Photonic Microring Resonator-Based Transceivers for Compact WDM Optical Interconnects

    BA1210, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, University of Toronto

    Friday March 11th, 2016 at 4:10 p.m. Dr. Samuel Palermo, Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, will be presenting “Silicon Photonic Microring Resonator-Based Transceivers for Compact WDM Optical Interconnects”. Speaker: Dr. Samuel Palermo, Associate Professor Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Texas A&M IEEE Member and Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems Day & Time: Friday, March 11th, 2016 At 4:10 p.m., with social hour after the talk at Prenup Pub Refreshments will be served at the pub Location: BA1210, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, University of Toronto 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Dustin Dunwell Abstract: The rapid growth of I/O bandwidth in applications such as datacenters and supercomputers motivate the development of interconnect architectures that can dramatically scale bandwidth density in an energy-efficient manner. This talk examines the potential of silicon photonic microring resonator-based optical transceivers for compact wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical interconnects. An overview of the photonic devices typically found in a ring resonator optical interconnect platform is provided and the design of transceiver circuits which address key challenges related to the modulators and drop filters is described. The possibility of further improvements in bandwidth density via efficient implementations of >50Gb/s PAM4 modulation with the microring modulators is detailed. Biography: Samuel Palermo received the B.S. and M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX in 1997 and 1999, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA in 2007. From 1999 to 2000, he was with Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX, where he worked on the design of mixed-signal integrated circuits for high-speed serial data communication. From 2006 to 2008, he was with Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR, where he worked on high-speed optical and electrical I/O architectures. In 2009, he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Texas A&M University where he is currently an associate professor. His research interests include high-speed electrical and optical interconnect architectures, high performance clocking circuits, and integrated sensor systems. Dr. Palermo is a recipient of a 2013 NSF-CAREER award. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and IEEE. He currently serves as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and System – II and has served on the IEEE CASS Board of Governors from 2011 to 2012. He was a coauthor of the Jack Raper Award for Outstanding Technology-Directions Paper at the 2009 International Solid-State Circuits Conference and the Best Student Paper at the 2014 Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems. He received the Texas A&M University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Outstanding Professor Award in 2014 and the Engineering Faculty Fellow Award in 2015.

  • Virtual and Augmented Reality in Medical Education: A New Wave

    LG04 Ryerson, University 245 Church Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3

    Thursday March 31st, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. Dr. Abdulaziz Saud Alshafai, Research Fellow of Surgical Education of the Neurosurgery Division at St. Michael’s Hospital, will be presenting “Virtual and Augmented Reality in Medical Education: A New Wave”. Speaker: Dr. Abdulaziz Saud Alshafai, MD, MBBS Research Fellow of Surgical Education Neurosurgery Division St. Michael’s Hospital Day & Time: Thursday, March 31st, 2016 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Location: LG04 Ryerson University 245 Church Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3 Contact: Maryam Davoudpour Learning Objectives: To familiarize the audience with basic multimedia educational theory and principles. To gain appreciation for the application of new technologies ( Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) in medical education. To develop some insight regarding the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration and development. Biography: Dr. Alshafai is a medical graduate from University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Specially interested in the surgical field, education and new technology innovations. He has joined St. Michael’s Hospital for a research fellowship in Surgical Education under the supervision of Professor Michael Cusimano in the division of Neurosurgery whilst pursuing a Masters of Medical Education at the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands. His current work involves the usage of virtual reality and three dimensional (3D) printing in medical education, emphasizing on the application of educational theories and principles. As a long time video-games enthusiast he also holds holds a special interest for the gamification of education and the use of video games as a medium for educating students.

  • IEEE Standards Development EcoSystem and ComSoc Standards and Standards related Activities

    BA1230, Bahen Centre for Information Technology, 40 St. George Street, Toronto

    Monday April 4th, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Alexander D. Gelman, Director of Standardization Programs Development, IEEE Communication Society, will be presenting “IEEE Standards Development EcoSystem and ComSoc Standards and Standards related Activities”. Speaker: Dr. Alexander D. Gelman Director of Standardization Programs Development IEEE Communication Society Day & Time: Monday, April 4th, 2016 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Location: BA 1230, Bahen Centre for Information Technology 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Refreshments in BA 1200 at 5:30 p.m. Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: In this presentation the IEEE and ComSoc Standards Activities are positioned and explained as a part of the IEEE total value proposition and the IEEE role in technology evolution from a concept to R&D and to standards and deployment. IEEE Standards Activities ecosystem will be explained. We will address the role and modus operandi of IEEE Standards Association and the role of Technical Societies and Councils, Industry and Academia in the IEEE standardization activities. It will be a tutorial of how the IEEE Standardization cuisine works and how any materially or professedly interested party can participate in the standardization process. We will highlight the unique IEEE standardization process and IEEE standards-related policies. Sample communications and networking standardization and pre-standardization projects in such areas as PLC, Smart Grid, IoT, SDN, Big Data and 5G will be addressed. ComSoc standards–related technical activists, such as conferences and publications will be discussed. Biography: Alexander D. Gelman received M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York. Presently he is CTO of NETovationsconsulting group that supports industry in competitive research and intellectual property management in areas of communications and networking. During 1998-2007 Alex worked the Chief Scientist of the Panasonic Princeton Research Laboratory, managing research programs in consumer communications and networking; during 1984-1998 worked at Bellcore, most recently as Director-Internet Access Architectures Research. Alex has numerous publications and several patents. He pioneered multi-point Multimedia Communications and DSL applications for managed services (IPTV). Alex holds some of the earliest system patents inVoDand DSL areas, e.g. on xDSLInternet Access Router. He managed research projects that included competitive industrial research as well as standardization in industry consortia and global standards development organizations. Alex is a seasoned IEEE and ComSocvolunteer. He is a cofounder the IEEE conference on Consumer Communications and Networking (CCNC), helped to acquire for ComSocthe International Symposium on Power Line Communications (ISPLC), the IEEE Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing, IEEE-SIIT and IEEEBlackSeaComconferences; served on the inaugural Steering Committee for Transactions on Multimedia and the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME) and IEEE-CSCN; initiated a Communications Standards Supplement to the IEEE Communications Magazine asan incubation phase for IEEE Communications Standards Magazine; chaired the Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications,served four terms as ComSocVice President. Alex initiated several standardization projects and initiated the ComSocStandards Board, served as ComSocDirector of Standards. During his term ComSocreceived the IEEE Standards Association Entity Standards Sponsor award. Alex served on IEEE-SA BoGand on Standards Board and its New Standards, Standards Review, Patents and Industry Connections committees, e.g. representing TAB in 2008, 2010, and in 2012. In 2008 Alex chaired TAB’s Ad Hoc Committee on Standards. Alex architected ComSocStandards Activities Council and was elected the first ComSocVice President -Standards Activities. Alex is a recipient of MMC TC Distinguished Service award and ComSocDonald W. McLellan Meritorious Service Award. And IEEE-SA Standards Medallion.

  • Segmentation-Aware Convolutional Nets

    Room ENG 288, George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering, 245 Church St., Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3

    Thursday April 14th, 2016 at 2:15 p.m. Adam Harley will be presenting “Segmentation-Aware Convolutional Nets”. Speaker: Adam Harley Day & Time: Thursday, April 14th, 2016 2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Location: Room ENG 288 Computer Science Department George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering Ryerson University 245 Church St., Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3 Organizer: IEEE Magnetics Chapter, IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Joint Chapter and Computer Science Department Ryerson University Contact: Dr. Maryam Davoudpour Abstract: In this talk, I will propose a new deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) architecture that learns pixel embeddings, such that pairwise distances between the embeddings can be used to infer whether or not the pixels lie on the same region. Experimental results show that when this embedding network is used in conjunction with a DCNN trained on semantic segmentation, there is a systematic improvement in per-pixel classification accuracy. The contributions of this work consist in straightforward modifications to convolution routines. As such, they can be exploited for any task involving convolution layers, including object recognition, image retrieval, and video understanding. Biography: Adam Harley received a BA (Honours) degree in psychology from Ryerson University in 2012, and was awarded the Canadian Psychological Association’s Certificate of Academic Excellence for his undergraduate thesis. Subsequently he began a computer science undergraduate degree at Ryerson, where he was awarded the NSERC USRA. In 2014 he joined Ryerson’s MSc program in computer science. During the MSc he did research at INRIA in France, as part of a Mitacs-Globalink research award. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship for 2015. His main areas of research interest are computer vision and artificial intelligence.

  • Molecular Communication: Theoretical Limits and Experimental Implementations

    BA 1190, 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON

    Thursday April 28th, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. Dr. Nariman Farsad, Post-doc Fellow, Stanford University, will be presenting “Molecular Communication: Theoretical Limits and Experimental Implementations”. Speaker: Dr. Nariman Farsad Post-doc Fellow, Stanford University Day & Time: Thursday, April 28th, 2016 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Location: Room BA 1190 Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto, St. George Campus 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: Molecular communication is a new and bio-inspired field, where chemical signals are used to transfer information instead of electromagnetic or electrical signals. In this paradigm, the transmitter releases chemicals or molecules and encodes information on some property of these signals such as their timing or concentration. The signal then propagates the medium between the transmitter and the receiver through different means such as diffusion, until it arrives at the receiver where the signal is detected and the information decoded. This new multidisciplinary field can be used for in-body communication, secrecy, networking microscale and nanoscale devices, infrastructure monitoring in smart cities and industrial complexes, as well as for underwater communications. Since these systems are fundamentally different from telecommunication systems, most techniques that have been developed over the past few decades to advance radio technology cannot be applied to them directly. In this talk, we first explore some of the fundamental limits of molecular communication channels. In particular, we explore the fundamental capacity limits of the molecular timing channels, where information is encoded in the time of release of chemical signals. We also evaluate how capacity scales with respect to the number of particles released by the transmitter. Then, optimal detection in molecular timing channels is briefly discussed. We conclude the talk by presenting some of the recent experimental implementations of molecular communication systems. Biography: Nariman Farsad received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and engineering from York University, Toronto, Canada in 2010 and 2015, respectively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he is a recipient of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. Nariman has won the second prize in 2014 IEEE ComSoc Student Competition: Communications Technology Changing the World, the best demo award at INFOCOM’2015, and was recognized as a finalist for the 2014 Bell Labs Prize. He has been an Area Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of Selected Areas of Communication–Special Issue on Emerging Technologies in Communications, and a Technical Reviewer for a number of journals including IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He was also a member of the Technical Program Committees for the ICC’2015, BICT’2015, GLOBCOM’2015, and GLOBCOM’2016.

  • Cloud Radio-Access Networks: Coding Strategies, Capacity Analysis, and Optimization Techniques

    Room BA 1230, 40 St. George Street, Toronto

    Friday May 6th, 2016 at 3:30 p.m. Prof. Wei Yu, IEEE Fellow, will be presenting an IEEE Distinguished Lecture, “Cloud Radio-Access Networks: Coding Strategies, Capacity Analysis, and Optimization Techniques”. Speaker: Prof. Wei Yu IEEE Fellow IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors (2015-17) IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-16) Day & Time: Friday, May 6th, 2016 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Location: Room BA 1230 Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto, St. George Campus 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: Cloud radio access network (C-RAN) is an emerging wireless cellullar architecture in which the base-stations (BSs) take advantage of high-capacity backhaul links to upload signal processing and computation to a cloud-computing based central processor. The C-RAN architecture offers an enabling platform for the centralized joint encoding and joint decoding of user messages and a capability for intercell interference mitigation across the BSs. In this talk, we address the capacity analysis and optimization technique for C-RAN while specifically taking into account the finite capacity constraint on the backhaul links. In the uplink, the C-RAN architecture can be modeled as a multiple-access relay channel. We analyze a compress-and-forward scheme in which the BSs quantize the received signals and send the quantized signals to the central processor using Wyner–Ziv coding. We also propose a successive convex optimization approach for optimizing the quantization noise covariance matrix. In the downlink, the C-RAN architecture can be modeled as a broadcast relay channel. We compare the message-sharing strategy versus compression-based strategy for this setting, and show how compressive sensing and weighted minimum mean-squared error (WMMSE) techniques can be used to solve a network utility maximization problem involving joint user scheduling, BS clustering and beamforming in a user-centric message-sharing C-RAN design. Biography: Wei Yu (S’97-M’02-SM’08-F’14) received the B.A.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1997 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. Since 2002, he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he is now Professor and holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Information Theory and Wireless Communications. His main research interests include information theory, optimization, wireless communications and broadband access networks. Prof. Wei Yu currently serves on the IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors (2015-17). He is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-16). He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2010-2013), as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications (2009-2011), as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2004-2007), and as a Guest Editor for a number of special issues for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications and the EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing. He was a Technical Program co-chair of the IEEE Communication Theory Workshop in 2014, and a Technical Program Committee co-chair of the Communication Theory Symposium at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) in 2012. He was a member of the Signal Processing for Communications and Networking Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (2008-2013). Prof. Wei Yu received a Steacie Memorial Fellowship in 2015, an IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award in 2015, an IEEE ICC Best Paper Award in 2013, an IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award in 2008, the McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction in 2008, the Early Career Teaching Award from the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto in 2007, and an Early Researcher Award from Ontario in 2006. He is recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters. Prof. Wei Yu is a Fellow of IEEE. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.

  • Engineering Career Fair 2016

    Exam Centre, University of Toronto, 255 McCaul Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1W7

    On behalf of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Ontario, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) York Chapter, Ontario Society Of Professional Engineers (OSPE), ACCES Employment, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Toronto, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) Toronto, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Central Ontario, Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers (CSME), Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) Ontario, Environmental Careers Organization of Canada (ECO Canada), Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists we invite you to the Engineering Career Fair. Day & Time: Thursday, May 12th, 2016 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Location: Exam Centre, University of Toronto 255 McCaul Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1W7 Visit https://engineering-career-fair-2016.eventbrite.ca for more information and registration. If you’re a recent grad looking to kick off your career or an experienced engineer looking for a change in professional scenery, here’s an opportunity! This career fair will host numerous engineering companies, organizations and societies of many fields looking to recruit the right candidate. Polish that resume and cover letter. Do your research because that candidate could be you! Organizations that have shown interest thus far include: • Access Machinery • Adecco • AECOM • Altera (now part of Intel) • Athena Automation • Bondfield Construction • CLEAResult • CPP Investment Board • Deco Automotive is a division Cosma International, operating unit of Magna International • Forge Consulting Group • Husky Injection Molding Systems • Index Exchange • Internat Energy Solutions Canada • Octopus • Nanoleaf • NeuronicWorks • Noranco • Nulogy Corporation • Stelpro • Telus • Thales Canada Inc. • The Nanoleaf Team • Top Hat • Toronto Hydro • Toyota • Tundra Technical Solutions • Ydelay Registration is completely free as is attending the Engineering Career Fair in person. As it stands the list of interested hosting companies will continue to grow and final confirmation updates will be provided to our registered attendees as we approach the final date of the fair. Our team and its cooperating companies are delighted to bring this career-changing opportunity to your attention but if you’re seeking to land that available job position then the last and only step required of you is attending! If interested, we look forward to seeing you there on May 12th. Thank you and have a great day! As an Attendee, how can I prepare for the Engineering Career Fair? Written By: Mayurthen Suppiah (ASME Ontario Section VP) Understand why you are attending. Analyze the career fair you will be entering and ask yourself why you are going? Are you there to land a job? Have an insider look over products specific companies will be showcasing? Begin networking with companies and fellow engineering attendees? Once you answer this question proceed to the following steps. The proceeding article steps will assume you are attending to land a professional engineering work position. Research the career fair. Register for the career fair as an attendee ahead of time and get online inside information of which employer companies will be attending. Figure out which companies appeal to your needs and come prepared. Understand what these companies are looking for, represent and appeal to them. Be prepared to converse and mutualise interests with employers to give yourself an advantage over the traditional applicant who simply enters to provide their CV/resume to any company they visit. Mutualise interests with employers. A lasting impression will work wonders in the employer’s mindset during and after the fair. Be prepared to converse and show the employer that you understand and represent what they are looking for. Conversing includes asking questions back to the employer, showcasing that you are interested in more than just landing the job. Indicating that you care for the employer’s needs and what the employer represents increases your chances of leaving a positive impression. Come prepared and dress professionally. Update your CV/resume and covering letter (if applicable). This information will link your records and experience with the employer’s needs. Ensure that everything is up-to-date and properly edited. Feel free to ask colleagues, career informational advisors and use online guides to assist your cause. A clean image is the best image. Ensure you enter the career fair looking like a professional engineer and not a last minute registration trying to land a quick job. Introduce the proper mindset and be presentable. You can’t leave the career fair any worse than entering it. Relax and be prepared to answer both common and company-specific interview questions. Envision your goal prior to each interaction and execute to the best of your ability. You should be as ready and content with yourself as you can be by this point. Good luck!

  • Time Varying Circuits for Radio Receiver Applications

    Room BA 1210 Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto, St. George Campus 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4

    Thursday May 26th, 2016 at 2:10 p.m. Dr. Sudhakar Pamarti, Associate Professor at the University of California, will be presenting “Time Varying Circuits for Radio Receiver Applications”. Speaker: Dr. Sudhakar Pamarti Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles Day & Time: Thursday, May 26th, 2016 2:10 p.m. Location: Room BA 1210 Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto, St. George Campus 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Dustin Dunwell Abstract: Sharp, programmable, linear, integrated filters are enabling components for software defined and cognitive radio applications. However, they are difficult to realize: SAW and MEMS based filters are sharp and linear but not very programmable; active filters can be sharp and programmable but are not very linear; sampled charge domain filtering is sharp and programmable but the burden of the linearity is on the front end voltage-current converter. This talk descirbes an alternative approach that uses time-varying (as opposed to time-invariant) circuits to realize sharp, programmable, linear, integrated filters. The technique exploits sampling aliases to effectively realize very sharp, linear filtering prior to sampling. This talk will describe the basics of this time-varying circuit design approach and illustrates its application to radio front-ends and spectrum scanners. Measurement results from recent prototype integrated circuits will also be presented. Biography: Dr. Sudhakar Pamarti is an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received the Bachelor of Technology degree in electronics and electrical communication engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1995, and the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Prior to joining UCLA, he has worked at Rambus Inc. (‘03-`05) and Hughes Software Systems (‘95-`97) developing high speed I/O circuits and embedded software and firmware for a wireless-in-local-loop communication system respectively. Dr. Pamarti is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award for developing digital signal conditioning techniques to improve analog, mixed-signal, and radio frequency integrated circuits. Dr. Pamarti serves as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.