News

Welcome New MCL Member Thiyagarajan Ramanathan

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

I’m pursuing my Master Degree in Electrical Engineering at USC with specialization in Image Processing and Machine Learning. I joined MCL in August 2018. My current research interests lie in the field of Machine Learning for Image Processing applications. I have worked on many applications of image processing such as Object detection, Vehicle tracking and Behavioral cloning using Deep models. I’m very interested in Natural Language Processing as well.

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

USC has been an amazing environment for my growth. Though I have been here only for a year, I have gained so much of knowledge and I’m very grateful to USC for that. The people at MCL are forward-thinking and very intelligent. The research at MCL is cutting edge and I am very happy and excited to be a part of the lab.

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I want to interact more with Professor Kuo and all the students of the lab. I want to improve my research skills and expand my knowledge.

By |September 30th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member Thiyagarajan Ramanathan|

Welcome New MCL Member Manasa Manohara

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

I am Manasa Manohara, a Master’s student at USC pursuing EE with a focus on Computer Vision. I finished my Bachelor’s from M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bangalore, India. I worked as a Development Consultant at SAP India for about a year before I joined USC. I am excited about Computer Vision and Machine Learning, and how a combination of these technologies can be applied to solve everyday problems. I am particularly interested in Image and video segmentation and reconstruction. In my free time, I love to dance and read books.

 

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

USC provides a lot of opportunities for the students to grow not just in terms of academics but also encourages to pursue their personal interests.  It has a good mix of people who are passionate about what they do. I hope I can make the most of what USC has to offer.

MCL is doing a lot of good work in the field of Computer Vision and I would love to learn and contribute to their research along with interacting with my peers to explore their fields of interest.

 

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I hope I can enhance my skills in the fields of Image Processing and Deep learning. I wish to accelerate and solve everyday persistent problems with an exciting mixture of the above technologies.

 

By |September 23rd, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member Manasa Manohara|

Welcome New MCL Member Abinaya Manimaran

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

I am Abinaya Manimaran, a second year Electrical Engineering graduate student. Before joining USC, I enjoyed working as a Researcher for 3 years at TCS Innovation Labs, India. I was introduced to many Machine Learning algorithms and was always excited to choose the right one to train a desired model. Having joined USC, I am concentrating to learn more in the field of Computer Vision and Machine Learning. I am interested in solving real-world problems that can help mankind be at a better place!

 

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

I see MCL as set of hard working and kind students led by experienced Prof Kuo. I like the way how everything is organized, from lab’s website to weekly meetings!

USC is known for very deep course works. Especially when it comes to Electrical Engineering, most of the courses are math intense, which helps in understanding the basics better. Both USC and MCL has a great Alumni network too!

 

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I would be working on SAAK Transform as a new architecture for deep neural network and its applications in Computer Vision. My plan is to greatly strengthen my skills in this field. I am hoping at the end of my research, I would stand out both personally and professionally.

By |September 16th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member Abinaya Manimaran|

Welcome New MCL Member Joe Wang

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

My name is Wang, Yun Cheng, but you can simply call me Joe. I like to play basketball, and have been an authentic Lakers’ fan since my junior high. So, it’s exciting for me to be in LA. I came from Taiwan, and currently I am a master student in the electrical engineering department, USC. More specifically, I am in the multimedia and creative technology program, so basically I like to deal with various kinds of multimodal data. I have done some projects on video understanding in my undergraduate, and I hope I can keep on building my strength in multimedia analysis. Recently, I am digging into a novel research topic, network embedding. The research topic is interesting and still has a lot can be explored so I believe I can learn a lot from it. Really looking forward to being in the MCL.

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

MCL is a lively lab. Every member in the lab loves what they are doing. They work really hard on what they are enthusiastic about, but at the same time, they know how to enjoy their lives. I think it’s important to know how to strike a good balance between research and the ordinary life for a graduate student. And, members in MCL have just done so well. I enjoy working with the lab members, and we are still friends when we are not in the lab. Discussing with Professor Kuo is also an enjoyable experience, his taste and insight on research topics is so innovative that you can always learn something from him. The campus of USC is gorgeous. But, sometimes it [...]

By |September 9th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member Joe Wang|

Welcome New MCL Member Mozhdeh Rouhsedaghat

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

My name is Mozhdeh Rouhsedaghat. I received my bachelor’s degree from EE department of Sharif University of Technology. I am currently a Ph.D. student at the Media Communications Lab (MCL) at USC and supervised by professor C. -C. Jay Kuo. My research interests include image processing, computer vision, and deep learning.

 

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

USC is a top university and has a beautiful architecture. I really enjoy fresh air in the mornings and walking through amazing buildings on the campus. MCL has a friendly environment and a dynamic atmosphere. Its members are kind and talented and support each other. Professor Kuo is very wise, kind, and caring, and working in this atmosphere is pleasurable for me.

 

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I am going to improve my research skills in computer vision and I hope I can reach great achievements during my studies.

By |September 2nd, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member Mozhdeh Rouhsedaghat|

Welcome New MCL Member Zhiruo Zhou

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

My name is Zhiruo Zhou, and I just received my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering this July. Now I will start my first year at USC as a PhD student. During my undergraduate training, research projects that I got involved in were mostly about image processing, such as denoising on MRI images and image recognition tasks. Having experiences with both traditional image processing techniques and machine learning, I would like to explore more on their relationship and applications.

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

The sunshine here is always warm and the integral architectural style on campus makes me feel comfortable. The MCL is really a big group and has a great network. The pizza lunch and seminar on Friday are fantastic and beneficial. You can always learn from your group members and they are pleased to offer help. It’s enjoyable to know these lovely people, and I’m happy to be one of them!

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I expect that I could gradually establish a deep understanding of machine learning and be well practiced in doing research. I might also try to refine my career plan by communicating with professors and peers. Also, I want to know more about the MCL family and make friends with them.

By |August 26th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member Zhiruo Zhou|

Congratulations to Haiqiang Wang for passing PhD defense

Congratulations to Haiqiang Wang for passing his PhD defense on August 21, 2018. His PhD thesis is entitled “A Data-Driven Approach to Compressed Video Quality Assessment Using Just Noticeable Difference”.

Abstract of thesis:
The problem of human-centric compressed video quality assessment (VQA) is studied in the research. In this thesis, he propose a new methodology for compressed video quality measurement and assessment based on the just-noticeable-difference (JND) notion. The process of building a large-scale coded H.264/AVC video quality dataset is described. Then, he measure the JND-based video quality using the satisfied user ratio (SUR) curve and designing an SUR prediction method with video quality degradation feature and masking feature. The method consists of the following steps: 1) partition a video clip into local spatial-temporal segments and evaluate the quality of each segment using the VMAF quality index, 2) aggregate these local VMAF measures to derive a global index, 3) significant segments are selected based on the slope of quality scores between neighboring coded clips, and 4) incorporate the masking effect that reflects the unique characteristics of each video clip. Then use the support vector regression (SVR) to minimize the distance of the SUR curves, and derive the JND point accordingly. At last, propose a JND-based VQA model that takes subject variabilities and content variabilities into account. He build a user model by utilizing user’s capability to discern the quality difference. He study the SUR difference as it varies with user profile as well as content with variable level of difficulty. The proposed model aggregates quality ratings per user group to address inter-group difference.
We are so glad to have him share his PhD experience with us. Here is his sharing.
I would like to thank Professor Kuo for [...]

By |August 21st, 2018|News|Comments Off on Congratulations to Haiqiang Wang for passing PhD defense|

Welcome New MCL Member – Chenxuan Guo

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

My name is Chenxuan Guo. I am a junior student of Electrical and Computer Engineering department in NCTU (National Chiao Tung University). I come to MCL for an internship in summer. One of the things that I am interested is audio analysis, especially instrumental music separating and converting. Hope one day the accurate realization of audio to score (including audio to midi and midi to score) comes true. The second one is the topic of parallelized computing or distributed operating systems. I am still researching about the faster approximation of optimization of source allocation in fog computing.

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

I like the atmosphere of MCL, because Professor Guo’s guidance is very special, more like a father than a teacher. Everyone in the lab has their own strengths and they are good at supporting each other.

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I hope I can finish my research in graph embedding timely this summer. With help from Pr. Kuo, Bin and Jessica. I must make a push to do my experiment.

 

By |August 19th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member – Chenxuan Guo|

Welcome New MCL Member – Zhiyu Yao

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

Hello, my name is Zhiyu Yao. I am a third-year student from Tsinghua University. I like playing tennis, table tennis, and soccer. My research interest is deep learning and computer vision, especially in video recognition and transfer learning. I think lots of open questions are worth studying in the field of computer vision.

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

USC is one of the top universities in the world. I am very glad to study as an intern in MCL. MCL is a warm family and everyone here is very kind and warmhearted. I am very lucky to do research with Prof. Kuo participating in deep learning group, and I am impressed by the strong passion for research from MCL members. Everyone here is self-motivated and is willing to help each other not only in research but also in daily life.

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

In this summer, I am working with Prof. Kuo and his PhD student Yueru in the study of face detection. Hopefully I can solve the monkey face detection problem well the help of them. I believe doing research in MCL can help me grow up quickly in computer vision.

By |August 13th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member – Zhiyu Yao|

Welcome New MCL Member – Jiawei Lin

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your research interests?

Hi, I’m Jiawei Lin, a rising senior currently studying Electrical Engineering at National Chiao Tung University located at Hsinchu, Taiwan. Back in Taiwan, I enjoy taking courses with more emphasis on the underlying theory, including physics, communication systems, and signal processing courses. These topics are in essence very different from what I’m currently working on here – face detection, making the internship experience challenging but rewarding. Outside the academics, I enjoy playing football, basketball, and singing.

2. What is your impression about MCL and USC?

Back in my university, more than 80 percent of the students major in science and technology related field. This led me to be particularly impressed with how diverse USC actually is. As for MCL, I feel grateful to be here! Prof. Kuo cares for all members in the lab, and members treat each other like family. In addition, activities, seminars, and group studies held here broaden my perspective, making them so inspiring.

3. What is your future expectation and plan in MCL?

I’m currently working on a face detection project using deep learning as the fundamental framework. Hopefully, at the end of the internship, I would have good understanding of deep learning and be able to apply some of that knowledge in future researches.

 

By |August 5th, 2018|News|Comments Off on Welcome New MCL Member – Jiawei Lin|