{"634889":{"#nid":"634889","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Topliff, Truong Tapped for 2020 NDSEG Fellowships","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECharles Topliff\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003EJoanne Truong\u003C\/strong\u003E have been named as recipients of the 2020 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ndseg.asee.org\/ndseg_fellows\u0022\u003ENational Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships\u003C\/a\u003E. They are both Ph.D. students in the Georgia Tech \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe NDSEG Fellowships are funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through the Office of the Under Secretary for Research and Engineering and the military services, to promote education in science and engineering disciplines relevant to the DoD mission.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETopliff is a second year ECE Ph.D. student in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ml.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003Emachine learning program\u003C\/a\u003E. He is co-advised by ECE Associate Professors \u003Cstrong\u003EMorris Cohen\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003EMark\u0026nbsp;Davenport\u003C\/strong\u003E. Topliff\u0026rsquo;s research is focused on\u0026nbsp;time series forecasting using modern machine learning techniques. He is also interested in explainability in machine learning.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor many applications in time series forecasting, it isn\u0026rsquo;t enough to just improve predictive capabilities. As an example, Topliff wants to know when solar flares can be expected to influence the power grid and what can done to prepare. However, it would be difficult to convince anyone to make decisions without explainability. Having a strong understanding of why Topliff\u0026rsquo;s models produce forecasts that necessitate action will provide guidance for authorities in their decision making.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETruong is a first year ECE Ph.D. student in the robotics program. She is co-advised by \u003Cstrong\u003ESonia Chernova\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003EDhruv Batra\u003C\/strong\u003E, who are associate professors in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ic.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Interactive Computing\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ml.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EMachine Learning Center\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;Truong\u0026rsquo;s long-term research goal is to allow robots to intelligently interact with humans in complex environments to improve quality of life. She\u0026nbsp;hopes to develop techniques to enable the transfer of robot skills learned in simulation to a real robotic system.\u0026nbsp;This is important because working in simulation presents many benefits: it\u0026rsquo;s often cheaper, faster, and safer than working on a real robot. However, it\u0026rsquo;s non-trivial to transfer this learned knowledge onto a real robot, as many inconsistencies and differences exist between the simulation platform and the real world.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETruong hopes to develop generalization techniques to bridge the gap between simulation and reality so that robotics developments can be done by more artificial intelligence researchers\/students \u0026ndash; even those who don\u0026rsquo;t have access to the physical hardware, which will help to accelerate robotics research.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EECE Ph.D. students\u0026nbsp;Charles Topliff and Joanne Truong have been named as recipients of the 2020 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"ECE Ph.D. students\u00a0Charles Topliff and Joanne Truong have been named as recipients of the 2020 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships. "}],"uid":"34773","created_gmt":"2020-04-30 15:07:40","changed_gmt":"2020-04-30 15:16:50","author":"ablinder6","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-04-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-04-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"634873":{"id":"634873","type":"image","title":"Charles Topliff and Joanne Truong","body":null,"created":"1588197191","gmt_created":"2020-04-29 21:53:11","changed":"1588197191","gmt_changed":"2020-04-29 21:53:11","alt":"photograph of Charles Topliff and Joanne Truong, 2020 NDSEG Fellows","file":{"fid":"241606","name":"Topliff and Truong - 2020 NDSEG Fellows.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Topliff%20and%20Truong%20-%202020%20NDSEG%20Fellows.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Topliff%20and%20Truong%20-%202020%20NDSEG%20Fellows.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1731683,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Topliff%20and%20Truong%20-%202020%20NDSEG%20Fellows.png?itok=xqov5Mvm"}}},"media_ids":["634873"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu","title":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.ic.gatech.edu","title":"School of Interactive Computing"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.gatech.edu","title":"Georgia Tech"},{"url":"https:\/\/ndseg.sysplus.com","title":"National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships"}],"groups":[{"id":"576481","name":"ML@GT"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"184694","name":"Charles Topliff"},{"id":"184511","name":"Joanne Truong"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"},{"id":"184695","name":"National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships"},{"id":"166855","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"},{"id":"166848","name":"School of Interactive Computing"},{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"180043","name":"U.S. Department of Defense"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"667","name":"robotics"},{"id":"83321","name":"Mark Davenport"},{"id":"171619","name":"Morris Cohen"},{"id":"169047","name":"Sonia Chernova"},{"id":"173615","name":"dhruv batra"},{"id":"184696","name":"time series forecasting"},{"id":"184697","name":"explainability"},{"id":"175381","name":"power grid"},{"id":"184698","name":"solar flares"},{"id":"169956","name":"robot-human interaction"},{"id":"184699","name":"robotic simulations"},{"id":"184700","name":"generalization techniques"},{"id":"2556","name":"artificial intelligence"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJackie Nemeth\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E404-894-2906\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jackie.nemeth@ece.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}