Lecture 58: Modeling & Control of Complex Dynamical Systems with Neural Networks

When: Thursday Feb 21, 2013 – 7:30 PM
Attention: This month’s lecture will be held on the 3rd Thursday of February since the Valentine’s Day falls on Feb 14th.
Where: Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus) – Humanity Building (HU), Conference Room 009 (Get Directions, Campus Map )

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Speaker:Reza Jafari, PhD
Reza Jafari

Synopsis:

In the last two decades, more attention has been given to Neural Networks and their applications. The ability of Neural Networks to solve complex problems in control, system identification, signal processing, communication, pattern recognition, etc. is well understood. Feed-forward Neural Network with feed-back connections is called Recurrent Neural Network. Recurrent Neural Networks are more powerful than feed-forward networks because of internal feed-back connections; this comes at the expense of more difficult training and the potential for instabilities. It has become more and more important to have efficient methods for determining the stability of Recurrent Neural Networks. The main contribution of this research is to develop improved methods for determining the stability of Recurrent Neural Networks.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Reza Jafari is currently the faculty member of Electrical Engineering Technology at ECPI University, Northern Virginia. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and second MS in Applied Mathematics both from the Oklahoma State University. He received his first MS degree in Mechatronics from the American University of Sharjah. He received his BS degree from Tehran University in 2001. He was the reviewer for different Journal papers for publication in IEEE transactions. His area of research is focused on Recurrent Neural Networks for system identification & control.

Fee (including dinner): $5 Students, $15 Public

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Lecture 57: Recent Contributions of Iran to Medical and Public Health Research

When: Thursday Jan 10, 2013 – 7:30 PM
Where: Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus) – Humanity Building (HU), Conference Room 009 (Get Directions, Campus Map )

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Speaker: Farin Kamangar, MD, PhD, MPH, MHS
Esmail Tabibi

Synopsis:

Iranians are generally aware of their old, but not their more recent, contributions to medical research. Avecinna’s book, the Canon of Medicine, and Rhazes’s discovery of alcohol are often quoted as salient examples of Iran’s contributions to medicine. However, few are aware that substantial medical research is currently ongoing in Iran, and that despite the tense political relationships, the research is being conducted in collaboration with the United States, the United Kingdom, and the World Health Organization. This presentation reviews some statistics on recent research in Iran, provides some examples of collaborations between Iran and other nations, in particular with the United States, and recounts some success stories.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Farin Kamangar is the Chairman of Department of Public Health Analysis and Professor of Epidemiology at Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD. He received his PhD in Epidemiology and MHS in Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his MD and MPH from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Dr. Kamangar has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in the field of epidemiology, mostly focused on the causes of esophageal and gastric cancer.

Fee (including dinner): $5 Students, $15 Public

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Lecture 56: Drug Development Process

Date & Time: Thursday December 13, 2012 – 7:30 PM

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Location: Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus) – Humanity Building (HU), Conference Room 009 (Get Directions, Campus Map )

Speaker: Esmail Tabibi, PhD
Language: English 
Esmail Tabibi

Synopsis:

Drug development is a long, expensive and risky process. It starts from an idea that sparks in a scientist’s brain (either in academia or industry) and creates a flurry of scientific, financial and sometimes political activities to generate about 5000 compounds, which at the end, just one of them may end up in the market as a drug.This brief presentation will attempt to point out the major issues involved in drug development process and the potential reasons of failure of other 4999 compounds during 12-15 years of this process.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Esmail Tabibi received his B.Sc. in pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy with emphasis on Pharmacology from Tabriz University in Iran. After teaching at Tabriz and Mash-had universities, he moved to University of Maryland at Baltimore to obtain his Ph.D.. Following his graduation, he served as Director of Pharmaceutical R&D at H.G. Pars Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Director R&D and Vice President at MediControl Corporation, Newton, MA, Vice President for Product Development at Micro Vesicular System, Nashua, NH, Assistant Professor of School of Pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI and Project Officer at the National Cancer Institute with responsibility for develping anti-cancer drugs.
In 2001, he returned to academic as Associate Professor of the Dept of OB/GYN at Eastern Virginia Medical School to develop microbicide and anti-AIDS medications. His current position is at the National Cancer Institute with similar responsibility. Dr. Tabibi has published over 60 peer reviewed articles, many book chapters and has been honored with several patents.
He is founding member of the following non-profit organizations:

  • Ibn Sina Health Foundation of North America
  • AhlulBayte Society in North America
  • Islamic School of Potomac

Currently he serves at the Board of Islamic School of Potomac and Islamic Research and Educational Foundation.

Fee (including dinner): $5 Students, $15 Public

RSVP: Please click here to RSVP for dinner.