IAAP Student Scholarship Award Ceremony

Date & Time: Thursday Nov 10, 2011 – 6:45pm

Location:
Adele H. Stamp Student Union, University of Maryland, College Park
Prince George’s Room (Room 1210)
Click for Map of University of Maryland, College Park

Parking Information:
Public can park at lot Z and 1B which on the map which is on the 4th row and B and C column.

IAAP Student Scholarship Award

The IAAP meeting in November will be dedicated to the “IAAP Student Scholarship Award” and will host Dr. Ali Mosleh, director of the Center for Risk and Reliability at the University of Maryland as the guest speaker.

Lecture 43: Finding Our Way in the Dark: Reasoning and Problem Solving with Limited Evidence

Speaker: Dr. Ali Mosleh

Synopsis:

What do we do when the information is fragmented, causes and effects are not fully understood, or the evidence in support of a scientific, legal, or political case is weak? Such circumstances arise daily in our personal and professional activities such as driving, making personal choices, or business decisions. We also encounter similar situations in physical and social sciences, engineering, and medicine, where the evidence needed to solve a problem, make an inference, or reach a conclusion is at best partial or of uncertain nature. A modeling and inference technique known as Belief Network (BN) provides a vehicle to cope with such cases in a coherent and systematic way. This talk provides an overview of BN foundations and applications in personal decisions, social and natural science, and modern technology.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Ali Mosleh holds the Nicole J. Kim Eminent Professor of Engineering Chair and is the Director of the Center for Risk and Reliability at the University of Maryland. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2010, and is a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, recipient of several scientific achievement awards, and consultant and technical advisor to numerous national and international organizations. In 2004 Dr. Mosleh was appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a position in which he continues to serve in the administration of President Barack Obama. He has chaired or organized numerous international technical conferences and is on the Editorial Board of several technical journals. He conducts research on methods for probabilistic risk analysis and reliability of complex systems and has made many contributions in diverse fields of theory and application. These include Bayesian methods for inference with uncertain evidence; analysis of data and expert judgment; treatment of model uncertainty; risk and reliability of hybrid systems of hardware, human and software; cognitive models for human reliability analysis; and models of the influence of organizational factors on system reliability and safety. He has led many major studies on risk and safety of complex systems such as the Space Shuttle, Nuclear Power Plants, commercial aviation, communication networks, and medical systems. On these topics he holds several patents, and has edited, authored or co-authored over 400 publications including books, guidebooks, and technical papers. Dr. Mosleh received his PhD in Nuclear Science and Engineering form the University of California, Los Angeles in 1981.

Program Agenda:

6:45 pm           Registration

7:15                 Opening Remarks, and Welcoming note by Dr. Aram Hessami

7:20                 IAAP Activities and Services to the Iranian Community,       

                        Dr. Manouchehr Farkhondeh, President, IAAP

7:30                 Dinner

8:15                 Biography and achievements of Prof.  Ali Mosleh

                        By Mr. Mohsen Shirazi

8:20                 Lecture by Prof. Ali Mosleh, “Finding Our Way in the Dark: Reasoning and Problem

                        Solving with Limited Evidence

9:00                 Scholarship Awards

                         Mr. Hossein Ebneyousef, Chair of Student Scholarship Committee, IAAP

9:30                 Musical performance conducted by renowned Iranian musician Mr.  Kazem Davoudian

10:00               Closing Remarks

Click here for more details.

Fee (including dinner):
Tickets are only available at the door on the day of event:
$10 Students, $20 Public

Click to RSVP for Dinner

Annual Scholarship Program

The Iranian American Academics and Professionals (IAAP) annual scholarship program is now open. Please complete the Scholarship Form before October 28, 2011.

Lecture 42: State-of-the-art Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging

Date & Time: Thursday October 13, 2011 – 7:30 PM

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

Speaker: Dr. Arman Rahmim

Synopsis:

In this talk, we will introduce the PET imaging modality, and discuss its wide varying applications in the three areas of brain, cardiovascular and cancer imaging. Some of the exciting new trends under development in the field, and in our laboratory, will be discussed, including: spatiotemporal 4-dimensional imaging methods, the use of very realistic simulation tools and techniques including computer observer studies simulating the human eye for the detection of oncologic tumors and cardiac defects, and the use of information theoretic concepts to enhance PET imaging using modalities such as MRI and CT. I will also shortly discuss the state of medical technology in Iran, and the opportunities in collaborating with our colleagues in Iran.

About the Speaker:

Arman Rahmim received his M.Sc. in the field of condensed matter X-ray physics and his Ph.D in the field of medical imaging from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Following completion of his PhD work in 2005, he was recruited as Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University (Division of Nuclear Medicine), where he now directs the Tomographic Image Reconstruction & Analysis Laboratory. He also has joint appointments in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and in the Research Center for Science & Technology in Medicine (RCSTIM) at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

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

RSVP: Please click here to RSVP for dinner.

Majid Fotuhi