WHAT: ECE Seminar Series Fall 2011
WHERE: EA 126
WHEN: 12:00 PM to 12:50PM, Monday, December 5, 2011
WHO: Dr. Pallavi Chitturi, Temple University

TITLE: “Quality Improvement – The Parameter Design Approach”

ABSTRACT:

Genichi Taguchi visited the U.S. in the 1980s to give lectures on quality improvement. Prior to
this visit, his ideas on parameter design were virtually unknown in the U.S. The past 25 years
have witnessed a rapid spread of the parameter design approach and widespread adoption of
his techniques. Some of the techniques used by Taguchi have been controversial and have lead
to much debate and research. Taguchi proposed the quality improvement technique known as
parameter design or ‘robust design’. The idea is to economically reduce variation in products
and processes. Parameter design is used extensively by Japanese companies, but was relatively
unknown in the U.S. prior to 1980s. There have been extensive applications of parameter design
in the past quarter century by U.S. corporations such as AT&T, Ford, Xerox, etc. This talk will
provide an overview of parameter design and some recent work in the area.

BIOGRAPHY:

Pallavi Chitturi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics and Director
of the Center for Statistical Analysis. She teaches undergraduate and graduate level
statistics courses at The Fox School and has taught Executive MBA courses in Tokyo,
Japan and Cali, Colombia. Dr. Chitturi’s research interests are in the areas of design
of experiments, quality control, and conjoint analysis. Dr. Chitturi has made several
research presentations at conferences such as the Joint Statistical Meetings and the
Conference of Texas Statisticians, and has published articles in statistics and quality
management journals. Dr Chitturi has successfully supervised Ph.D. dissertations and
recently published a book titled ‘Choice Based Conjoint Analysis – Models and Designs’.

For further information, please contact Ilyana Mushaeva (tub05610@temple.edu) or John Steinberg (email: tuc70499@temple.edu).

SCHEDULE:
12/5/2011: Pallavi Chitturi,Temple University,
“Quality Improvement – The Parameter Design Approach”

11/21/2011: Matt Bosak, Temple University
“Magnetic Signature Estimation with Neural Networks”

11/14/2011: David Thurston, Parsons Transportation Group
“Railway Train Control and Consulting Engineering Careers”

10/17/2011: Joe Picone, Temple University
“How to Become a Productive Taxpayer”

10/10/2011: Ralph Oyini Mbouna, Temple University
“Gaze Estimation with Head Pose Tracking using a Single Webcam”

10/03/2011: Dr. Huiqing Pang, Universal Display Corporation
“Lighting Our Way with Phosphorescent OLEDs”

09/28/2011: Sumit Tandon, The Mathworks, Inc.,
“Designing and Modeling an Object Tracking System in MATLAB and Simulink”

09/19/2011: Shoumik Roychoudhury, Temple University
“Tracking Moving Objects using Multi-feature Histograms in Thermal Vision”

09/14/2011: Dr. Humberto E. Garcia, Idaho National Laboratory
“An Innovative Architecture and its Constituents for Implementing Condition Assessment Monitoring Systems”

09/12/2011: Dana Dawson, Temple University
“Federal TRIO Programs and the McNair Scholars”