A Remarkable Trajectory
- January 5, 2023: Professor Azad Madni announced as winner of the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) Bernard M. Gordon Prize, the top award in engineering education. It was the second year in a row a Trojan received the honor.
- February 7, 2023: The National Academy of Engineering announced that Professor Costas Synolakis and Emeritus Professor Gérard Medioni have been elected into the prestigious academy.
- March 30, 2023: The USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), a global leader in virtual humans, graphics, AI and mixed reality, announced as part of USC Viterbi. The affiliation was made official earlier that year on January 1.
- April 5, 2023: Following one of the nation’s largest-ever gifts to a biomedical engineering department, USC Viterbi inaugurated the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering.
- January 5, 2023: USC launched the single largest comprehensive academic initiative in the university’s history: Frontiers of Computing. The $1 billion-plus initiative, backed by a $260 million gift from the Lord Foundation, will expand and infuse advanced computing throughout the university’s programs and curriculum with ethics at its core.
- August 15, 2023: The USC Viterbi entering class achieved gender parity for the fifth year in a row.
- September 8, 2023: Almost 50 years since its inception in 1976, USC’s computer science department celebrated the unveiling of its new name: the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science.
- September 20, 2023: The school’s center for Center for Engineering Diversity is named after Professor John Slaughter, whom Dean Yannis Yortsos called “arguably the most important Black engineer in American history.”
- September 28, 2023: Department of Defense awards nearly $27 million for a USC Viterbi-led coalition to boost microelectronics production for 5G/6G. The hub, known as California DREAMS, was one of only eight selected in the U.S.
- September 29, 2023: The Grand Challenges Scholars Program network, a reimagining of 21st Century engineers, moved to USC. The national program, adopted by nearly 100 universities, was co-created by Dean Yortsos.
- October 23, 2023: Darin Gray, director of the USC Viterbi’s K-12 STEM Center, accepted the prestigious Global Engineering Deans Council Diversity Award of 2023. The center also received the 2023 ASEE Hall of Fame Award.
- October 24, 2023: Professor Neil Siegel received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He is the fourth Trojan engineer to receive a national medal since 2007.
- February 1, 2024: USC launched its 23rd school, the USC School of Advanced Computing, a new unit of the USC Viterbi School. The school, a key feature of USC President Carol Folt’s Frontiers of Computing “moonshot,” will act as a nexus for advanced computing research and education across the university. Professor Gaurav Sukhatme, USC Viterbi executive vice dean, was appointed as the school’s inaugural director (see Q&A page 48).
- February 29, 2024: USC honored Andrew Viterbi and his late wife Erna with a 20th anniversary celebration of the couple’s 2004 naming gift.