Graduating students in 2023 pose at the Galen Center
Each year, students from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering participate in graduation ceremonies. These include the Ph.D. hooding ceremony on Wednesday, May 8, and USC Viterbi-specific undergraduate and two master’s-level graduate ceremonies on May 10. Over 4,300 engineering students are expected to participate in these ceremonies. The USC Viterbi School and the new School of Advanced Computing ceremonies will feature the following notable keynote speakers: For the undergraduate ceremony, Karen Dahut, CEO, Google Public Sector; for the master’s ceremony 1, Zohreh Khademi, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Devices; and for the master’s ceremony 2 for computer science, Computer Scientist and Entrepreneur Kevin Knight.
About the keynote speakers:
For the Undergraduate Ceremony:
Keynote Speaker: Karen Dahut, CEO, Google Public Sector
As CEO of Google Public Sector (GPS), Karen Dahut helps U.S., state, local, and federal agencies, and educational institutions accelerate their digital transformations. With her charge leading GPS, she works to bring Google technology to solve complex problems for U.S. public sector institutions. These technologies include Google’s data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) platform; infrastructure services for storage, compute, and networking; cybersecurity solutions; and Google Workspace for collaboration and communication.
Dahut was previously sector president at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she led the company’s $4 billion global defense business—representing half of the firm’s annual revenue—and global commercial business sector, which delivered next-generation cybersecurity solutions to Fortune 500 companies. Under her leadership, Booz Allen became the premier digital integrator, helping federal agencies use technology in support of their missions.
Dahut also has deep experience in building innovative solutions that help organizations tackle their toughest challenges. For example, at Booz Allen, she served as chief innovation officer and built the firm’s Strategic Innovation Group that delivered new capabilities in cybersecurity, data science, and digital technologies.
Dahut began her career as an officer in the U.S. Navy.
A respected and recognized public speaker and author, she’s an expert on technology, the future of work, innovation, and inclusive leadership. Also an experienced board director for nonprofit and private organizations, she serves on the boards of Dexcom, Eisner Advisory Group, and previously served on Tech Data Corporation’s board. She is a trustee of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum a board member for the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science.
Dahut received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Mount St. Mary’s University and a master’s degree in systems management from the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her family.
Master’s Ceremony 1
Keynote Speaker: Zohreh Khademi, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Devices
Zohreh Khademi is a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, leading the Cloud Infrastructure Solutions & Services (CISS) function within the Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) organization. CO+I harbor all Microsoft data centers that operate the most reliable, trusted, safe and secure cloud infrastructure in the world, Microsoft Cloud.
During her 26 years at Microsoft, Khademi has held various technical and leadership roles within Microsoft’s Product Development, Manufacturing and Supply Chain and Devices business groups. Previously, she headed Microsoft Flexible Design & Manufacturing + New Product Introduction (XDM+NPI.) The Flexible Design & Manufacturing (XDM) team works to enable portfolio growth, profitability, and scalability. The New Product Introduction (NPI) team manages all aspects of cross-group programs, including manufacturing design and product engineering. Leveraging her experience to lead hardware products from development to production, Khademi applied those capabilities across the Devices portfolio, including products from Surface to Xbox and Accessories.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Khademi spent +10 years in various technical & engineering roles in the manufacturing and consumer products industries that specialized in Industrial, Product & Manufacturing Engineering, automation and robotics.
Khademi’s personal passions center on diversity & inclusion and recruiting and developing early career talent for Microsoft. Currently, she is the Microsoft Executive Sponsor for the University of Southern California, where she is often invited as a guest lecturer and speaker at the Engineering School. She also sits on the advisory board of the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC. From 2021 to 2023, Khademi served as Executive Sponsor for the Asian Employee Resource Group and represented this group on the Microsoft CEO’s Inclusion Council. For the past 15 years, Khademi has developed and created a college recruiting program targeting women and minority engineers. Khademi currently is Executive Sponsor of D&I for the Cloud Operation and Innovation group.
She is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where she earned a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering. She also holds a certificate in microcomputer and systems networking from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband and is a proud mother to three sons (Shawn, Ryan & Brandon).
Master’s Ceremony 2 (Computer Science)
Keynote Speaker: Kevin Knight, Computer Scientist and Entrepreneur
Kevin Knight is an academic and entrepreneur. He has served on the faculty of the University of Southern California (26 years), as chief scientist at Language Weaver, Inc. (9 years), and as chief scientist for natural language processing at Didi Global (4 years). He received a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. Knight’s research interests include natural language processing (NLP), machine translation, language generation, automata theory, decipherment of historical documents, and number theory. He has co-authored over 150 research papers on natural language processing, as well as a widely adopted textbook, “Artificial Intelligence.” Knight served as president of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) in 2011, as general chair for ACL in 2005, as general chair for the North American ACL (NAACL) in 2016, and as co-program chair for the inaugural Asia-Pacific ACL (2020). He received an Outstanding Paper Award at NAACL 2018, and Test-of-Time awards at ACL 2022 and ACL 2023. He is a fellow of the ACL and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
Knight was a pioneer in applying statistical methods to problems in natural language processing and AI. Working with Ph.D. students at USC, he wrote early papers on transliteration and generation that founded large bodies of research. Knight was one of the first researchers in statistical machine translation systems and co-founded Language Weaver, the first company to commercialize such software. In symbolic AI, Knight led the development of Abstract Meaning Representation, a method for capturing the semantics of English sentences, including manual annotation of tens of thousands of pieces of text. He also championed the use of finite-state string automata for NLP, and he developed the first connections between NLP and tree automata. While tracing the origins of NLP to World War II cryptography, Knight developed new algorithms for breaking classical ciphers, which he applied to crack a number of ciphers of historical significance, including the secret-society Copiale text and the military communications of General James Wilkinson. His cryptographic work also appears in Hollywood films such as “Under the Silver Lake.”
For information about the USC Viterbi School of Engineering ceremonies, please visit: https://viterbigrad.usc.edu/academic-services/commencement-information/
Published on April 9th, 2024
Last updated on April 25th, 2024
