USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Moving at the Speed of Light: USC Celebrates Stevens School Naming
The USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence pairs more than 50 years of computing history with connections across the university.
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Four USC Engineers on What El Niño Could Mean for Southern California
USC Engineering Insights - Researchers across USC Viterbi explore what El Niño could mean for Southern California, from changing ocean conditions and sea-level rise to atmospheric turbulence, inland flooding and coastal erosion.
“This El Niño Could Show Us California’s Coast 50 Years From Now”
USC Engineering Insights - USC Viterbi professor Patrick Lynett explains how this winter could offer an early view of California’s future coastline, demonstrating what happens when rising seas, high tides and repeated storms coincide.
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“El Niño Could Disrupt the Flow of Nutrients That Sustain Pacific Coast Fisheries”
USC Engineering Insights - USC Viterbi professor Geoff Spedding examines the subsurface physics of El Niño, explaining how eastward-moving warm water reduces the nutrients reaching surface waters off South America, while related changes in ocean circulation extend north toward California.
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“This El Niño Could Test the Limits of the Los Angeles River”
USC Engineering Insights - USC Viterbi professor Mitul Luhar explains how intense El Niño rainfall could send fast-moving, debris-filled water through the Los Angeles River - and why some sections of the river are more vulnerable than others.
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Could This El Niño Cause Coastal Damage Comparable to 1983?
USC Engineering Insights - USC Viterbi professor Costas Synolakis explains why a potentially record-setting El Niño could cause severe erosion and flooding along Southern California’s coast - and why local damage will depend on the timing, direction and sequence of winter storms. 
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20 Years, 20 Wins: USC ECE Celebrates Two Decades Under the Ming Hsieh Name
From USC student to university trustee, Ming Hsieh’s journey and historic $35 million gift helped shape two decades of growth, innovation and achievement at USC ECE
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USC ECE Honors Inaugural Class of Changemakers for 20th Naming Anniversary
21 alumni are recognized for shaping technology across Silicon Valley, space exploration, semiconductor research and academia.
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When Failure Is Not an Option: Neil Siegel on AI’s Dangerous Blind Spot
The USC Viterbi professor who built systems for nuclear missiles and ambulance networks explains why today's AI engines are structurally unfit for the infrastructure that keeps society running.
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USC Viterbi Engineers Develop Models to Test LA River Restoration Concepts
A 1:120-scale hydraulic model paired with an interactive flow simulation enables a USC team to evaluate restoration concepts as they take shape.
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USC Dual-Use Hackathon Challenges Students to Engineer for the Unexpected
As part of LA Tech Week, Innovate LA and USC Viterbi's Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hosted a university-wide hackathon to design and prototype dual-use technologies – innovations with everyday and emergency applications.
AI for Engineering and Science

When scientists made the historic first detection of gravitational waves in 2016 — confirming a century-old prediction by Einstein — USC was behind the scenes making it possible.

USC ISI's Pegasus Workflow Management System had spent 15 years working with LIGO, automating the analysis of tens of terabytes of data and running millions of computational tasks that helped prove one of physics' greatest theories. The same software also generated the first physics-based probabilistic seismic hazard map of Southern California.

Today that tradition of AI-accelerated discovery continues across every scientific frontier: USC researchers have developed an AI model capable of simulating billions of atoms simultaneously to unlock new materials; AI tools are decoding the Earth's subsurface to advance COâ‚‚ storage and energy resource management; USC scientists have built a system that can draft a full research paper in under an hour; and AI is compressing years of trial-and-error alloy discovery into weeks.

Unlocking the Physics of Turbulence with AI
A USC-led collaboration has received Department of Energy Genesis Mission funding to develop an AI framework for unprecedented high-fidelity turbulence simulation.
Can AI “Understand” a Fundamental Concept of Chemistry?
When USC Viterbi researchers developed a way to look inside a powerful AI model, they found evidence that it had independently learned one of chemistry's most fundamental concepts: the chemical bond.
The Fire Forecast: AI Model Accurately Predicts the Spread of Wildfires in Real Time
By combining high-resolution satellite data, terrain data and realistic fire simulations, USC Viterbi researchers have developed a reconstruction and prediction tool for making informed decisions when tackling catastrophic wildfires.
From Alzheimer’s to PTSD: How a USC Scientist Hopes AI Can Unlock – and One Day Restore – Human Memory
Using AI paired with brain-machine interfaces, Dong Song wants to study how memories form in real life, and eventually help those who have lost the ability to make them.
Upcoming Events
Nov
10
GCSP x WIE Panel

Nov. 10, 2026 | 6:00 pm — 7:30 pm

Nov
11
From Trousdale to Tech: Leaders Shaping the Future of Innovation!

Nov. 11, 2026 | 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm

Nov
13
An Evening with Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst: Exploring Art, Music, and Creativity in the Age of AI

Nov. 13, 2026 | 7:00 pm — 8:30 pm

Nov
17
New Space Economy Symposium

Nov. 17, 2026 | 11:00 am — 12:00 pm

Nov
18
Medical Imaging Seminar Series

Nov. 18, 2026 | 10:00 am — 11:00 am

Nov
19
Spring 2027 Mentor Info Session & Training

Nov. 19, 2026 | 3:30 pm — 5:00 pm

Nov
19
CAIS Seminar with Dr Soonbong Lee

Nov. 19, 2026 | 4:00 pm — 5:30 pm

Dec
3
ORAI Research Symposium

Dec. 3, 2026 | 10:00 am — 1:30 pm

Dec
3
Bay Area VIP Holiday Social

Dec. 3, 2026 | 6:00 pm — 8:30 pm

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    New Space Economy Forum

    Tuesday, November 17, 2026 - 9:00am - 6:30pm

    For the people building Southern California’s space economy
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    Academic Departments

    Got a Good Idea? Go Build It.
    Seniors in USC Viterbi's Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering have a summer and a semester to convert four years of engineering education into innovative, testable devices and systems.
    Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
    A Soft Robot Reaches for the Stars
    USC researchers are teaching a flexible, nature-inspired machine to crawl, cling and someday inspect spacecraft or explore places robots cannot reach
    Astronautical Engineering
    A Lollipop That Could Make Medical Testing Easier to Swallow
    USC biomedical engineer Maral Mousavi and her students designed LollyLab to monitor health through saliva: quickly, painlessly and potentially for just a few dollars
    Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
    Can AI “Understand” a Fundamental Concept of Chemistry?
    When USC Viterbi researchers developed a way to look inside a powerful AI model, they found evidence that it had independently learned one of chemistry's most fundamental concepts: the chemical bond.
    The Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
    Three USC Engineers on What the Next Big Earthquake Could Mean for Los Angeles
    USC Engineering Insights — Researchers across USC Viterbi explore what the next major earthquake could mean for Los Angeles, from amplified ground motion and unstable geology to AI-powered traffic systems and the materials that determine whether a building stands or falls.
    Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
    The People Picked to Represent You Probably Don’t
    Citizens' assemblies are one of democracy's most exciting experiments. But new research by USC Viterbi and USC Stevens shows the way we build them may be missing the point entirely.
    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
    20 Years, 20 Wins: USC ECE Celebrates Two Decades Under the Ming Hsieh Name
    From USC student to university trustee, Ming Hsieh’s journey and historic $35 million gift helped shape two decades of growth, innovation and achievement at USC ECE
    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
    Why Patience Can Create More Value in a Partnership
    New research from USC Viterbi's Ali Abbas could change how investors divide risk, select partners and share the rewards of long-term deals
    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
    20 Years, 20 Wins: USC ECE Celebrates Two Decades Under the Ming Hsieh Name
    From USC student to university trustee, Ming Hsieh’s journey and historic $35 million gift helped shape two decades of growth, innovation and achievement at USC ECE
    Six New Faculty Join USC Stevens School of Computing and AI This Year
    Joining from the University of Michigan and USC's Information Sciences Institute, the new faculty bring expertise in AI, quantum computing, advanced hardware and machine learning
    State of the School 2026: Built for What Comes Next
    From a transformative investment in AI to major research wins and a new emphasis on experiential learning, USC Viterbi continues to derive strength from its people.
    USC Scientists Are Using Quantum Computing to Rethink Cancer Detection
    By combining quantum computing with artificial intelligence, USC researchers are laying the groundwork for medical imaging tools that could help doctors diagnose cancer and plan treatments more precisely
    Quantum Computing

    USC Viterbi has been a global pioneer in quantum computing.

    In 2011, the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center at the USC Information Sciences Institute became the first academic institution in the world to house and operate a commercial quantum computer — a D-Wave One that prompted Google and NASA to follow with their own systems just two years later.

    Today, USC remains the only university in the world with a dedicated on-site quantum computer, and in 2024 added the first IBM Quantum Innovation Center on the West Coast, giving researchers cloud access to IBM's most advanced systems.

    Ranked among the top five graduate programs in quantum information science globally, USC Viterbi is training the next generation of quantum scientists while pushing the field forward - from demonstrating unconditional exponential quantum scaling advantage to probing exotic kagome superconductors.

    Published on October 11th, 2016

    Last updated on November 10th, 2026