USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Mark and Mary Stevens give $200 million to power AI research across USC
The university will name the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence to honor their investment in research and innovation at the intersections of AI and health sciences, business, security and the arts.
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Tiny Particles in Urine Could Be the Key to Treating a Deadly Childhood Kidney Disease
USC Viterbi researchers have discovered that a naturally occurring nanoparticle found in urine shows early promise as a treatment, and potentially a prenatal intervention, for a rare disease that kills newborns and has no approved therapy.
A Robot Hand That Taught Itself to Play Piano Could Change the Future of Machines
USC researchers built a robotic hand that hears a melody once and plays it back after just two minutes of self-taught practice on a keyboard. They say the implications go far beyond music.
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USC @ ICRA 2026
USC Engineers to Present 32 Papers in Robotics: From Safer Autonomous Navigation and Dexterous Manipulation to VLMs and AI-Driven Learning for Robots
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USC Scientists Built a Tiny System That Thinks Like a Brain and Runs on Thin Air
Inspired by how the brain processes sight and touch simultaneously, a new device born in a Viterbi lab senses, encodes, and learns from the world around it using nothing but the energy that world provides.
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A pacemaker without surgery? USC Viterbi’s Qifa Zhou and team’s ultrasound breakthrough could change heart care
A wearable, noninvasive device uses sound waves and gene therapy to regulate the heartbeat, no implants required
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10 Projects, 10 Solutions: Student Engineers Tackle Everyday Problems
From self-driving skateboards to robot butlers and more, USC Makers Hosted Spring 2026 Showcase turning ideas into reality and celebrating its 10-year anniversary
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To the Classroom and Beyond: USC Viterbi Students Develop Highly Accurate Spinal Disc Teaching Models
A novel teaching tool built by USC engineering students in collaboration with USC Keck Physical Therapy Professionals enables enhanced modeling and understanding of spinal cord mobility.
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From 5G to ‘seeing around the corner’: USC Engineer Shapes the Present and Future of Wireless Communication
Andreas Molisch's research advances modern wireless systems by improving how signals are modeled, transmitted and understood - from smartphones to autonomous vehicles.
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Ingenuity and Perseverance: USC Viterbi Master’s Graduates Are Ready For The Toughest Challenges
More than 3,500 engineering students gathered at the Galen Center on May 15 to celebrate the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Class of 2026 master's commencement ceremonies, marked by keynote addresses.
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At USC Viterbi, 170 newly minted Ph.Ds. stepped forward toward a bright future
The Class of 2026 gathered at Bovard Auditorium to celebrate years of research, discovery and impact.
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 CO₂ 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.

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.
For the First Time, Scientists Have Mapped the Genetics of How the Brain Ages, Region by Region
USC Viterbi senior Nicholas Kim, a biomedical engineering major, led the landmark study with hopes that it could one day help improve the treatment of dementia and other brain disorders.
The End of Academic Writer’s Block? This Tool by USC Scientists Writes Research Papers in Under an Hour
USC researcher launches GRAIL just one day after OpenAI's competing platform, promising to turn rough notes into submission-ready papers in under an hour

Academic Departments

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.
Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
USC Engineers Prepare to Listen as Orion Heads for the Moon
A 4.5-meter dish antenna on the USC campus will join 33 other ground stations contributing to a study of how spacecraft signals behave at lunar distance.
Astronautical Engineering
A pacemaker without surgery? USC Viterbi’s Qifa Zhou and team’s ultrasound breakthrough could change heart care
A wearable, noninvasive device uses sound waves and gene therapy to regulate the heartbeat, no implants required
Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering
Three Materials Science PhD Students Selected for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) supports emerging researchers who demonstrate exceptional potential to advance science and engineering
The Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
SoCal CEERS Symposium Strengthens Ties Between Academia and Industry
Spearheaded by USC Viterbi PhD students, the annual SoCal Civil and Environmental Research Symposium (SoCal CEERS) connects academic research and industry practice for the Southern California CEE community.
Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
USC Graduates From Amazon, Google and IBM Shared Insights at the Department’s First Alumni Panel
Alumni panel showcased power of USC Viterbi's Trojan network, helps students navigate software engineering careers
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
USC Scientists Built a Tiny System That Thinks Like a Brain and Runs on Thin Air
Inspired by how the brain processes sight and touch simultaneously, a new device born in a Viterbi lab senses, encodes, and learns from the world around it using nothing but the energy that world provides.
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
USC Viterbi’s Karmel S. Shehadeh Lands Prestigious AFOSR Grant
Her research aims to advance the state-of-the-art contextual stochastic optimization methodologies, providing tools for making smarter decisions when the future is uncertain.
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
USC Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Rooted in an interdisciplinary approach, the school, a unit of USC Viterbi, serves as the hub for advanced computing research and education at USC.

Recent Highlights

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Older Americans and Veterans Wait Longer for Financial Justice
A new study by USC Viterbi examining over 1.27 million federal complaints finds that older Americans and veterans are consistently receiving slower responses from financial companies, and the gap is getting worse right as the watchdog agency meant to protect them faces uncertainty.
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USC Researchers Presented Ways to use AI for Social Good at ShowCAIS 2026
USC Center for AI in Society Celebrated 10th Anniversary and Hosted Annual Symposium Featuring AI Research Across the University
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USC Institute on Ethics and Trust in Computing Launched Inaugural Summit
Researchers and industry leaders across engineering, law, philosophy, business and more gathered to discuss key issues in ethical and trustworthy AI at IETC's first summit
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USC at ICLR 2026
USC researchers set record for oral presentations at ICLR 2026, with key breakthroughs in language model reliability, multimodal reasoning and robotics
An Innovative
School-Within-A-School
Operating as a “school-within-a-school” under USC Viterbi, the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence consists of the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science (CS), the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and the Division of Computing Education (DCE). Moreover, the School partners closely with USC Viterbi’s two powerhouse institutes, the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) and the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT).
A USC Doctoral Student Solves a Longstanding Problem in Quantum Cryptography
Miryam Huang is the first USC student to win the prestigious Machtey Award, recognized for solving a cryptographic problem first posed in 1976 and later asked as an open question in the quantum setting, with important implications for quantum cryptography.
Scientists Propose New Explanation for Quantum “Spookiness” That Einstein Might Actually Like
USC Viterbi researchers suggest mysterious quantum connections may arise from common-sense physics, not supernatural weirdness.
Beyond the Hype: Quantum Computers Start Solving Real Problems
At ISI's LA Tech Week panel, researchers explored how the principles of quantum mechanics are becoming real-world technologies, with high hopes for drug discovery
What Can Simulate Nature? Aid Blockbuster Drugs? And Get Congress to Agree?
USC, home of the first operational quantum computer in academia, hosted its second quantum technology forum, bringing together leading experts from industry, academia and government.
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 June 9th, 2026