USC Viterbi School of Engineering

USC Professor Azad Madni Awarded 2026 John Fritz Medal
Azad M. Madni has been awarded the 2026 John Fritz Medal, widely regarded as engineering’s highest honor and often called the “Nobel Prize of Engineering.”
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Viterbi School News
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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.
Buildings May Survive an Earthquake but Remain Unusable
USC Engineering Insights – USC Viterbi’s Professor Bora Gencturk explains why meeting seismic code does not guarantee that a building can reopen after an earthquake, and how performance-based design could support a faster recovery.
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After an Earthquake, the Road Map Changes. This AI Model Was Built for That
USC Engineering Insights - When a major earthquake hits Los Angeles, our best traffic models will be reading a map that no longer exists. USC Viterbi professor Cyrus Shahabi is building the system that can adapt in real time.
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How Los Angeles’ Geology Can Intensify an Earthquake
USC Engineering Insights – Assistant Professor Chukwuebuka Nweke explains how the region’s sedimentary basins can amplify seismic waves – and why different earthquakes can produce different patterns of amplified ground motion across Los Angeles.
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USC Viterbi to Honor Applied Mathematician Irena Lasiecka With 2026 Balakrishnan Award
The University of Memphis professor will receive this year's Balakrishnan Research Award for her contributions to applied mathematics and control theory and deliver a lecture on AI-assisted methods for controlling complex physical systems.
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USC’s Yasser Khan Receives DARPA Young Faculty Award to Develop Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Brain Injury
USC researcher Yasser Khan, a 2026 DARPA Young Faculty Award recipient, will develop chemical and physiological sensors to help detect neural damage in patients with traumatic brain injury
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USC Robotics Leader Maja Matarić Named to Forbes 50 Over 50: Innovation List
A pioneer of socially assistive robotics, Matarić has spent more than 2 decades developing robots that “help people help themselves”
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New AI Spreadsheet Tool Lets You Branch, Edit and Undo and Fix Mistakes as It Goes
The new tool gives users greater control over AI agents by allowing them to trace, steer and revise their decisions in real time, attracting new funding from Microsoft.
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USC ECE Faculty Lead Innovation in Engineering Education for the AI Era
From AI-integrated coursework to oral quizzes and video-based assessments, USC Viterbi and USC Stevens ECE department leaders are rethinking engineering education to prepare students for the rapidly evolving tech industry.
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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
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.

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
Oct
15
Space: The Next Frontier of Technology

Oct. 15, 2026 | 11:00 am — 12:00 pm

Oct
15
Space: The Next Frontier of Technology

Oct. 15, 2026 | 2:00 pm — 5:00 pm

Oct
16
The Dual Use Hackathon - Kickoff

Oct. 16, 2026 | 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm

Oct
17
The Dual Use Hackathon - Build Day and Midnight Games

Oct. 17, 2026 | 4:45 am — 4:45 am

Oct
18
The Dual Use Hackathon - Day 3 - Final Show Case

Oct. 18, 2026 | 12:00 pm — 2:00 pm

Oct
20
USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence Naming Celebration

Oct. 20, 2026 | 4:00 pm — 6:00 pm

Oct
22
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 20th Naming Anniversary & Research Festival

Oct. 22, 2026 | 9:00 am — 5:00 pm

Oct
22
TAC Fest 2026

Oct. 22, 2026 | 10:00 am — 3:00 pm

Oct
23
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 20th Naming Anniversary & Research Festival

Oct. 23, 2026 | 9:00 am — 5:00 pm

Nov
2
Ronald and Valerie Sugar Distinguished Speaker Series in Advanced Computing: Dylan Jadeja

Nov. 2, 2026 | 5:00 pm — 7:00 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

    Built for Speed, Engineered for Safety
    For the Auto Club of Southern California’s summer campaign against illegal street racing, the student-run design team USC Racing demonstrated how safety is built into every stage of developing a competitive race car.
    Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
    USC Space Lab Opens Its Doors as A New Era of Space Competition Takes Off
    First-ever open house showcases USC SERC where students are building satellites, developing space robots and preparing for the next generation of space exploration
    Astronautical Engineering
    A new way to help CAR-T cells fight solid tumors could change cancer treatment
    USC researchers developed a technique that uses focused ultrasound to temporarily "light up" solid tumors, giving cancer-fighting immune cells a target they can finally recognize.
    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
    What Happens When Food-Safety Chemicals React With Food?
    USC Viterbi researcher Adam Simpson studies compounds created when industrial disinfectants alter food, and whether those changes could affect human health.
    Sonny Astani Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
    They Developed an AI Tool to Detect Online Job Ads Linked to Human Trafficking
    The USC Viterbi and Stevens researchers' automated system analyzes multilingual job postings to identify deceptive recruitment tactics, risky platforms and industries targeted by traffickers
    Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
    A Tiny Gatekeeper Could Keep AI on Your Device
    USC Viterbi scientists built a device of five thin atomic layers that could make memory chips dramatically denser, cheaper, and powerful enough to run AI on your phone without sending a single byte to the cloud.
    Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
    USC Students Are Developing a Forecasting System to Improve Hospital Operations
    USC Viterbi analytics and health systems management students are creating a forecasting system with an interactive analytics dashboard that helps USC Keck Medicine professionals better anticipate future patient demand and operational needs.
    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
    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
    Toward Quantum-Augmented Databases: New USC Study Aims to Break the Bottlenecks Slowing Modern Data Systems
    USC Viterbi researcher wins NSF Career Award and aims to study how quantum computing can transform database optimization for a data-intensive future
    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 October 15th, 2026