Collage featuring Dean Yannis C. Yortsos of USC Viterbi School of Engineering, superimposed in front of a modern campus building. The background includes a large, semi-transparent circle with yellow and orange gradients, and scattered red brush strokes, evoking a sense of innovation and creativity.

Dean's Editorial

About seven months ago, we woke up to a new reality. Seven months later, our world still struggles to contain a global pandemic. When the contagion started, I thought that the most important challenge was that it will test what we value. And, so it did. And it will continue to do so, in the near future and in the post-COVID world.

What have we learned these past months?

Initiatives

How the USC engineering community came together
to answer a global call to action

Race for a Vaccine
  • Searching for a viable vaccine and identifying therapeutic treatments that can improve recovery times for COVID-19 patients.
  • Faculty:
    1. Pin Wang, professor in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Disinfecting Surfaces Remotely
  • Developing a virus-busting PPE disinfectant method that utilizes UV light to monkey-wrench the genetic code of coronavirus so it can’t replicate itself. It can also be rapidly deployed at multiple locations, making secondary disinfection a decentralized process.
  • Adapting a 2017 project, ADAMM (Agile Dexterous Autonomous Mobile Manipulation System) to disinfect spaces remotely and autonomously using a six-jointed robotic arm that sprays CDC-approved chemical disinfectants to completely coat surfaces.
  • Faculty: 
    1. Andrea Armani, Ray Irani Chair in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
    2. Satyandra K. Gupta, Smith International Professorship in Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
Building An Early Warning System
  • Developing models to better forecast what the pandemic might do next and provide these prognoses quickly to decision makers.
  • Faculty:
    1. Viktor Prasanna, Charles Lee Powell Chair in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    2. Adam Smith, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Contact Tracing
  • Building a contact-tracing app that allows users to enter symptoms and locations visited, providing individualized risk analysis, identifying potential hot spots and giving researchers a better idea of how the virus is spreading while safeguarding user privacy.
  • Faculty:
    1. Cyrus Shahabi, Helen N. and Emmett H. Jones Professorship in Engineering and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Mobilizing PPE
  • Supporting hospitals around the country, starting with USC Keck Medical Center, with the production of masks, ventilators and even swabs.
  • Faculty and Students:
    1. Satyandra K. Gupta, Smith International Professorship in Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
    2. Andrea Armani, Ray Irani Chair in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
    3. Yong Chen, professor of industrial and systems engineering and aerospace and mechanical engineering
    4. USC Viterbi alumna MacKenzie McClung, B.S. ‘20
Collaborating on Public Health Nationwide
  • Empowering a global task force of USC Viterbi alums and National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges Scholars to crowdsource and brainstorm engineering solutions to the pandemic through the NAE’s Call to Action at an expedited pace with the support of the NSF sponsored I-Corps Innovation Node Los Angeles.
  • Faculty and Students:
    1. Yannis Yortsos, co-founder of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program
    2. Najm Meshkati, a Grand Challenges Scholars Program faculty adviser and a professor of civil and environmental engineering, industrial systems engineering and international relations
    3. Alice Liu, assistant director for the Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship
    4. USC Viterbi alumna Julia Sircar, B.S.’20
Combatting Misinformation
  • Analyzing millions of tweets to investigate how false information about the coronavirus spreads on social media, as well as to monitor public sentiment toward related policies.
  • Faculty:
    1. Yan Liu, Philip and Cayley MacDonald Endowed Early Career Chair and associate professor of computer science

"Viterbi vs. Pandemics!"
Lecture Series

A lecture series that addresses epidemics in a comprehensive way from the perspective of USC Viterbi faculty who have contributed in developing new understanding and new methods to predict, analyze, and combat COVID-19.

USC Viterbi By The Numbers

Historic black and white photo of a group of students and faculty in front of the Civil Engineering building at USC, accompanied by early surveying equipment. The image is overlayed with graphic elements, including a translucent red polygon and a yellow circle in the background, as well as an antique compass in the foreground, symbolizing the passage of time and the history of engineering education.
USC Engineering began in
1905

Student Population

Today the student population is
approximately 2,800 undergraduate
and 6,200 graduate students
A diverse group of five female students gathered around a table, engaging in a discussion outdoors. The students appear animated and focused on their conversation. The background features a bold yellow brush stroke, adding a vibrant and dynamic aesthetic to the scene.

Alumni

78,000+
Photo of five joyful graduates from USC Viterbi, dressed in graduation regalia, with red stoles indicating membership in Sigma Nu fraternity, leis, and USC sashes, celebrating their achievement. They are grouped together, smiling broadly, encapsulated within a circular frame overlaid on a grid background, symbolizing the large alumni network of over 78,000.

Academic Departments

8
Collage of several buildings of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, featuring modern architecture with brick facades and large windows. A vibrant yellow brush stroke partially overlays the image, with a red brush stroke in the background, visually emphasizing the school's eight academic departments.

Research Expenditures

$208+
million

with more than 46 research centers
and institutes

Faculty

191
Tenure-track faculty
115
Endowed and honorific
77
NSF Career Awardees
17
Full-time,tenure-track
NAE members (31 total affiliated)
4
NAS members
15
MIT TR35 winners
2
Nobel Prize laureates
(George A. Olah, Arieh Warshel)

Centers and Institutes

Home to:
» Information Sciences Institute (ISI)
» The Ming Hsieh Institute
» The Daniel J. Epstein Institute
» Innovation Node-Los Angeles, National Science Foundation’s (NSF)
» University Center of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE)
» DOE/White House Materials Genome Initiative Center
» Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS)
» Center on Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things (CCI)
» Machine Learning Center (MaSCle)
» Center for Energy and Nanoscience
» USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center
» Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies (CiSoft)
» Pratt & Whitney Institute for Collaborative Engineering (PWICE)
» Airbus Institute for Engineering Research (AIER)
» NIH Center on Genomics and Phenomics of Autism
» USC Energy Institute
»USC Center for Sustainability Solutions
»Northrop Grumman Institute of Optical Nanomaterials and Nanophotonics (NG-ION2)
»Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM)

Affiliated with:
» Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering (AMI)
» USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT)
» USC Stevens Center for Innovation

Education Centers
» Division of Engineering Education
» KIUEL (Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life)
» VAST: Viterbi Adopt-a-School, Adopt-a-Teacher
» Viterbi Student Innovation Institute (VSI2)

Published on October 26th, 2020

Last updated on June 24th, 2024