Spotlight on Extraordinary Achievements

At the 2025 Faculty & Staff Awards, USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos celebrated anniversaries, major milestones and faculty and staff excellence. The 46th annual ceremony, held on Thursday, April 24 at Town and Gown, also spotlighted some of USC Viterbi’s space-related achievements.

In his remarks, Dean Yortsos talked about the 20th anniversary of USC Rocket Propulsion Lab, or RPL, noting that it became the first student-led group to design, build, and successfully launch a rocket past the Kármán line — the recognized boundary of space at 100 kilometers above Earth. More recently, RPL set another world-record when Aftershock II became the world’s first civilian-built rocket to reach 470,000 feet. “This is quite an accomplishment,” he said.

USC’s deep connection to space predates RPL, Yortsos said. “In 1970, Neil Armstrong earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at USC. After conquering the heavens, he conquered the earth – or at least Troy.”

And before that, several future faculty members, including electrical engineers Sol Golomb, Andrew Viterbi and Lloyd Welch, worked at JPL and revolutionized communications. Later, Viterbi invented the Viterbi Algorithm, which sparked the digital revolution by paving the way for the widespread use of cellular technology.

Yortsos added that 12 USC Viterbi alumni have journeyed beyond Earth’s atmosphere as NASA astronauts, including former NASA administrator Charlie Bolden.

Other USC Viterbi graduates have played major roles in space-related businesses. Alumnus Scott Willoughby of Northrop Grumman oversaw the design, development and integration of the James Webb Space Telescope. Alumni entrepreneurs Jordan Noone and Tim Ellis, both former RPL members, cofounded Relativity Space, the world’s first 3D-printed rocket company. In 2015, alumnus Joe Laurienti founded Ursa Major Technologies, which designs and manufactures reusable staged-combustion engines that can launch vehicles into space or precisely guide an in-space craft on a specific trajectory.

Back on earth, Professor Maja Matarić was elected to the National Academy of Engineering – the highest professional honor in engineering. The founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center, she is known for her groundbreaking work in the field of socially assistive robotics. Additionally, Francisco Valero-Cuevas, Theodore Tsotsis and Wei-Wu were elected as Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors; Yasser Khan won a 2024 Packard Award; and Yolanda Gil was appointed to the U.S. National Science Board.

Dean Yortsos shared more good news.

Earlier this year, alumnus Jonathan Emami – a member of the USC Viterbi Board of Councilors and the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board – made a transformative gift to name the USC Construction Management Program and to create the new Emami Construction Management Institute. Similarly, Neil Siegel, IBM Professor of Engineering Management, and his wife Robyn established a new chair for faculty recruited from industry in the field of engineering management.

“In keeping with USC Viterbi’s commitment to changing the conversation about engineering,” Yortsos said, the school’s first-year engineering class was gender balanced for the sixth consecutive year. “This is an unparalleled accomplishment for an engineering school,” the dean added.

In recognition of the hard work and noteworthy achievements of select faculty and staff members, Dean Yortsos and other USC Viterbi leaders presented a series of awards during the event. Awardees included:

• Noe Mora – Staff Early Career Award
• Lindsay Burglin – Staff Award for Excellence
• Kim Matsunaga – Linda Rock Staff Service Award
• Yasser Khan – Junior Research Award
• Quntao Zhuang – Junior Research Award
• Joshua Yang – Senior Research Award
• Yong Chen – Use-Inspired Research Award
• Kandis Leslie Gilliard-AbdulAziz – Chevron Research Excellence Award
• Lessa Grunenfelder – Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching
• Trina Gregory – Dean’s Award for Innovation in Teaching and Education
• Navid Nastar – Viterbi Part-Time Faculty Teaching Award
• Yann Staelens – Ershaghi Faculty Mentorship Award
• Gandhi Puvvada – John O’ Brien Faculty Service Award
• Mandeep Bhari – Special Service Award

Gaurav Sukhatme, executive vice dean and the inaugural director of the School of Advanced Computing, spoke about the SAC’s illustrious first year. “A lot has happened,” he said.

In March, over two dozen SAC faculty led by Professors Ramesh Govindan and Massoud Pedram organized the school’s first symposium on the future of computing, which drew leading scholars in all areas of computing to USC to share their views on how the field will evolve over the next 25 years.

Suukhatme said he hopes to make the symposium a regular event “to engage the computing research community broadly and for our faculty to play a significant role in shaping the field.”

SAC has also recruited six “star tenured professors” over the past year: two in computer science, three in electrical and computer engineering, and one in the Earth sciences.

Additionally, the School of Advanced Computing also celebrated the first anniversary of the USC-Capital One Center for Responsible AI and Decision Making in Finance (CREDIF), the SAC’s inaugural research center. CREDIF advances responsible AI for financial services through innovative research and fellowship support for doctoral students.

“Part of the excitement of the SAC is to grow the community of scholars dedicated to expanding the frontiers of computing across all areas at USC,” Sukhatme said.

Noe Mora – Staff Early Career Award

Lindsay Burglin – Staff Award for Excellence

Kim Matsunaga – Linda Rock Staff Service Award

Yasser Khan – Junior Research Award

Quntao Zhuang – Junior Research Award

Joshua Yang – Senior Research Award

Yong Chen – Use-Inspired Research Award

Kandis Leslie Gilliard-AbdulAziz – Chevron Research Excellence Award

Lessa Grunenfelder – Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching

Trina Gregory – Dean’s Award for Innovation in Teaching and Education

 Navid Nastar – Viterbi Part-Time Faculty Teaching Award

Yann Staelens – Ershaghi Faculty Mentorship Award

Gandhi Puvvada – John O’ Brien Faculty Service Award

Mandeep Bhari – Special Service Award

 

 

Published on April 30th, 2025

Last updated on April 30th, 2025