USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Last updated

USC Viterbi School of Engineering
USC Viterbi School of Engineering logo.svg
Type Private
Established1905 [1]
Parent institution
 University of Southern California
Dean Yannis C. Yortsos
Academic staff
188 [1]
Undergraduates 2700 [1]
Postgraduates 5900 [1]
Location
Los Angeles
,
California
,
United States

34°1′12″N118°17′20″W / 34.02000°N 118.28889°W / 34.02000; -118.28889
Campus Urban
Website viterbischool.usc.edu
Biegler Hall, USC Viterbi School of Engineering Biegler Hall, USC Viterbi School of Engineering.jpg
Biegler Hall, USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Main academic complex at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Vivian Hall, USC.jpg
Main academic complex at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm. [2]

Contents

The school is headed by Dean Yannis Yortsos. Its research centers have played a major role in development of multiple technologies, including early development of the Internet when USC researcher Jonathan Postel was an editor of communications-protocol for the fledgling internet, also known as ARPANET. [3] The school's faculty has included Irving Reed, Leonard Adleman, Solomon W. Golomb, Barry Boehm, Clifford Newman, Richard Bellman, Lloyd Welch, Alexander Sawchuk, Maja Matarić, and George V. Chilingar.

Major research centers

Specific contributions

Student organizations

AeroDesign Team of USC

The AeroDesign Team (ADT) is a student-led design team within the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Founded in 1991, ADT's purpose is to help students gain industry-like experience by competing in early design competitions that simulate typical design cycles in the Aerospace field. The team started out competing in the SAE AeroDesign contest but then switched its participation to the AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) contest in 1997. The DBF contest has rules that change yearly, requiring students to come up with a completely new design each year. ADT won the DBF contest in 1998, 2009, 2014, and 2017. This is the second most first-place finish ever out of the 100+ universities from around the world that participate yearly.

Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering

Among the many organizations on campus, the Associated Students of Biomedical Engineering (ASBME) is an undergraduate student organization for biomedical engineering students at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. ASBME is a student-run undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering organization at USC that serves the engineering student body through academic, social, and corporate events. Students gain clarity in their chosen field of study and the opportunities that being a BME major brings. Students are also able to get a foot in the corporate door at the annual ASBME corporate dinner, attended by USC alumni as well as other corporate representatives.

Activities consist of regular meetings with guest speakers and panels, the BIOMED Research Symposium, the annual Corporate Dinner and Networking Nights designed to foster relationships between graduating students and industry, and many other social, community, and corporate events.

ASBME serves as USC's chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and sends some of its students to the annual BMES Conference each year.

Pi Tau Sigma (Tau Beta Chapter)

Pi Tau Sigma is an international mechanical engineering honor society that strives to "create better engineers through a commitment to academic excellence and dedication to service." The USC Tau Beta Chapter is composed of the top mechanical engineers at the University of Southern California. USC's Pi Tau Sigma engages in social, industry and community service-related events in the USC neighborhood and beyond. Paul Ronney serves as an advisor for the USC chapter of Pi Tau Sigma.

USC Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

USC has a student chapter of Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. AAAI organizes speaker events and information sessions in the field of Artificial Intelligence to increase students' interest in AI.

USC Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL)

USCRPL was founded in 2005 with the goal of putting a student-designed and -built rocket into space. [4]

In 2019, USCRPL became the world’s first student organization to successfully launch and recover an entirely student-designed and student-fabricated rocket (Traveler IV) past the Karman line with a confidence of 90%. [5]

Viterbi Graduate Students Association (VGSA)

The Viterbi Graduate Students Association (VGSA) is the student government for the graduate students of the Viterbi School. It consists of representatives from all departments and several student organizations, as well as the Viterbi Graduate Student Liaison (VGSL). [6]

Notable alumni

Historical accomplishments

In 1970, Neil Armstrong, who was the first person to set foot on the Moon, during the 1969 NASA Apollo mission, graduated USC with a master of science degree in aerospace engineering.

Equipped with the ability to adapt to arbitrary shapes without any external control, pioneering roboticist George Bekey co-created the world’s first five-fingered robot in 1977—the first able to give a true handshake.

In 1983, the internet's pivotal Domain Name System (DNS) was invented by ISI researcher Paul Mockapetris. The DNS works as a phone book directory for the internet, automatically translating text addresses, which humans can understand and remember, to numerical addresses that computers can understand.

Fundraising

Previously known as the USC School of Engineering, it was renamed on March 2, 2004, as the Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering in honor of Qualcomm co-founder Andrew Viterbi and his wife Erna, who had donated $52 million to the school. The Viterbi School received other major gifts including gifts from Silicon Valley venture capitalist Mark Stevens who created the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation in 2004; [7] real estate developer Daniel J. Epstein who named the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering with an $11 million gift in 2002; [8] Energy Corporation of America CEO John Mork who named the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science with a $15 million gift in 2005; [9] Ken Klein, CEO and president of Wind River Systems, who established the Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life with an $11 million gift, also in 2005; [10] Ming Hsieh, founder of Cogent Inc., who named the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering in 2006 with a $35 million gift; [11] and Los Angeles real estate developer Sonny Astani, who named the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a $17 million gift in 2007. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information Sciences Institute</span> University of Southern California research institute

The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications technologies. It is located in Marina del Rey, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Viterbi</span> Italian-American engineer, businessman

Andrew James Viterbi is an Italian Jewish–American electrical engineer and businessman who co-founded Qualcomm Inc. and invented the Viterbi algorithm. He is the Presidential Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering, which was named in his honor in 2004 in recognition of his $52 million gift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York University Tandon School of Engineering</span> University in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

The New York University Tandon School of Engineering is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science</span> School of Columbia University in New York

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University. It was founded as the School of Mines in 1863 and then the School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry before becoming the School of Engineering and Applied Science. On October 1, 1997, the school was renamed in honor of Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu, who had donated $26 million to the school.

The UC Davis College of Engineering is one of four undergraduate colleges on the campus of the University of California, Davis. One of the largest engineering programs in the U.S., the UC Davis College of Engineering offers 11 ABET-accredited undergraduate engineering majors. The college offers majors from a broad scope of engineering disciplines, including aerospace science, biochemical, biological systems, biomedical, chemical, civil, computer science, electrical, materials science, and mechanical engineering.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. is a technical school which specializes in engineering, technology, communications, and transportation. The school is located on the main campus of the George Washington University and offers both undergraduate and graduate programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. James Clark School of Engineering</span> Engineering school of the University of Maryland

The A. James Clark School of Engineering is the engineering college of the University of Maryland, College Park. The school consists of fourteen buildings on the College Park campus that cover over 750,000 sq ft (70,000 m2). The school is near Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, as well as several technology-driven institutions.

Alampallam Venkatachalaiyer Balakrishnan (1922-2015) was an American applied mathematician and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The academics of the University of Southern California center on The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the Graduate School, and its 17 professional schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yannis C. Yortsos</span> Greek-American chemical engineer and academic

Yannis C. Yortsos is a Greek-American chemical engineer and academic, currently serving as Dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Utah College of Engineering</span> John and Marcia Price College of Engineering in Utah, U.S.

The John and Marcia Price College of Engineering at the University of Utah is an academic college of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and computer science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown University School of Engineering</span> Engineering school of Brown University

The Brown University School of Engineering is the engineering school of Brown University, a private Ivy League research university located in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown's engineering program is the third oldest civilian engineering program in the United States and the oldest undergraduate program in the Ivy League. The School of Engineering is noted for its historically prominent contributions to continuum and applied mechanics, originally led by European émigré researchers in the 20th century. Brown's Division of Engineering was elevated in 2010 to its current status as a school.

The University of Missouri College of Engineering is one of the 19 academic schools and colleges of the University of Missouri, a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. The college, also known as Mizzou Engineering, has an enrollment of 3,204 students who are enrolled in 10 bachelor’s programs, nine master’s programs and seven doctorate programs. There are six academic departments within the College: Chemical and Biomedica Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Industrial and Systems Engineering; Engineering and Information Technology; and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The college traces its beginning to the first engineering courses taught west of the Mississippi River in 1849. The college was ranked 88th nationally by the U.S. News & World Report in 2016.

Anita Sengupta is an American aerospace engineer. She is a graduate in aerospace and mechanical engineering of the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. She was the lead systems engineer of the team that developed the parachute system that was deployed during the landing of Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity. She was subsequently the project manager of the Cold Atom Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech. She was then the Senior Vice President of Systems Engineering at Virgin Hyperloop One. She is currently Chief Product Officer at Airspace Experience Technologies (ASX).

Robert E. "Rob" Meyerson is an American aerospace engineer and executive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Gruntman</span> American physicist

Mike Gruntman is a Russian-American physicist, space engineer, and author. He is professor of astronautics and aerospace engineering at the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC).

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is a department within the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, providing aerospace education and research. Housed primarily in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences building on the university's East Campus in Boulder, it awards baccalaureate, masters, and PhD degrees, as well as certificates, graduating approximately 225 students annually. The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is ranked 10th in the nation in both undergraduate and graduate aerospace engineering education among public universities by US News & World Report.

Tim Ellis is an American aerospace engineer and the co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Engineering | Academics | USC". academics.usc.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  2. ↑ "Qualcomm Co-Founder, Wife Give $52 Million to USC Engineering School". 2 March 2004. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  3. ↑ "The History of ISI". Information Sciences Institute (USC). Archived from the original on 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  4. ↑ "USCRPL". The world’s premier undergraduate research group for experimental rocket technologies. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  5. ↑ "USCRPL". Traveler IV. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  6. ↑ "Council Members". VGSA Current Council. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  7. ↑ Green, Angie (March 29, 2007). "USC innovation institute reinventing itself". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ↑ Annette Moore, Epstein Gives $4M for New Alumni Center, USC News, March 20, 2008, Accessed June 16, 2008.
  9. ↑ Diane Ainsworth, Engineering Dept. Gets Alum’s Name, USC News, September 20, 2005, Accessed June 16, 2008.
  10. ↑ Diane Ainsworth, Alum Establishes Institute for Engineers, USC News, November 10, 2005, Accessed June 16, 2008.
  11. ↑ Diane Ainsworth, Alumnus Makes Record Donation to USC, USC News, October 23, 2006, Accessed June 16, 2008.
  12. ↑ Eric Mankin, Alum Gives $17M to USC Viterbi Dept. Archived 2011-12-10 at the Wayback Machine , USC News, November 29, 2007, Accessed June 16, 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.