USC Viterbi School of Engineering


The Viterbi School of Engineering is located at the University of Southern California in the United States. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm Inc. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering celebrated its 100th birthday in conjunction with the university's 125th birthday.
With over $135 million in external funding support, the school is among the nation's highest in volume of research activity. The Viterbi School of Engineering is currently ranked No. 9 in the United States by U.S. News and World Report.
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. The school's faculty includes Irving Reed, Leonard Adleman, Solomon W. Golomb, Barry Boehm, Clifford Newman, Richard Bellman, Lloyd Welch, Alexander Sawchuk, and George V. Chilingar.

Major research centers

AeroDesign Team of USC

The AeroDesign Team is a student led design team within the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Founded in 1991, purpose is to help students gain industry-like experience by competing in early design competitions that simulates 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 contest in 1997. The contest has rules that change early, requiring students to come up with a completely new design each year. ADT has won the DBF contest in 1998, 2009, 2014, and 2017. This is the second most first-place finishes 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 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 of 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, 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 and sends some of its students to the annual BMES Conference each year.

Pi Tau Sigma (Tau Beta Chapter)

is an international mechanical engineering honor society that strives to "create better engineers through 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 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 student's interest in AI.

Viterbi Graduate Students' Association (VGSA)

The Viterbi Graduate Students' Association is the students' body for about 6,000 Graduate students at USC. It consists of representatives from all departments and the Viterbi Graduate Student in Liaison.

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; real estate developer Daniel J. Epstein who named the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering with an $11 million gift in 2002; 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; 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; Ming Hsieh, founder of Cogent Inc., who named the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering in 2006 with a $35 million gift; 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.