Holding up a very “cool” black T-shirt, with the definition of KIUEL in white lettering – that’s Viterbi School nomenclature for the Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life (KIUEL) – alumnus Ken Klein rejoiced with a crowd of engineering students, faculty and administrators in a jubilant courtyard celebration on March 30 to kick off his new $8-million institute.

Dean Yannis Yortsos, left, stands with new KIUEL plaque, given to Ken Klein and his wife, Natalie, on right.

 

The Klein institute, the first of its kind in the nation, will provide students with a full array of services to develop skills in leadership, networking, community service and cross-disciplinary activities outside of the classroom. The institute is designed to help them become leaders who are well grounded in the skills they will need to meet the challenges of 21st century

engineering.

 

“Thanks to Ken’s support, we have created new and much needed resources, a facility so special that it will set us apart from all other engineering schools,” said Viterbi School Dean Yannis Yortsos, who was the master of ceremonies.  “KIUEL will enrich our students lives outside of the classroom and add to their sense of community.”

 

Joining the celebration were some of KIUEL’s key supporters: USC Provost and former Viterbi School Dean C. L. “Max” Nikias; USC’s Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Jackson; Kellyanne McLachlan, a senior in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Viterbi School Associate Dean of Admission and Student Affairs Louise Yates; members of the Viterbi School Board of Councilors, including chairman Jim Baum; and the Klein family. 

  

“Today USC salutes a couple who truly epitomize the concept of KIUEL, Ken and Natalie Klein,” said Nikias.  “The Klein Institute is more than an act of generosity, it is an act of vision.  Because the Kleins recognize that the best undergraduate education does not happen just in a classroom, not just in a library or a laboratory, they understand that the best education happens in a vibrant, dynamic social environment, one in which the best and the brightest minds support one another, and stretch and mold each other.”

Groundbreaking Program
Jackson praised the school for having the vision and perseverance to design such a groundbreaking program for undergraduate life.  

 

“Great ideas sometimes take a collective effort to mature and develop and be realized, so I want to congratulate you all on the vision that you have for developing this center,” he said.

Klein holds up his new KIUEL Institute t-shirt for all to see.

 

“USC is a community.  It is a place that concentrates on helping students develop technical knowledge and skills, but the key for me, and the reason that this program is so important, is because it says that the School of Engineering is focused on developing the whole person,” Jackson continued.  “And we know that when you young men and women go out into the world and are asked to solve problems and form teams to provide leadership, you will need a wide variety of skills beyond just knowing how to technically accomplish something.”

Before the celebration got under way, Klein, his wife, Natalie, and son, Sean, were escorted to Louise Yates's office on the first floor of Tutor Hall, where Dean Yortsos unveiled an elegant glass sign bearing the Klein Institute name. The institute will be housed on that floor with many of the undergraduate student affairs offices, including the Office of Admission and Student Affairs and the Baum Family Student Center, which was made possible by Board of Councilors Chairman Jim Baum.

The Trojan Marching Band shadowed the events, stepping out onto the second floor balcony of Tutor Hall at the appropriate moments to salute Klein and the crowd of students.  

Speakers underscored the importance of the institute to help facilitate greater community building between students and faculty within the school and throughout campus. In future years, the institute is expected to broaden the undergraduate program, attracting more outstanding engineering students to USC who will be able to develop fully to meet the many challenges of technological innovation in a new era.

 

 “There is a difference between information and education,” Nikias said. “There is a difference between data and wisdom. Technology can help us educate a student in many ways, but here at USC, President Sample has challenged us to create the best human environment within this technological revolution.”   

Defining Experiences       

McLachlan, a senior in chemical engineering, said her many extracurricular activities, including serving as a trustee scholar and chairwoman of the Viterbi School Student Council, defined her undergraduate experience at USC.

 

“I’ve gained leadership experience through my participation in student organizations, and I’ve also had the opportunity to give back to our community through servicing these projects with my friends and classmates,” she said. "This gift from Ken Klein will have an incredible impact on our lives as USC engineers. New events and activities will bring our community even closer together.”

Klein, BS BMEE ’82, is president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Wind River Systems, Inc., a global leader in device software optimization.

Based in Alameda, CA, Wind River enables companies to develop, run and manage device software better, faster, at lower cost, and more reliably. In less than two years at the helm, Klein and his management team turned Wind River into a $270-million business with approximately 40 percent of the market share in the device software optimization (DSO) industry.  

“As I reflect on nearly two decades and a half since I left this place, I assert to you that I would not be the person that I am today without a USC engineering degree, nor without the experience I garnered here at the school,” Klein said.

USC Provost C. L. 'Max' Nikias, at left, with alumnus Ken Klein.

Today there are tremendous opportunities for those who become engineers, he continued, but the outcome does not make completion of an undergraduate degree any easier.

“I thought I had done well in high school,” said Klein, who entered USC as an honor student in 1977, “but when I arrived at USC, it was like receiving a 100-kilovolt electric shock.”

 Klein said that he found his undergraduate years socially lonely.

“Twenty-four years ago, I could have used a little help from time to time,” he said. “So, too, can the USC engineering students of today, and so will they in the future.”

 

Building on existing programs, KIUEL will offer a multiplicity of services, including counseling, both social and academic; development, including leadership; tutoring; guidance in both life and career; mentoring; and coaching.

The crowd looks up as a new KIUEL banner is unveiled.

Measure of Success
Klein said the institute’s success will be measured in a number of ways: by encouraging students to enroll in engineering; by enabling them to stay enrolled and graduate; by helping them move smoothly into graduate school or out into the workforce; and by sparking future generations of engineering alumni to give back to their alma mater.

“They say that a mark of a good life is to leave the world a little better off than when we arrived,” Klein said.  “If KIUEL enables one student to stay in school and graduate as a Trojan engineer, then I will take great pride in knowing that we were successful, that I did a good deed, that I made a difference.”

 

Amid cheers and a standing ovation, the Trojan Band emerged to play USC’s victory song while the speakers raised their hands in the victory sign to the beat. Engineering students rushed to the stage to shake Klein’s hand and ask him more about the institute.

 

“It’s [the institute] good, because students shouldn’t just be confined to their classrooms, where they are alone so much,” said Bhavna Bakhru, a graduate electrical engineering student. “If you just sit in your class and read your books, you don’t learn as much. But if you interact and go out and participate in a program like this, you tend to learn more in all aspects.”

 

"It's definitely needed," added  Phillip Prejean, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. "It seems like at USC, it's as much as you put in to it.  This will help a lot.  Sounds pretty cool."