Engineering schools that can create dynamic collaborations among academia, business and government will be the real leaders in the 21^st century. If the past year is any indication, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering is becoming one of those leaders.

 

It has been an extraordinary year starting with an extraordinary $52 million naming gift from Andrew (Ph.D. EE ’62) and Erna Viterbi.  Arguably, the naming was the most significant event of the year in all of engineering education.  Our School is now linked forever with a name that exemplifies academic excellence, engineering innovation and creative entrepreneurialism.  Increasingly, our School reflects those values.

 

During the past year we secured the Biomimetic MicroElectronics Systems (BMES), our second National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, and the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), the first Center of Excellence awarded to a university by Department of Homeland Security.  In both cases, our proposals for these centers finished first in hard-fought national competitions.

 

Why were we successful?  One reason is the truly impressive ability of the USC Viterbi School’s faculty to collaborate with others.  BMES is largely a collaboration between our School and the Keck School of Medicine at USC, but it also has researchers from Caltech and UC-Santa Cruz, and medical device industry participates. The CREATE team includes researchers from several other universities across the nation and other parts of this one, particularly the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development.

 

There are 30 faculty from the USC Viterbi School who are serving as principal investigators or co-principal investigators in cross-disciplinary research collaborations with other USC units, and the total current funding for these projects is $87 million.  Our School is leading the way at USC, and increasingly, leading at a national level.

 

We have been blazing a trail in industry collaborations with the ChevronTexaco Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies (CiSOFT) and the Pratt & Whitney Institute for Collaborative Engineering, which also includes Korean Air. Additionally, we are close to finalizing the establishment of a third industry center to be announced later this fall.

 

The industry collaborations are important.  If engineers are going to continue improving our quality of life in the 21^st century, they must be prepared to address the real world problems found in industry and commerce.   

 

Tomorrow’s engineers are today’s students, and USC Viterbi students are also pacesetters. For the third consecutive year, our incoming 2004 freshman class has the highest SAT average at USC – 1386.  The GRE scores of our graduate students are also among the highest at USC.   If the faculty is our School’s foundation then our students are its pillars, and those pillars are growing stronger. 

 

Our Distance Education Network (DEN) now offers 24 M.S. degree programs —more than any other engineering school — using modern high-speed Internet technology envied by our competitors and so popular with students that enrollments grew by almost 25% this year.

 

Our success has not gone unnoticed.  The USC Viterbi School has risen to sixth place, third among private schools, in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of graduate engineering programs.  While that is exciting and good news, it is not important news.  For as leaders, we must continue to find our own path to excellence rather than following one dictated by the constantly shifting metrics set by others.

 

As we approach the year’s end, on behalf of the faculty, students and staff of the USC Viterbi School, I wish all of you a holiday season filled with the close-knit warmth and joy of family and friends.   And in 2005, may each of you find a path to prosperity and success.

 

C. L. Max Nikias

Dean

USC Viterbi School of Engineering