Masterminding Communications

Annenberg fellows program funds graduate students from three schools

One thing quickly becomes clear after spending just a few minutes with members of the inaugural class of USC Annenberg Fellows, who were introduced at a reception in the fall of 2007. They represent the breadth of USC’s strength in communications-related disciplines.

Viterbi faculty, Annenberg Fellows, left to right: Professor Urbashi Mitra, Satish Vedantam, Ozgun Bursalioglu, Marcus Urie, Professor Keith Chugg and Professor Giuseppe Caire.

To electrical engineering graduate student Satish Vedantam, communications research means using math and information theory to create new algorithms that could one day improve cell-phone reception.

Communications Ph.D. student Inna Arzumanova plans to investigate how the form and content of new media—from digital storytelling to blogs and online advertising—influence traditional forms of literature and art.

Meanwhile, MFA student Arthur Baum, who studies production in cinematic arts, is interested in an entirely different area of communication—how to improve the integrity of sound reproduced in movie theaters, televisions, headphones and other portable devices.

Vedantam, Arzumanova and Baum are three of the 103 graduate students from the USC Annenberg School for Communication, the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering named to the first cohort of Annenberg Fellows.

USC Provost C. L. Max Nikias announced the new, $4 million USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Program as part of a reconfiguration of the USC Annenberg Center for Communication in March 2007. With funding from the Annenberg Foundation, the program is designed to create an elite cadre of world-class graduate students involved in cutting-edge communication and digital media research.

At a fall reception, Jean Morrison, vice provost for graduate programs, who oversees the program, greeted the fellows and called the fellowships a key part of the university’s push to build the “best graduate programs in the nation.”

“The Annenberg Fellows will conduct communications-related research, advance bold new ideas in the communication arena and produce innovative creative works,” Morrison said. “They will constitute an internationally recognized and highly regarded group of research scholars and creative practitioners. We are delighted to launch this program and to accelerate the university’s leadership role in cross-disciplinary communications-related graduate research and education.”

Dean Yannis C. Yortsos praised Nikias’ decision to convert the Annenberg endowment into funds for graduate students. “Innovation comes largely from our graduate students, (so it is) critical that we support them,” he said.

The 2007–08 class of fellows includes 34 Ph.D. and M.A. students from USC Annenberg; 40 Ph.D., M.A. and MFA students from cinematic arts; and 29 Ph.D. students from USC Viterbi.