Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Our department is growing rapidly and currently includes more than 100 primary faculty, 30 joint faculty, 1000+ undergraduate majors, and 2000+ graduate students.

Over the past four years, we've recruited 28 outstanding new faculty colleagues - and we're still recruiting! We have an innovative educational program, including the nation's most highly-ranked program in games (jointly with the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts). And, I'm proud to say that this year our Online Graduate Program in Computer Science was ranked number 1 in the country by US News & World Report.

More than a third of our primary faculty members do their research at the world-renowned Information Sciences Institute (ISI) - a major player in the creation of the Internet - and at the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT).

This September 12th, we officially launched our Industry Affiliate Program (IAP) with an all-day event and career fair, attended by over 625 students, faculty and staff, and six of our affiliate companies (Google, Lyft, Microsoft, Plug and Play, Zillow Group and Honey). IAP was developed to facilitate a closer collaboration between industry and our CS department students, faculty and researchers. Founding members include Google, Lyft, Didi, Mesmer, Inc., and Microsoft.

Nearly 30% of all our undergraduates are women and this number continues to grow. We've also created many new, innovative programs that have made it easier for students across campus to engage with Computer Science, such as a new BA degree in Informatics and several joint graduate degrees offered by our Informatics Program. Our faculty and students continue to excel and I'm very pleased to share some of their recent accomplishments below.

Cyrus Shahabi, PhD