Program Logo for SHINE

We anticipate that SHINE will be on campus in Summer 2024, all students accepted in SHINE will need to comply fully with LA County COVID protocols. More information here.

At USC Viterbi's Summer High School Intensive in Next-Generation Engineering (SHINE) students can join a USC Viterbi professor's research team for seven weeks to discover how engineering addresses our real-world problems in various fields, including biomedicine, robotics, aerospace, and more. Each student works with an assigned professor and a mentor (Ph.D. student or post-doctoral researcher) dedicated to training that student in experimental lab work or computational research – learning by doing, not by studying. 

SHINE 2024 will take place June 10 - July 26

Application is now closed

Each student works on authentic, immersive lab projects within their choice of cutting-edge research to learn through experience, transforming good students into confident, capable contributors to high-impact research. Through weekly activities with the entire cohort, SHINE also builds a close-knit community where students are introduced the practices and ethics of creating new knowledge, social and intellectual networking, college prep tips, and extensive experience in science communication.

SHINE provides high school students with real-life research experience as part of a professor’s research team. SHINE is based on experiential learning – learning by doing, not by studying – immersing students in their choice of cutting-edge research on cancer, environmental sustainability, machine learning, robotics, haptics, aerospace, and much more. Close mentorship comes from USC Viterbi faculty, staff, and especially the graduate student researchers -- all enveloped within SHINE's cohort activities and network. Now in its eighth year, SHINE's alumni now attend most of the nation's top engineering schools and universities, including here at USC Viterbi, MIT, Harvard, CalTech, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke, UPenn, and more!

To get a good idea of the advanced level of research conducted by SHINE students, please see all the posters since 2015. Social and academic group experiences remain a priority, including team-building opportunities, college prep advice, networking, and fun. See choices of 2024's research projects and culminating posters from the past seven years. Read about SHINE alumni who now attend USC Viterbi. See a SHINE alumna's contribution to a peer-reviewed paper from the Smith lab published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The K-12 STEM Center develops strategies and builds initiatives to meet the needs of a diverse population, specifically in efforts to increase the representation of female students and African American/Black, Hispanic/LatinX/Latine, and Native/Indigenous students in its STEM programs, such as SHINE. Some of those efforts include outreach, mentorship, and scholarships. However, all STEM Center programs are open to all students in compliance with Federal and State law, as well as University policy.

Applicants select their top three choices of the following engineering fields:

The SHINE Experience

“Working in a robotics lab has definitely given me an advantage in my [college] engineering class both because of the hands-on circuit/programming experience, but also in the creative problem solving that both environments require.”
– SHINE 2020 Alumna Attending a UC school
4 student smiling and building a structure with pipe cleaners
A SHINE participant in Prof. Luhar’s lab
“As I read papers published by experts and watched my lab mentors communicate with their peers from all over the world, I realized that research is inherently collaborative."
shine 2022 alumni. accepted into caltech

"Working alongside my passionate PhD mentor and speaking with Professor Nuzzo, I have learned that I share the same desire and drive to improve and enrich the lives of people in my community and beyond. One of the ways I can do it And what I have done is through research."

– Student of SHINE 2020. Accepted into MIT & CalTech

Please visit the USC Office of Youth Protection and Programming to find out how we protect your child and how you can as well. We have included here for your convenience: 

Information for Parents, Guardians, and Caretakers:  As a trusted adult in a child’s life, parents, guardians, and caretakers play an important role and are uniquely equipped to help them understand and assert personal boundaries, develop healthy relationships, and spot potential problems before they develop into bigger ones. We want you to feel informed about what’s in place to help keep your child safe while participating in a youth program, camp, activity, or event (referred to as “Covered Activity”) at USC, how to recognize when something isn’t quite right, and to feel empowered to report any concerns you may have.


STEM PUSH logo

SHINE is part of the STEM PUSH Network! 

The STEM PUSH Network integrates a powerful engine for learning and innovation – a networked improvement community (NIC) – with an accreditation component to give a greater weight in the higher education admissions process.  Partner programs work within the NIC model to strengthen their programming for racially/ethnically minoritized students along the quality standards, and to generate effective practices which contribute to the broader field of equitable design and implementation in pre-college programming. As part of their participation, partner programs examine STEM education practice and systems through an equity lens, reflect on their strengths and areas for growth, apply improvement science tools and routines to facilitate program and systems change, and build program capacity for continuous improvement and evaluation. 

View our SHINE Profile . SHINE is part of Cohort 3.

Published on January 17th, 2018

Last updated on February 22nd, 2024