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2007

2007 News


Viterbi Game Day Builds USC Stature as National Center for Interactive Arts
December 21, 2007
The growing sophistication of games development at USC was evident when students and faculty from three schools - the Viterbi School of Engineering, the Roski School of Fine Arts and the School of Cinematic Arts - presented a glittering lineup of new ideas to industry leaders.
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Trojan Engineer Gets a Hearty Handshake from Bill Gates
December 20, 2007
Electrical engineering graduate student Michael Johnson never thought he'd be introducing Bill Gates to fellow engineering students a year ago. Now that he has, he's ready for anything.
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Undergrads Demo Their 'Bots for Elementary Schoolers and TV News Crews
December 18, 2007
The finale of CS 445, the Viterbi School's Introduction to Robotics class, is a simulated search and rescue competition in which robots made from Legos must find and bring back cotton sack "victims" to a "hospital."
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Viterbi Investigator Chairs Blue Ribbon Panel on Brain Computer Systems
December 13, 2007
Systems that directly connect silicon circuits with brains are under intensive development all over the world, and are nearing commercial application in many areas, according to a study by a group led by USC neurobiologist Theodore W. Berger.
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Astani Department Engineer Creates World's First Bamboo Truck Bridge
December 12, 2007
Yan Xiao is the designer of a new span in Leiyang, Hunan Province, China, which opened for traffic December 12.
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Meet Mr. and Ms. USC
December 06, 2007
For the first time in its history, the coveted Order of the Torch has selected two students from the Viterbi School to act as ambassadors for all USC seniors in a variety of campus events.
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Hashemi Named to Early Career Chair
December 05, 2007
Hossein Hashemi, an assistant professor of electrical engineering-electrophysics in the Ming Hsieh Department, has been named to the Gordon S. Marshall Early Career Chair.
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Viterbi Computer Scientist Wins IBM Research Cash Award and Software Group's Retrospective Honor
December 04, 2007
Nenad Medvidovic is one of the recipients of a 2007 IBM Real Time Innovation Award for university faculty — and also co-winner of a prestigious International Conference for Software Engineering prize.
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Engineering Freshman Academy Students Visit ISI
December 04, 2007
Dozens of Viterbi freshmen poured off a bus and explored the corridors of the Information Sciences Institute on a recent Friday, part of the School's Freshman Engineering Academies' continuing efforts to expose beginning engineers to exciting research.
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SWE
December 03, 2007
The Society of Women Engineers holds an inaugural workshop dedicated to teaching students the finer points of etiquette and professional dress, with tips on table settings and a fashion show.
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Two Viterbi IT Researchers Honored by ACM
December 03, 2007
Viktor Prasanna and Aristides Requicha were part of an elite company of 38 leaders in computing technology recognized this year by being named Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery,
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Event Coverage: Alumnus Sonny Astani Names Viterbi School Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
November 29, 2007
Astani and Viterbi School faculty and board members celebrate a new beginning for one of the school's original departments.
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Visionary Viterbi Alum’s Historic Gift
November 29, 2007
With a historic $17 million gift, the largest ever to name a civil engineering department, Sonny Astani (MSISE’78) positions a department to meet the challenges of megacities.
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President and Provost Garner IEEE National Awards
November 27, 2007
Engineering society honors USC’s president and provost for their exceptional leadership and contributions.
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CMU Artificial Intelligence Sage Calls for IT for the Bottom Billion
November 23, 2007
Raj Reddy, the Carnegie-Mellon professor who founded that school's well-known Robotics Institute, delivered the second George Bekey Lecture, on "Technology and Society," November 20 to a capacity crowd.
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Viterbi School Basketball Player Earns Rhodes Scholarship
November 20, 2007
Engineering senior and basketball player Reed Doucette, who is working on the efficiency of solar cells, will continue his studies at Oxford next year.
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Charting A New Course
November 20, 2007
After years of systems installation work aboard many Navy ships, ISE doctoral student Yvette Torres becomes a professor in pursuit of a new career in academia.
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USC System to Blow Away the
November 19, 2007
A Viterbi School team has created software system to help combat commanders make correct decisions in complex, fast-changing conditions. The system dramatically outperformed rivals in recent trials.
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Six from USC Attend Women in Computing Conference
November 06, 2007
Undergrad Roxanna Aliabadi, masters candidates Yoonji Kim and Jin Huang; and PhD aspirants Leila Kaghazian, Rutu Mehta and Bo Mi Song went to Orlando, Florida for the seventh Grace Murray Hopper Celebration
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Biomedical Engineering Department Hosts First Grodins Lecture
November 01, 2007
MIT bioengineer Douglas Lauffenburger presents keynote lecture on the promising intersection between bioengineering and biotechnology.
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Two Professors Named to Endowed Professorships in the Viterbi School
November 01, 2007
Viterbi School Dean Yannis Yortsos announced the first holders of two new endowed professorships: Joe Qin will hold the Fluor Professorship in Process Engineering and Don Zhang the Marshall Professorship in Engineering Technology.
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Two Women Faculty to Join Viterbi in 2008
October 30, 2007
The Viterbi School welcomes two research scholars who show promise of advancing the fields of nano device technology and health care systems engineering.
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Jump-Starting New Directions in Research
October 30, 2007
The Office of the Vice Provost for Research has awarded 13 USC engineers 2007 Zumberge interdisciplinary research grants for projects in quantum computing and new educational technologies to ultrasonic image-guided surgery.
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Viterbi Computer Science Class Reaches Out to Serve Neighborhood Needs
October 30, 2007
USC Viterbi School computer programming students need problems. University Park neighborhood organizations need their own applications and websites. The two find each other at Prof. Barry Boehm’s long-running graduate level course in Software Engineering, CS 577.
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Two Viterbi School Engineers Named AAAS Fellows
October 26, 2007
The American Association for the Advancement of Science recognizes Senior Associate Dean Maja Mataric and USC Provost C.L. Max Nikias for distinguished contributions in science and engineering.
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When Viterbi Students and Kids Come Together, Sparks Fly
October 24, 2007
Kids, teachers and Viterbi School seniors benefit from a special outreach program of supplemental science and engineering classes.
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Viterbi Expanding Good Neighbors Participation
October 23, 2007
Fundraising leaders in Viterbi’s arm of the Good Neighbors Campaign hope to increase participation in the annual USC funding drive.
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Modernizing the Curriculum with Engineering “Degree Projects”
October 23, 2007
Viterbi's chemical engineering department pilots a new curriculum designed to marry modern technologies with core undergraduate courses with long-term lab modules called "degree projects."
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Spinning Off and Funding Back
October 23, 2007
Computer scientists at the University of Southern California and the start-up company they created are creating new generations of multi-dimensional world and local maps using an emerging mixed private-academic research model as they do it.
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Bus Scheduling Algorithm Picks Up the Slack
October 22, 2007
A prizewinning paper by Maged Dessouky from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering has elegantly solved a basic transit scheduling problem, potentially meaning shorter waits and more predictable travel for bus riders.
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Engineering the Spirit of Troy
October 17, 2007
Fully a quarter of all the bandsmen in “The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the universe” are from the Viterbi School.
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Elite Operations Research Organization Elects CREATE Faculty Member as President
October 15, 2007
The Institute for Operations Research and Management Science has elected Don N. Kleinmuntz president of its board of directors, only a month after he became a fellow of the exclusive organization.
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NIH Funds $8M Autism Center at USC
October 12, 2007
A multi-institutional team led by USC faculty has received a five-year, $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for an ambitious effort to survey the genetic, physical, environmental and behavioral profiles of children with autism.
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Viterbi School Engineering Program Ranks 12th in World
October 11, 2007
Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings show Viterbi School gaining ground in engineering, technology and computer science
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Alfred E. Mann Honored at BME Society Annual Fall Meeting
October 09, 2007
The USC Trustee and member of the Viterbi School Board of Councilors outlines his menu for success when he delivers the plenary address.
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62 Days + Almost 3 Billion Pings + New Visualization Scheme = the First Internet Census Since 1982
October 08, 2007
Researchers have just completed and plotted a comprehensive census of the more 2.8 billion allocated addresses on the Internet -- the first complete effort of its kind in more than two decades, they believe.
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$5M DHHS Grant to Childrens Hospital Will Spur Viterbi Research on Pediatric Emergency Response
October 08, 2007
Childrens Hospital's Jeffrey S. Upperman, who has long collaborated with ISI's Robert Neches on designs for next-generation pediatric emergency response systems, has just received a $5 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop such a system.
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USC Biomedical Team to Participate in $6M Low Vision Project
October 05, 2007
A new NIH-funded project will focus on visual displays to help people suffering from macular degeneration and other forms of vision loss.
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Viterbi/CREATE  Collaboration on Airport Security Makes International News
October 05, 2007
Research on airport security led by Milind Tambe of the Viterbi School department of computer science working with USC's Homeland Security-funded Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events received worldwide media attention.
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Louis Martin-Vega Delivers Inaugural Rechtin Keynote Lecture
October 03, 2007
The IIE president emphasizes fundamental shifts in thinking and education to keep pace with complex, 21st century industrial processes and systems.
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Viterbi Software on the Anti-Terror Beat at LAX
October 01, 2007
Security officials at Los Angeles Airport are using software developed by USC computer scientists to make their operations harder for the bad guys to predict and defeat.
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Communication Sciences Institute Has New Co-Directors
September 26, 2007
Alan Willner and Giuseppe Caire are the new co-directors of the Communication Sciences Institute (CSI) and leaders of the communications group within the USC Ming Hsieh Electrical Engineering department, effective immediately.
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Two Promising Young Faculty Named to Viterbi School Early Career Chairs
September 26, 2007
Computer scientist David Kempe and biomedical engineer Ellis Meng named to endowed chairs for their exceptional early career contributions.
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Rising Stars Recognized
September 25, 2007
Dean Yannis C. Yortsos has appointed Ellis Meng of Biomedical Engineering and David Kempe of Computer Science to endowed early career chairs.
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Meshkati Awarded the Oliver Keith Hansen Outreach Award
September 22, 2007
Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, has won the highly competitive Oliver Keith Hansen Outreach Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
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Yong Chen Wins Society of Manufacturing Engineering Award
September 21, 2007
The Epstein Department assistant professor is recognized for exceptional contributions in the early stage of his career.
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 Another Viterbi Faculty Member Is New Editor of 'Autonomous Robots'
September 20, 2007
Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme takes over from George Bekey, professor emeritus and University Professor. Both are in the Department of Computer Science.
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2007 State of the Viterbi School
September 20, 2007
Dean Yannis C. Yortsos delivers his annual state of the school address and sets new goals for the coming year.
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Ershaghi Receives Another SPE Award
September 19, 2007
The Mork Family Department professor will receive the North America Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award
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Viterbi School Announces a New Division of Engineering Education
September 18, 2007
Dean Yannis C. Yortsos announces the establishment of the new Division of Engineering Education to focus on undergergraduate and Master’s level engineering education.
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Viterbi School Veteran's Achievements in Fuzzy Logic Come Into IEEE Focus
September 17, 2007
Jerry Mendel has received a 2008 Pioneer Award from IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, the third USC faculty member to be so honored He will receive it in Hong Kong next June.
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Celebrating 50 Years of Spaceflight
September 16, 2007
Astronautics Professor Mike Gruntman looks back at the Sputnik era and ahead to interstellar space exploration during AIAA anniversary celebration of space.
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Barry Boehm: The Kudos Keep Coming
September 13, 2007
The Viterbi School computer scientist extraordinaire this summer added to his long list of honors a pair of special lifetime contributions to software engineering awards, presented at prestigious research and education conferences.
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‘Trojan Thunder’ clocks 206 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway
September 13, 2007
Systems Architecting and Engineering Program Director Stan Settles started his fall semester with a high-speed race over Utah's famous Bonneville salt flats.
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Putting His Finger on Hand Mechanics
September 12, 2007
Francisco Valero-Cuevas, who joined the Viterbi School's Department of Biomedical Engineering this fall, is studying the biomechanical complexities of the human hand.
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Incoming Epstein Faculty Member Wins RAND honor
August 29, 2007
Shinyi Wu, a RAND Corporation engineer who will join the Viterbi faculty in January, 2008, was recently honored for "outstanding contributions to furthering RAND's mission of improving policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis."
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ISI Student Competition Shows Off Artificial Intelligence Research
August 29, 2007
Impressive scientific imagination and effective showmanship by graduate students doing research in the Viterbi School's Information Sciences Institute's Intelligent Systems Division were on view at the August 24 event.
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Fifteen Win Viterbi Masters Scholarships to Inaugurate New Program
August 28, 2007
The first batch of Viterbi Masters Scholars have their grants and are starting their studies. The basic grant remits tuition for six graduate units, three units in each of two successive semesters. Students from the whole range of Viterbi departments received the awards.
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Surrounded by Smart People
August 27, 2007
In a talk opening a new school year, Dean Yannis C. Yortsos gives the Viterbi School’s outstanding new students a warm welcome – and a little fatherly advice.
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Students First to Step across Tsinghua – USC Bridge
August 23, 2007
Eight undergraduates from China’s top engineering school, Tsinghua University, impress Viterbi School faculty with their engineering moxie and hard work.
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Two Viterbi Faculty Win Okawa Research Awards
August 21, 2007
Engineers C.C. Jay Kuo and Stefan Schaal will continue an unbroken string of Viterbi honorees stretching back many years when they make an October journey to San Francisco to receive their plaques
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Viterbi Alumna Returns to USC to Commission GamePipe Student Research
August 21, 2007
Sandia computer scientist and software engineer Donna Djordjevich (MSCS'06) has returned to her alma mater to create an interactive gaming platform to prepare decision makers and first responders.
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New Terrorist Study Analyzes Attacks on Ports and Power Grids
August 09, 2007
Conclusions from a CREATE risk analysis could help local authorities with emergency planning at Los Angeles ports and electric systems.
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Engineering the Mouth
August 04, 2007
The collaboration will help prepare undergraduates for a career in dental biotechnology.
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Lincoln Diary
July 31, 2007
Viterbi staff and faculty visit the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln meeting many engineers, some of whom are Trojans.
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Third Wave of IIT Summer Interns Find Exciting Research Opportunities at Viterbi School
July 20, 2007
Juniors from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur were almost reluctant to leave USC after a summer of stimulating hands-on research.
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H. K. Cheng, 1923 – 2007
July 17, 2007
H. K. Cheng, distinguished professor emeritus of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the USC Viterbi School, has died.
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SeaBee II Swims for USC in This Week's International Underwater Robot Contest
July 14, 2007
SeaBee II – a 50-pound underwater robotic submarine with three camera eyes, two arms, a novel water-cooling system, and enough smarts to find Pirate Dave’s treasure at the bottom of the lagoon – is swimming for the championship in this week’s international robot competition.
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Postcards from Paris
July 12, 2007
Undergraduate engineers wrote postcards home over the past seven weeks while studying in Paris, France on the Viterbi Overseas Program.
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Viterbi Robot Pioneer Foresees Bright Future for Medical Automatons
July 11, 2007
During the past decade robotic devices have moved out of research laboratories into clinical practice, emeritus professor George Bekey told a recent Southern California Biomedical Industry Investors conference.
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Daniel Erwin Named New Astronautics and Space Technology Division Chair
July 10, 2007
The professor of astronautics is a founding member of the Viterbi School's Astronautics and Space Technology Division.
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Nanotechnologist Wins Early Career Chair
July 07, 2007
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering researcher Chongwu Zhou has been named Jack Munushian Professor.
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Viterbi Nanotechnologist Creates Transparent Transistors
July 04, 2007
Nanotechnologist Chongwu Zhou and colleagues at Purdue and Northwestern universities have created transparent transistors with great potential to create head-up displays, ‘e-paper’ and ‘smart’ credit cards.
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The Newest AI Computing Tool: People
July 03, 2007
A USC Information Sciences Institute researcher thinks she has found a new source of artificial intelligence computing power to solve difficult IT problems of information classification, reliability, and meaning. People.
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Coaching Computer Canines in Clambering
June 29, 2007
The mutts are metal, the size of toy poodles, with four pointy feet ending in little balls. They need to learn how to make their way on those little feet across a treacherous terrain of broken rocks. The Viterbi School's Stefan Schaal is teaching them.
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Toyota Funds Program to Guide Talented Teens Toward Engineering
June 27, 2007
The auto maker has donated $225,000 to launch a new high school mentoring program to prepare and encourage educationally disadvantaged but promising minority students to pursue undergraduate engineering degrees.
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Viterbi Team Wins Harvard Fellowships
June 25, 2007
A husband-and-wife ISE/Computer Science team were among the 32 women and 19 men who will be fellows of Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, forming a "thematic cluster" studying the interactive visualization of musical structure.
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Ultrasonic Imaging Expert Jesse Yen Wins Coulter Foundation Early Career Award
June 22, 2007
The young researcher, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is developing novel ultrasound transducers that can image tissue in three dimensions and provide more than four times the resolution of two-dimensional imaging.
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Six New Faculty To  Join Viterbi School This Fall
June 21, 2007
Six new faculty with expertise in biochemical and biomedical engineering, materials science, electrical engineering and computer science will join the Viterbi School this fall.
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Another World-Class Honor for Andrew Viterbi
June 19, 2007
The much-honored USC electrical engineering alumnus is the inaugural co-winner of the the James Clerk Maxwell award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
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Govindan Appointed Interim Chair of Viterbi School CS Department
June 19, 2007
Professor Ramesh Govindan will assume the chairmanship of the Viterbi School Department of Computer Science on an interim basis, effective July 1, Dean Yannis Yortsos has announced.
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First Ming Hsieh Scholarship Winners Named
June 14, 2007
A 22-year old electrical engineering student from Suzhou and a 22-year old signal and image processing specialist from Tianjing will begin classes at the USC Viterbi School in Los Angeles this fall as the first Ming Hsieh scholars.
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Famous Friends and Followers Fete Sol Golomb
June 12, 2007
A workshop to celebrate Solomon Golomb's 75th birthday attracts a bevy of international scholars.
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Tran Takes DEN Reins
June 08, 2007
The Viterbi School's Distance Education Network, the leading provider of distance graduate education in engineering among research universities, has a new executive director.
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Viterbi RoboDucks Ship Out in Redondo Beach
June 08, 2007
Yacht-owners, kayakers, harbor patrolmen and sea lions are seeing a new vessel on the waters of King Harbor these days — one that may someday save the lives of the lions.
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Games Students Play, and Make
June 07, 2007
Viterbi students taking Principles of Software Development work as a team to create a videogame.
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New Book Celebrates CSSE Software Guru
June 06, 2007
A new book brings together key contributions by Barry Boehm, the highly influential creator of the Viterbi School's Center for Software and Systems Engineering.
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James Moore Elected to Leadership Post
June 05, 2007
James Moore, the newly re-appointed chair of the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, has been elected to the leadership of the Council of the Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads.
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Viterbi School Builds Strategic Bridges with Tsinghua, China’s Top Technical University
June 03, 2007
The USC Viterbi School and Tsinghua University faculty establish a strategic partnership and build bridges of collaboration with a joint workshop.
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Viterbi Effort for CREATE Attempts to Bring Order to
June 01, 2007
A Viterbi School team at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) is creating a system to help policymakers with a faster more consistent way of quantifying risk estimates.
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Del Carbon Flies Again
May 30, 2007
Viterbi students pursue their love of rocketry through the USC Rocket Propulsion Lab. Their goal is to reach space.
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Computer Science Thesis Helps Train Firefighters
May 25, 2007
A Viterbi School computer science graduate student now has his PhD, and this thesis project continues in development as a way to train firefighters and other responders to fight conflagrations.
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Spring '07 GamePipe Demo Day Shines
May 25, 2007
A sleepness night of preparation by student gamemakers leads to a morning of presentations at what one game company executive who attended called "the best program out there... the strongest technically in the world."
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Timothy Pinkston: Insights from the NSF
May 23, 2007
He’s been on loan to the NSF for a year and a half, influencing policy and funding decisions in computer science at the national level. When he returns to USC’s Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering next year, Timothy Pinkston will have some compelling news about research directions in the field.
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Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Lab CEO James Baker Named New IMSC Director
May 22, 2007
James Baker, chairman and chief executive officer of Fuji Xerox’s Palo Alto Laboratory (FXPAL), has been appointed new director of USC's Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), effective June 1, 2007.
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A USC and KAU Tree Sprouts in Korea
May 20, 2007
The Viterbi School and Korean Aerospace University mark a Memorandum of Understanding by planting a commemorative tree in Korea.
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Two Viterbi Faculty Promoted to Associate Professor
May 14, 2007
Dean Yannis Yortsos congratulates Elaine Chew, of the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Tzung “John” Hsiai of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
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Pomp and Pageantry: Commencement Day 2007
May 11, 2007
Viterbi School graduates 1,762 Viterbi School engineers during the 79th annual commencement ceremonies in Archimedes Plaza.
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Online Students Win Record Number of Viterbi M.S. Degrees
May 11, 2007
The USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Distance Education Network (DEN) granted Master of Science degrees to a record 272 students located all over the U.S., most of whom earned their degrees while working full-time.
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A New Corporate Commander
May 11, 2007
Angus McColl, a veteran of 24 years in the U.S. Navy, is the new executive director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at the Viterbi School.
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Bat Flight Generates Complex Aerodynamic Tracks
May 11, 2007
Bats generate a measurably distinct aerodynamic footprint to achieve lift and maneuverability, quite unlike birds and contrary to many of the assumptions that aerodynamicists have used to model animal flight, asserts aerodynamicist Geoff Spedding in this week's issue of Science.
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David B. Wittry, 1929-2007
May 09, 2007
David B. Wittry, a Viterbi School distinguished emeritus professor of materials science and of electrical engineering, was known for pioneering work in electron probe analysis.
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USC's Homeland Security Center Receives New $11-Million Contract
May 08, 2007
A collaborative program to study the risks and economic consequences of terrorism gets the OK to investigate other forms of terrorism, including chemical and biological weapons, explosives, borderline security and protecting infrastructure.
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2007 Staff and Faculty Awards
May 04, 2007
Dean Yannis Yortsos thanks individuals for exceptional service and raises the bar for continued success in academics, research and fund-raising.
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On Top of the World
April 26, 2007
In an experiment transcending the classroom, Viterbi School’s Zero G team takes their fire ball experiment for a ride on NASA’s Vomit Comet.
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Making Chips with a Snap!
April 26, 2007
Eun Sok Kim has improved his team's radically new technique, announced last year, for making DNA microarrays, a basic tool of modern medicine and biology.
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Viterbi  Student Petroleum Engineers Recognized
April 26, 2007
The Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science's student chapter of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) has been named Chapter of the Month for May, the national SPE office has announced.
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Alexander Sawchuk Named to New Endowed Chair
April 25, 2007
Dean Yannis Yortsos announces that Alexander A. Sawchuk, Systems Chair of the Viterbi School's Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering will be the first holder of the Leonard Silverman Chair.
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MEDICUS project wins 2007 Internet2 Idea Award
April 25, 2007
The MEDICUS project, created by researchers at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering, was one of two projects honored by the Internet2 research consortium.
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The Turbulence Problem
April 23, 2007
Caltech’s Anatol Roshko relates science’s long quest to understand the fluid mechanics of turbulence in the inaugural Janos Laufer Lecture.
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The Path to a Sustainable Future
April 16, 2007
Maximizing energy efficiency and developing a variety of clean alternative energy sources must become a global priority if there is any chance of keeping carbon dioxide emissions at tolerable levels.
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Constantinos Sioutas Named First Holder of the Fred Champion Professorship
April 12, 2007
An expert in cutting-edge technologies to measure tiny air pollutants is recognized for his leadership and contributions to the study of public health and environmental hazards.
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Dean Yortsos Announces Cho Chair
April 12, 2007
A new chair in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering will honor the founder of Korean Airlines
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Grodins Symposium Carries on Proud Tradition
April 11, 2007
Biomedical engineering students presented research and met industry representatives at the 11th installment of the Fred S. Grodins Symposium
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'Smart' System to Avoid Runway Disasters
April 11, 2007
A 'capstone' computer science class demonstrates how to help pilots and air traffic controllers prevent aircraft accidents on runways.
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A Rising Star is Hitched  to a Great Name
April 10, 2007
One of America's brilliant young engineers added still another honor to a lengthening list when he was named the first holder of the Viterbi Professorship in Engineering, effective July 1, 2007.
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ISI's Craig Knoblock Wins Microsoft Virtual Earth Award
April 10, 2007
The researcher's proposal was one of 21 winners selected from more than 140 entries.
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Inaugural Bekey Lecturer Challenges - and Offers Praise for Viterbi Work
April 06, 2007
Ed Lazowska, the University of Washington professor famous for his indefatigable efforts to advance the discipline of computer science while preserving its conscience, appeared before a capacity crowd to deliver the first in a series of lectures named after USC's amazingly versatile roboticist/computer scientist/electrical engineer George Bekey.
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$13.8M E-Science Effort To Tame Data Torrents
April 05, 2007
A growing number of scientific fields suffer from a stifling embarrassment of riches. Data pile up much faster than they can be analyzed. The Viterbi School's Information Sciences Institute is building a system prototype that will address the problem by automating scientific workflow
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Distinguished Computer Scientist Rejoins Viterbi School.
April 03, 2007
A nationally known researcher, renowned for his early contributions to the Internet as part of the Information Sciences Institute, has come back to join the Viterbi School Department of Computer Science.
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American Society of Civil Engineers Honors Structural Engineer Sami Masri
April 02, 2007
Sami Masri has been chosen recipient of the 2007 Newmark Medal, which is awarded each year by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Eva Kanso Wins NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award
March 29, 2007
Eva Kanso, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has won a highly competitive Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for her work to model aquatic locomotion.
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Undergrads Get Game
March 27, 2007
Two USC engineering students are on the game development fast track. Years from graduation, “Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike,” a game "booster package" they helped develop, hit the shelves last week.
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Teaching the Viterbi Algorithm
March 27, 2007
In the fifth annual Viterbi Lecture, Caltech’s Robert McEliece wows the audience with multimedia and humor.
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MONARCH System-On-a-Chip Excels in Early Testing
March 23, 2007
A revolutionary processor package co-designed by Viterbi computer scientists, one that changes its architecture to adapt to the demands of different computing tasks more than met design expectations in recent trials.
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Viterbi School Astronautics Senior Miles Killingsworth Wins Luce Scholarship
March 21, 2007
The graduating senior — one of 18 students selected nationwide — hopes to receive an internship in China, working with environmental issues, such as global warming and alternative energy resources.
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Special IEEE Forum Honors Viterbi Chip Testing Guru
March 19, 2007
A special IEEE half-day conference event celebrated the work and influence of computer scientist/electrical engineer Melvin A. Breuer.
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Structural Engineering Student Wins Top Scholarship Award
March 14, 2007
Kim Pacheco, a junior in structural engineering, a Viterbi student ambassador and co-captain of this year's ASCE Concrete Canoe team, is recognized for her outstanding work in the field.
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Two Ming Hsieh Department Faculty Members Honored at USC Convocation
March 14, 2007
Alexander Sawchuk and Bart Kosko came home from the University of Southern California Convocation, USC's solemn annual ceremony acknowledging academic excellence, with citations for distinction.
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ISI Director Wins Top USC Honor
March 09, 2007
Herbert Schorr, executive director of the Information Sciences Institute since 1988, has won the Presidential Medallion, the University of Southern California's highest honor.
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USC's Engineers Without Borders Heads to Honduras
March 09, 2007
La Estanzuela, Honduras may not be top on many students’ lists of places to spend spring break, but it is for this student-managed humanitarian organization.
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Videos Demonstrate SuperBot Progress to NASA
March 06, 2007
Wei-Min Shen of the USC Information Sciences Institute recently reported to NASA significant progress in developing "SuperBot," identical modular units that plug into each other to create robots that can stand, crawl, wiggle and even roll, illustrating his comments with striking video of the system in action
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Monitoring with Minimum Power
March 06, 2007
A new communication protocol for wireless sensor networks just released by the Information Sciences Institute is the most efficient yet, more than a tenfold improvement on previous versions.
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Livin’ Large = Givin’ Large for Viterbi School Senior
March 06, 2007
They won brand new Chevy Aveos, but these two USC students didn't drive them home; they donated the cash value of the cars to impoverished communities in Third World countries.
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CiSoft Going Strong into Fourth Year
March 05, 2007
Viterbi researchers and front-line Chevron personnel gathered recently at USC to take stock of more than two years of cooperation, and plan their next steps.
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters Tackles Tough Transportation Issues at Local WTS Dinner
February 28, 2007
Viterbi School students, faculty join the Women's Transportation Seminar in a special dinner and Q&A with the federal transportation secretary.
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A Bamboo Bridge to a Sustainable Future
February 26, 2007
A Viterbi engineer who has created and demontrated the use of new composite bamboo building materials is organizing an international conference on the emerging technology and its message for a world increasingly focused on sustainability.
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First William G. Spitzer Lecturer Says Nanotechnology Will Change the Rules of Medicine, Starting With Cancer
February 24, 2007
Improved understanding of nanostructures such as molecular switches will be the catalysts of dramatic changes in the understanding of disease in the coming decade, predicts an expert in the field.
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E-Week Is A Hit!
February 23, 2007
They jousted, launched bottle rockets and tossed a few pies at the professors, but it was all in fun to celebrate National Engineers Week.
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Computer Science Chair Wins
February 20, 2007
Gérard Medioni has been honored by his peers in his specialty for a classic paper he presented in 1996.
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Hsieh Department's Sanjit Mitra Extends Impressive List of Awards
February 16, 2007
NAE member Mitra, internationally known for his work in analog and digital signal and image processing, is now a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.
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New Accelerator Technique Doubles Particle Energy
February 15, 2007
The new study, published in Nature demonstrates a powerful tool that may help make the next generation of atom smashers more effective and more affordable.
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Women In Engineering (WIE) Connects With Van Nuys High School Teens
February 14, 2007
A first-time campus event — WIE Connect — introduces promising high school girls to engineering with an 'amazing race' and hands-on activities.
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Finding survivors, protecting drivers
February 13, 2007
The laboratory of Assistant Professor Hossein Hashemi of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering has created two radar chips that make a range of uses both efficient and affordable.
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Students Set to Fly Fire Balls in Space
February 09, 2007
In March, a team of Viterbi School student engineers will hitch a ride aboard NASA’s microgravity laboratory to study how fire balls burn in zero G.
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Viterbi’s Quiet  Superstar Enters NFL Hall of Fame
February 08, 2007
Bruce Matthews, a stellar student athlete, great collegiate and professional offensive lineman, and engineer, enters the NFL Hall of Fame.
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‘Road to Space’ Webcast Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Spaceflight
February 05, 2007
Viterbi School astronautics professor Mike Gruntman chronicles the history of spaceflight in this special Distance Education Network (DEN) space anniversary webcast.
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Provost's Office Establishes Games Institute
February 02, 2007
The University of Southern California is establishing a new USC Games Institute, which will be “an umbrella of activity” for the many schools and departments, including the Viterbi School, now involved in games research, according to Vice Provost for Research Advancement Randolph Hall
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Fall 2006 Deans List
February 01, 2007
Check out all USC Viterbi undergraduates who achieved a 3.5 grade point average or higher on the Dean's List.
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Hsieh Department Standout Wins First IEEE Nanotechnology Early Career Award
January 30, 2007
Chongwu Zhou, whose recent work on ingenious techniques to have carbon nanotubes self-assemble themselves into useful structures on sapphire bases has attracted international attention, is the first winner of a new IEEE honor.
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Viterbi Students Bring Home the Google Gadget Gold
January 26, 2007
Every year Google challenges the student computing world to come up with 'gadgets,' visual gizmos that users of the ubiquitous search service can use to personalize their home Google page. This year, there were only five winners - including Viterbi CS students Ryan Brown and Pamela Fox.
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Yortsos Announces Fall 2006 Dean’s List
January 25, 2007
Find out who made last semester's Dean's List for achieving a 3.5 grade point average or higher.
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Will Synthetically Engineered Immune Cells Stop AIDS?
January 17, 2007
USC biochemical engineer Pin Wang and an interdisciplinary team of scientists explore a new gene therapy to combat HIV.
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Viterbi Ultrawideband Specialist Presented with IEEE Sumner Award
January 16, 2007
Professor Robert A. Scholtz of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering received his 2006 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award "for pioneering contributions to ultra-wide band communications science and technology" at a recent ceremony in San Francisco.
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Recent Faculty Promotions
January 15, 2007
Viterbi School computer scientists Ramesh Govindan, Aiichiro Nakano and Milind Tambe; civil engineer Najmedin Meshkati; and electrical engineer Eun Sok Kim are promoted to the full professor.
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Campus's Supercomputing Center Hosts National Minority Engineering Workshop
January 12, 2007
The Viterbi School applauds 24 talented engineering undergraduates from around the country for their Herculean efforts to build and demonstrate the powers of a parallel computer.
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IMSC Sound Magician Wins IEEE Honor
January 09, 2007
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has named Tomlinson Holman as the recipient of its 2007 Masaru Ibuka Award, recognizing his contribution to the development of advanced audio and cinema multi-channel playback systems.
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Seeding a Center for Heart Disease Research
January 09, 2007
Tzung (John) Hsiai, a biomedical engineer and cardiologist, has received a Zumberge grant to help establish a Cardiovascular Research Core involving seven departments in five schools at USC.
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Two Electrical Engineering Professors Named IEEE Fellows
January 06, 2007
Two faculty from the USC Viterbi School’s Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, Urbashi Mitra and Antonio Ortega, have been elected Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
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Viterbi Departments Establish Endowed Keynote Lectures
January 05, 2007
Endowed departmental lectures will honor the Viterbi School’s illustrious past while providing incisive looks at the new frontiers of science and technology.
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