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Viterbi School Engineering Program Ranks 12th in World

Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings show Viterbi School gaining ground in engineering, technology and computer science

October 11, 2007 — The Viterbi School of Engineering placed twelfth in the world in engineering, technology and computer science programs in the recently released 2007 Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings of the world’s top 100 universities.

"We're thrilled to be ranked 12th in the world," said Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of the Viterbi School.  "These rankings are based on things like numbers of publications and how highly cited publications are.  And it was not self-submitted data either."
USC Viterbi School's Olin Hall.

MIT came in first among all public and private university programs in engineering, technology and computer science worldwide.

This is the first year that universities have been ranked by broad subject fields, such as engineering, technology and computer science, in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University survey.  International rankings began in 2003 because the Chinese wanted to “find out the gap between Chinese universities and world-class universities, particularly in terms of academic or research performance.”

“This year’s ranking of 12 in the new 'broad subject fields' category is excellent for engineering,” explained Terry Langdon, the William E. Leonhard Professor of Engineering in the Viterbi School Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “These numbers are very important outside of the U.S., and are certainly closely examined in Europe.”

Institutions are ranked on indicators such as the number of highly cited researchers; number of articles published in the Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index; number of articles published in the top 20 percent of trade journals in each broad subject field; and total engineering-related research expenditures in a given year.

The rankings have been praised for being based solely on hard data, although some criticism has been raised for placing too much emphasis on Nobel laureates rather than an institution’s overall scientific impact.  Shanghai Jiao Tong University encourages feedback on the academic criteria each year, and adds that the poll currently includes more than 2,000 universities worldwide “in every country with a significant amount of articles indexed in major citation indices.”

For more results of the 2007 rankings, visit Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s website.