Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
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AI Platform Earns VA Approval to Support Veterans

Oct 09, 2026Inspired by decades of virtual-human research at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, Sidekick uses conversational AI to help veterans navigate healthcare, employment, housing, education and benefits using information curated by VA specialists.

From USC to Microsoft: A Career Shaping AI’s Next Era

Oct 07, 2026Priya Bhasin left New Delhi for a USC Viterbi classroom in 2014. Today, as a Group Product Manager at Microsoft AI, she's building the systems deciding what AI does next.

If You Want to Know Whether a Smile Is Real, Look at the Eyes

Oct 05, 2026A USC study of nearly 2,000 hours of Holocaust survivor testimony finds that smiling often signals distress, not happiness, and offers a simple clue for telling the two apart.

USC Robotics Leader Maja Matarić Named to Forbes 50 Over 50: Innovation List

Oct 01, 2026A pioneer of socially assistive robotics, Matarić has spent more than 2 decades developing robots that “help people help themselves”

The Lawyer’s Office May Be a Lifeline

Sep 29, 2026A study of hundreds of thousands of suicide records finds overlooked chances to recognize distress long before a person reaches a mental health clinic - or worse

Three Decades of Building the Emotional Machine

Sep 24, 2026During his career at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies within USC Viterbi and USC Stevens, Professor Jonathan Gratch has helped define the science of affective computing and its role in shaping our increasingly complex relationships with intelligent machines.

They Developed an AI Tool to Detect Online Job Ads Linked to Human Trafficking

Sep 22, 2026The USC Viterbi and Stevens researchers' automated system analyzes multilingual job postings to identify deceptive recruitment tactics, risky platforms and industries targeted by traffickers

Carl Kesselman Wins 2026 HPDC Achievement Award

Sep 18, 2026USC pioneer honored for grid-computing breakthroughs that helped reshape large-scale science and anticipated the cloud

Does AI Have Low EQ? USC Study Identifies Where Models’ Emotional Reasoning Breaks Down

Sep 14, 2026USC Viterbi and USC Stevens engineers reveal how AI models misinterpret emotional cues from audio and video, and introduce a framework to help them reason with real evidence

Can AI Predict What Humans Do and Why? USC Study Sheds Light on AI’s Limits

Sep 09, 2026USC AI researcher and robotics pioneer find that LLMs can make human-like predictions by observing players in social games but struggle to learn from experience and apply what they learn to new situations

NSF Awards $20M to USC and Collaborators to Renew AI Institute

Sep 04, 2026With an expanded role in NSF AI4OPT’s second phase, USC will lead AI for Optimization research, bring together a larger interdisciplinary team and host the Seth Bonder summer camp

The Hidden Cost of Where You Live

Sep 02, 2026USC Viterbi and USC Stevens researchers trace a costly, invisible bias in AI systems back to a single factor: your address

USC Study Helped Shape Transparency Requirements for EU Social Media Moderation Law

Sep 01, 2026USC Viterbi and USC Stevens researchers identified a loophole in content moderation reporting regulation and proposed a statistical solution later reflected in updated European Union policy

Even Verified Cybersecurity Research Artifacts Can Be Hard to Reuse

Aug 31, 2026USC Viterbi and USC Stevens researchers at ISI found that many cybersecurity research artifacts carrying top-tier evaluation badges were difficult to find, install or run

AI Gives Medical Advice Every Day. Who’s Checking Whether It’s Safe?

Aug 26, 2026USC researchers are building ALICE to test whether chatbots give people medical information that is accurate, complete and safe to act on

What If We Asked a Different Question?

Aug 25, 2026Five ideas from USC Viterbi Dean (Interim) Gaurav Sukhatme's Marketplace Tech conversation that explore the role of universities in the age of AI.

USC Computer Scientist Answers Five Common Questions About AI

Aug 21, 2026Through AI interpretability research, Robin Jia answers five questions about AI– from emotions and consciousness to learning, decision-making and speed

How to See Eye to Eye With AI

Aug 20, 2026An award-winning study from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and the US Army Research Laboratory applies natural language dialogue to help humans and intelligent systems coordinate knowledge and achieve shared goals.

Giving AI Agents the Keys? USC Engineers Develop Tools to Audit and Monitor AI Agents

Aug 19, 2026USC computer scientists develop tools to screen agents before they act, block risky actions in real time and trace their decisions after the fact

Can AI “Understand” a Fundamental Concept of Chemistry?

Aug 18, 2026When USC Viterbi researchers developed a way to look inside a powerful AI model, they found evidence that it had independently learned one of chemistry's most fundamental concepts: the chemical bond.

Can AI Read the Room? USC Study Finds AI Is Better at Reading Than Listening

Aug 10, 2026Researchers identified why audio AI models miss tone, emotion and other audio cues - and developed new solutions that dramatically improve their ability to interpret speech beyond words

Making Medical AI More Reliable

Aug 06, 2026A new NSF-funded project will create an open-source framework that traces AI errors to their source, helping researchers and clinicians build more trustworthy medical AI systems

USC Researchers Discover Fake News Spreaders Have Less Followers Than Users Pushing Back

Jul 29, 2026AI tools developed by USC Analyzing Misinformation during the COVID 19 Pandemic finds users countering misinformation are more established, more emotional, and have larger followings than accounts spreading false claims

Can AI Make Us Better Thinkers? USC Researcher Studies How Human and AI Think Together by Looking at Brain Signals

Jul 28, 2026Upcoming NSF-funded study will study how doctors, journalists and software engineers interact with AI to redesign interactions that strengthen creativity and critical thinking

From Stress-Relief Vibration Patterns to Haptic Emojis, USC Researchers Personalize the Sense of Touch With AI

Jul 27, 2026New study is first to develop algorithm that learns an individual's preferred vibration patterns, opening the door to personalized haptic experiences in gaming, mental health and automobiles

New AI Lets Robots Decide Which Collisions Are Safe

Jul 21, 2026USC Viterbi researchers developed a context-aware AI system that helps robots distinguish harmless contact from risky collisions in complex environments.

AI in 2026: Smarter Models, Harder Questions

Jul 20, 2026USC Viterbi researcher Yolanda Gil on the state of artificial intelligence through the 2026 AI Index.

USC Advances Humanoid Robotics, Robot Learning and 3D Manipulation at RSS 2026

Jul 15, 2026USC Researchers to Lead Workshops and Present Papers at RSS 2026: From Humanoid Foundation Models and Robotic Reward Learning to 3D Vision for Precision Manipulation

USC Study Used Sweat, Brain Signals, Eye Movements and AI to Detect Depression and Suicide Risk

Jul 13, 2026Researchers analyzed biomarkers that could help psychiatrists identify at-risk individuals earlier and more objectively, supplementing existing self-report surveys and clinical interviews

Can ChatGPT Be Your Therapist? USC Study Tests AI Responses to Mental Health Questions

Jul 07, 2026USC Research Finds AI Strong in Empathy with Promising Potential for Mental Health Support, but Models Still Struggle With Safety Concerns

Toward Quantum-Augmented Databases: New USC Study Aims to Break the Bottlenecks Slowing Modern Data Systems

Jul 06, 2026USC Viterbi researcher wins NSF Career Award and aims to study how quantum computing can transform database optimization for a data-intensive future

USC Research Advances Fairer Algorithms and Smarter Markets at EC 2026

Jul 06, 2026USC Researchers to Present 4 Papers at EC 2026: Advancing Algorithmic Fairness, Market Design and AI at the Intersection of Economics and Computing

AI Location Bias; AI Missing Vocal Clues: USC Viterbi and USC Stevens at ICML 2026

Jul 06, 2026Researchers will spotlight USC Viterbi's strengths in machine learning, AI and responsible AI research at the prestigious conference.

USC Computer Science Chair Nenad Medvidović Inducted as ACM Fellow

Jul 02, 2026Recognized for foundational contributions to software architecture and large-scale systems design, Medvidović reflects on research, mentorship and solving problems that matter.

AI To Prevent Suicide; AI To Better Diagnose Respiratory Diseases: USC Viterbi and USC Stevens at ACL 2026

Jul 02, 2026The prestigious conference brings together researchers and practitioners to share advances in natural language processing.

USC Breakthrough Could Help Scientists Spot Disease Clusters, Fraud Networks and More

Jun 30, 2026USC Viterbi researcher Emilio Ferrara has built a tool that can map communities inside massive social, biological, and financial networks faster and smarter than anything that came before.

USC Brings the World’s Control and AI Researchers to Campus – Together

Jun 29, 2026Two leading conferences, L4DC and NeuS, converged at USC to tackle the same hard problem from two directions: how do we trust machines that learn?

For America’s 250th, We Created Commemorative Stamps of Trojan Builders

Jun 29, 2026Need patriotic stamps? We've got you covered. Check out our collection of 14 USC computer scientists and engineers who helped build the modern computing world. Also, they're animated.

USC Studies Aim to Advance Self-Driving Cars, Transform Robot “Brains” and Understand Workplace AI Use

Jun 25, 20263 USC faculty will lead research projects funded by the Toyota Research Institute

What If We Could See Disinformation Coming? USC Scientists Say We Can

Jun 24, 2026USC Viterbi researchers can now predict when a false rumor will jump from one social media platform to another, giving journalists and fact-checkers a chance to step in before it goes mainstream.

USC Researcher to Lead $2.4M AI Core for Raynor Cerebellum Project Treating Cerebellar Disorders

Jun 11, 2026USC Viterbi's Maryam Shanechi aims to develop AI models to improve neuromodulation and enable adaptive treatment for cerebellar disorders

Unlocking the Inner Ear: Transforming How Scientists Study Hearing and Balance

Jun 10, 2026A collaboration between USC/ISI, Ostrow School of Dentistry, and the National Institutes of Health is creating the first national database for hearing and balance research.

USC @ ICRA 2026

Jun 01, 2026USC Engineers to Present 32 Papers in Robotics: From Safer Autonomous Navigation and Dexterous Manipulation to VLMs and AI-Driven Learning for Robots

Sheep, Spacecraft and a World That Knits Itself Back Together: USC Games Turns 10

May 26, 2026USC's top-ranked game design program marks a decade with sixty student games and no shortage of ambition.

Class Of 2026 Trojan Engineers Tasked As Trustworthy Problem-Solvers As They Launch Next Chapter

May 17, 2026From 35 countries and equipped with the skills to advance their chosen field of engineering, the Viterbi Class of 2026 gathered to celebrate degrees earned across oceans, languages, and cultures.

Ingenuity and Perseverance: USC Viterbi Master’s Graduates Are Ready For The Toughest Challenges

May 17, 2026More than 3,500 engineering students gathered at the Galen Center on May 15 to celebrate the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Class of 2026 master's commencement ceremonies, marked by keynote addresses.

At USC Viterbi, 170 newly minted Ph.Ds. stepped forward toward a bright future

May 16, 2026The Class of 2026 gathered at Bovard Auditorium to celebrate years of research, discovery and impact.

USC Graduates From Amazon, Google and IBM Shared Insights at the Department’s First Alumni Panel

May 15, 2026Alumni panel showcased power of USC Viterbi's Trojan network, helps students navigate software engineering careers

USC @ ICASSP 2026

May 13, 2026USC researchers brought 13 papers to ICASSP this year, highlighted by a plenary talk from Shrikanth Narayanan

From USC to Big Tech: Apple, Amazon, Nvidia Among Top Employers of USC Engineering Alumni, New Data Shows

May 13, 2026Across USC Viterbi and Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, alumni point to industry-aligned courses, hands-on learning, powerful Trojan network and reputable faculty lineup as key drivers of career success in a competitive job market

From “Magic” Hats to Medical Breakthroughs: Alexandra Somodi Engineers Joy and Impact

May 08, 2026CLASS OF 2026 - The graduating USC Viterbi senior blends research, leadership and musical theater to create, contribute and connect

10 Times Faster, 10 Times Less Energy: Solving AI’s Memory Bottleneck With Algorithms and Coding Theory

May 04, 2026USC hosts 20th Viterbi Keynote Lecture featuring Andrew Viterbi and UC San Diego professor Paul Siegel

Thinking Fast and Slow: How to Turn a PhD into a Startup Incubator

May 04, 2026CLASS OF 2026 - Graduating PhD candidate Abel Salinas used his time at USC Information Sciences Institute to develop CommonGround: an AI platform that helps organizations forecast violence and civil unrest, enabling them to proactively protect people, operations and supply chains.

USC Institute on Ethics and Trust in Computing Launched Inaugural Summit

Apr 30, 2026Researchers and industry leaders across engineering, law, philosophy, business and more gathered to discuss key issues in ethical and trustworthy AI at IETC's first summit

From Backhands to Breakthroughs: USC Viterbi Students Take Bold Biomechanics Research Worldwide

Apr 27, 2026BME students will present their work at the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics this summer.

USC at ICLR 2026

Apr 23, 2026USC researchers set record for oral presentations at ICLR 2026, with key breakthroughs in language model reliability, multimodal reasoning and robotics

Study Uses AI to Uncover a Hidden Link Between Legal Troubles and Suicide Risk

Apr 21, 2026A new study led by USC Viterbi professors uses third-party data and a mixture of human and AI-driven analysis to power insights on suicide prevention.

USC Researchers Presented Ways to use AI for Social Good at ShowCAIS 2026

Apr 15, 2026USC Center for AI in Society Celebrated 10th Anniversary and Hosted Annual Symposium Featuring AI Research Across the University

Google Awards $450,000 to ISE Epstein Department researchers

Apr 09, 2026ISE faculty wins five competitive awards for work in AI, transportation, public health, mathematics and education

Multi-fingered Robots Could Transform Shipboard Operations and Autonomous Maintenance

Apr 07, 2026USC Viterbi Researcher Received Office of Naval Research’s Young Investigator Program Award With Upcoming Study on Dexterous Robotics

In the Clinic Room, an AI Steps In to Fill the Gap Between Patients and HPV Vaccines

Apr 01, 2026A new “Chat-HPV” tool built by USC Viterbi professors with help from USC Keck medicinal professionals saves wait time, avoids harm.

USC Scientists Build a Memory Chip That Survives Temperatures Hotter Than Lava

Mar 30, 2026A discovery using graphene has produced a record-breaking high-temperature memory device, with implications for space exploration, deep-earth drilling, and the future of AI hardware.

Professor Yan Liu Receives Two Top Honors – In One Hour

Mar 27, 2026The multitalented USC Viterbi professor was recognized by both the AAAI and IEEE in late November.

The Long Game: Bill Swartout’s 50-Year Journey from Homework Machines to Lasting Conversations

Mar 27, 2026The ICT pioneer who built systems that made Holocaust survivors immortal and brought museum exhibits to life is stepping back—but not stepping away.

A USC Doctoral Student Solves a Longstanding Problem in Quantum Cryptography

Mar 19, 2026Miryam Huang is the first USC student to win the prestigious Machtey Award, recognized for solving a cryptographic problem first posed in 1976 and later asked as an open question in the quantum setting, with important implications for quantum cryptography.

From Censored Chatbots to Cinematic Visuals: USC Undergraduates Push the Boundaries of AI

Mar 12, 2026The students were recognized for their work across unique computer science studies, but all involving artificial intelligence.

USC Study Finds AI Agents Can Autonomously Coordinate Propaganda Campaigns Without Human Direction

Mar 11, 2026The findings carry stark implications for elections, public health, and anyone who relies on social media for information

The AI That Taught Itself: USC Researchers Show How Artificial Intelligence Can Learn What It Never Knew

Mar 09, 2026A USC Viterbi undergraduate and her professor developed a method that allows AI to fix its own knowledge gaps in real time.

USC Engineers Offer Solutions to Stop Unsafe AI Behaviors

Mar 03, 2026USC Viterbi Researchers Plan to Develop Mathematical Guardrails for AI Safety in Upcoming Study With Philanthropic Funding

For Users Managing Passwords, Convenience Beats Security

Mar 02, 2026USC study reveals users favor convenience over security, preferring to keep their current password managers even when better tools are free

USC Professor Elected to Prestigious Academies for AI and Systems Engineering Work

Feb 18, 2026Neil Siegel elected to prestigious academies for research on when artificial intelligence is ready for critical systems.

AI for Soldiers, Movies, and Children: USC Engineer Elected to National Academy

Feb 10, 2026Professor Shrikanth Narayanan recognized by the NAE for pioneering contributions to human-centered AI and speech technologies with wide-ranging societal impact

Cracking the Brain’s Code: Unlocking Neuron Memory to Advance AI

Feb 09, 2026USC researchers discover neurons have memory and use a single neuron's activity to map entire brain networks, first to achieve this "mission impossible" that opens new possibilities for AI and neuroscience.

From Cancer Research to Smart Cities: USC Builds Platform to Test Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing Technologies

Jan 22, 2026New infrastructure will help evaluate data sharing techniques for healthcare, transportation, and other sectors as part of NSF's $10M privacy initiative

Three USC Viterbi Professors Named Fellows of National Academy of Inventors

Dec 11, 2025Shang-Hua Teng, S.K. Gupta and Massoud Pedram receive the prestigious honor in recognition of their contributions to innovation, invention and technology.

Finding Home in Oz: USC Student Helps Transform a Classic With AI

Dec 04, 2025"Experience of a lifetime": Suvaditya Mukherjee helps bring "The Wizard of Oz" to the Las Vegas Sphere using cutting-edge artificial intelligence.

AI as ‘Green Field’ of Opportunity

Nov 24, 2025Conversation with Richard Ho, OpenAI's Head of Hardware offers advice to students, and insights on field as part of Ronald and Valerie Sugar Distinguished Speaker Series in Advanced Computing

The Perfect Gift

Nov 24, 2025Alumnus Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel, former minister of telecommunications and IT, has helped shape modern Saudi Arabia. Now, his family has given back to the school that helped shape him.

USC Researcher Wins Prestigious Computing Award for Scientific Workflow Innovations

Nov 19, 2025USC Viterbi Information Sciences Institute computer scientist Ewa Deelman, whose software has helped detect gravitational waves and map earthquake risks, has been honored with one of the field's most prestigious awards.

AI’s Promise and Peril: USC Experts Navigate the Breakneck Pace of Artificial Intelligence

Nov 18, 2025As artificial intelligence advances at breakneck speed, even the scientists building it admit they're navigating uncharted territory where the line between revolutionary breakthrough and existential risk remains alarmingly unclear.

When Self-Driving Trucks Don’t Know What They Don’t Know

Nov 11, 2025At the USC Center for Autonomy and AI's fall workshop, participants grappled with a critical question: Can foundation models power the next generation of autonomous systems?

What Can Simulate Nature? Aid Blockbuster Drugs? And Get Congress to Agree?

Oct 31, 2025USC, home of the first operational quantum computer in academia, hosted its second quantum technology forum, bringing together leading experts from industry, academia and government.

Click Here for Confusion: The State of Privacy Settings

Oct 14, 2025Finding a privacy setting on social media should be simple. But a new study from USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI) shows it's anything but.

USC Secures Hat Trick at Interspeech 2025 with 3 Research Awards

Oct 14, 2025USC SAIL Lab's Best Paper and Dual Grand Challenge Wins Solidify its Leadership in Speech Communication Science and Technology

Building a Digital Apprentice

Oct 08, 2025Presented at a DARPA tech demo, ISI’s KNIC system supports complex tasks by learning from those who've done them before.

USC at CORL 2025

Oct 03, 2025From language-driven robot learning to advanced manipulation techniques, USC researchers collaborated across labs and showcased diverse breakthroughs at CORL 2025

Robots, Meet Your New Teacher: Yourselves

Oct 01, 2025A USC Viterbi graduate student team co-developed a new robotic system that adapts and learns every second.

New Language Technologies for American Sign Language

Sep 08, 2025USC Researchers achieved 91 percent accuracy at computer recognition of signs

How AI Got A New And Improved Personality

Sep 05, 2025Ph.D. student Bin Han led the development of a special AI project with potential applications in healthcare, business and more.

USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC School of Advanced Computing Launch an Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence

Aug 14, 2025First cohort to start on campus in Fall 2026

Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science News

Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
News