Department of Computer Science
News

A Life in Robotics

Jun 21, 2022

Jiaoyang Li, Ph.D. ’22, joins Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute this fall, focusing on AI and multi-robot coordination

Bistra Dilkina Appointed as Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Early Career Chair

Jun 20, 2022

Dilkina was honored by Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg as the perfect “heroic engineer” at May 3 ceremony.

Adam Novak Spent 100 Hours in Meditative Silence. From This, Shift SC Was Born.

Jun 17, 2022

USC Viterbi student cofounded new student club to explore technology in all its dimensions, including ethics

How to Make Virtual Touch More Human (and Less Annoying)

Jun 14, 2022

Robotics Researchers Identify Key Hallmarks of Reassuring Human Touch

Creating Power Without Power: New USC Viterbi Technology Improves the Speed of Data Processing

Jun 14, 2022

Jonathan Habif and Alan Willner’s team uses light, first of its kind optical technology to make sharing data on our devices less energy intensive

ISI researchers train artificial intelligence models to consider common-sense when generating responses

Jun 07, 2022

The goal: help those algorithms accurately predict a human’s next thought.

What If AI Could Create a Custom App for Small Businesses…In Only 30 Minutes?

Jun 01, 2022

Apsy, led by Ph.D. candidate Tooraj Helmi, uses AI to develop inexpensive, quality apps for startups

‘That’s Just Common Sense’. USC researchers find bias in up to 38.6% of ‘facts’ used by AI

May 26, 2022

A team of researchers from the USC Information Sciences Institute studied two AI databases to see if their data was fair. They found that it wasn’t.

USC Researchers Simulate COVID-19 Classroom Transmission

May 26, 2022

Model predictions show that universal mask usage can reduce new infections by up to 72% and high vaccination rates successfully curb transmission for more contagious variants.

USC Viterbi PhD Student Wins Meta Fellowship

May 23, 2022

The two-year fellowship will support the continued advancement of AI systems.

Haptics Device Creates Realistic Virtual Textures

May 20, 2022

USC Viterbi computer scientists have created a user-driven haptics method that can generate dead-ringers for real-world textures.

Students improve mobile app accessibility for people with disabilities

May 19, 2022

Two USC Viterbi Ph.D. students aim to solve the size-based accessibility gap in our mobile applications

USC Games Expo 2022 Takes Participants on a Ten Hour, Multi-World Adventure

May 17, 2022

Over fifty student games debut at 6th annual expo event hosted on Twitch

Where Does Vaccine Hesitancy Exist? USC AI Researchers Can Predict on the Zip Code-Level, in Real-Time

May 16, 2022

New software can outperform local and national survey data in gauging public opinions.

“The Best Educated Class In Our History”

May 14, 2022

At the 2022 commencement ceremony, undergraduates shared laughter, tears and hugs as they embark on a new journey

“The World Impatiently Waits For You”: 1100 USC Viterbi Master’s Students Graduate

May 14, 2022

First in-person, satellite ceremonies in two years feature four-star general and former CEO of Yahoo and Verizon Media as speakers

“Do Better Than Us”: Three Years of USC Viterbi Ph.D.s Receive Their Hoods.

May 12, 2022

At the 2022 Ph.D. Hooding and Awards Ceremony, 215 new graduates join Trojan forebears like Andrew Viterbi and Wanda Austin.

USC ISI works with D-Wave to house one of the first U.S-Based Advantage™ Quantum Computers

May 12, 2022

New D-Wave Advantage system, housed at the University of Southern California-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center, brings quantum system and hybrid solver access to business and research clients wanting a US-based solution.

USC Computer Science: Class of 2022

May 12, 2022

Meet USC Viterbi’s Department of Computer Science graduating class of 2022!

Doug Peacock Scholarship Opens New Doors for Engineering Students

May 11, 2022

TransDigm’s Doug Peacock Scholarship Fund changes the lives of hardworking students from underrepresented backgrounds at USC Viterbi

An Attentive Listener

May 05, 2022

Senior Bryan Huang feels a moral imperative to help those in need, whether serving as president of USC Code the Change or through social entrepreneurship

Building Better AR and VR

May 05, 2022

Burgeoning startup Playbook won this year’s MEPC with a vision of simplifying the development of augmented and virtual reality

‘Another 10 Million Years of Living’: USC Viterbi Start-Up is the No. 1 Virtual Cardiac Rehab Program in the U.S.

May 04, 2022

Moving Analytics, led by three USC Viterbi alumni, seeks to be in all 50 states by the end of 2023

USC at ICLR 2022: learning how to learn, decision making in complex environments, better forecasting models

Apr 29, 2022

USC researchers advance the state-of-the-art in AI and deep learning at top international conference.

ISE and CS Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Fellowships for Research to Combat Homelessness

Apr 28, 2022

Bill (Yongpeng) Tang and Nathan Justin are developing tools to improve housing resource allocation to the homeless. They have recently been awarded Graduate Research Fellowships.

ISI collaborates in a $10 million NSF-funded initiative on cyberinfrastructure

Apr 22, 2022

The goal is to establish a suite of cyberinfrastructure coordination services to support researchers from all areas of science, engineering research and education.

USC Viterbi-Led Team Wins $15 Million NSF Expeditions in Computing Award, One of Only Two Announced This Year

Apr 22, 2022

Massoud Pedram will be PI for multi-university DISCoVER team focused on green computing, superconductor electronics

I Know What You Did on Venmo

Apr 20, 2022

A team led by USC Viterbi researchers has discovered millions of “privacy leaks” on the mobile social payments app

Shri Narayanan Named 2022 Guggenheim Fellow

Apr 18, 2022

Prolific researcher is one of only two honored nationally for work in computer science

ISI talented early career researchers recognized again by NSF

Apr 14, 2022

The NSF CRII program helps outstanding researchers launch their research, consistently recognizing USC’s Information Sciences Institute junior talents.

A student’s mission to make games accessible to everyone

Apr 12, 2022

David Barrett (’22) is adapting current games and creating new ones to meet a wide range of disability needs

Making Urban Environments Sustainable with AI

Apr 06, 2022

Sarah Cooney, senior PhD candidate, creates a software system to allow everyday citizens to create designs for urban projects using AI.

USC Students Win the Coveted IBM App Building Competition

Apr 06, 2022

Three-member team placed first out of 1,700 other students in IBM’S Call for Code Education Innovation Case Competition

Supporting Girls in Space: USC Viterbi Program Returns for Summer 2022

Apr 05, 2022

With renewed support, Project Payload returns to offer underrepresented girls in STEM a hands-on experience in aerospace engineering and computer science

8 USC Viterbi Faculty Receive NSF CAREER Awards

Apr 04, 2022

The NSF’s most prestigious award for junior faculty has now been received by 13 USC Viterbi faculty over the past two years

New App Security Tool Protects Against Attacks

Mar 29, 2022

USC researchers have developed an app database security tool that can help protect against “injection attacks,” one of the top 10 app security risks for developers.

Using Machine Learning to Create Materials that Enable Energy-Efficient Electronics

Mar 28, 2022

USC Viterbi researchers have developed a neural network that can model a high-performing new material at a scale never-before seen.

Could distributive classrooms increase diversity in AI?

Mar 25, 2022

Emmanuel Johnson (’21) receives CRA Computing Innovation Fellows award for post-doctoral research on collaboration in a distance-learning world.

USC Senior Named One of Four Top Undergraduate Computer Science Researchers in North America

Mar 17, 2022

The prestigious award honors Leena Mathur for her excellence and outstanding research potential in computer science.

How to Get a Diagnosis Without Setting Foot in a Doctor’s Office? Try AI and Wearables

Mar 02, 2022

USC Viterbi leads $1.2 million, multi-school effort to upgrade wearable technology for next stage of healthcare

USC at the AAAI ’22 conference: 3D objects recognition, teaching robots to think on their own, finding information in any languages

Feb 23, 2022

New models help information detection in many languages and 3-D objects recognition, as well as robots training.

Michael Pazzani, pioneer in machine learning, joins ISI to strengthen its AI strategy

Feb 22, 2022

His research on explanation can’t always be explained to a ten year old, but his contribution to the machine learning field has led to very concrete innovations, from media personalization to salary predictions for athletes.

USC Launches New Center for Autonomy and AI

Feb 08, 2022

The new center will bring together researchers and industry leaders to fuel innovation and provide hands-on learning opportunities for students.

“Life Is Matter Plus Algorithms”

Feb 07, 2022

Annual USC Viterbi-Axilor Series Inspires Innovators and Entrepreneurs

Francisco Valero-Cuevas Selected As One of 12 U.S. Scientists To Advise on Issues of Medical Rehab and Disabilities

Feb 04, 2022

His four year term with the NIH’s Advisory Board On Medical Rehabilitation Research began in July 2021.

Measuring Media Polarization

Feb 02, 2022

Researchers in USC’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) develop a natural language processing tool that can quickly detect polarized topics from partisan news sources.

A New Way to Store Sustainable Energy: ‘Information Batteries’

Jan 31, 2022

Researchers propose a new way to deal with the intermittency of wind and solar energy sources – and store green energy cheaply and efficiently.

Researchers develop highly accurate modeling tool to predict Covid-19 risk

Jan 27, 2022

Researchers at USC have combined location density with real-world mobility data to predict the risk of infection from Covid-19 at specific locations with unprecedented accuracy.

Top Five in the Nation for 10 Consecutive Years: USC Viterbi’s Online Programs in Engineering, Computer Science

Jan 25, 2022

The U.S News & World Report ranks DEN@Viterbi as consistently among the best online graduate degree programs in the nation

USC Team Shows How Memories Are Stored in The Brain, With Potential Impact on Conditions Like PTSD

Jan 10, 2022

Fish that glow; a tailor-made microscope; a new way to catalog science. After six years, researchers produce the first snapshots of memory in a living animal.

Kicking Off the 2021-2022 MEPC

Jan 03, 2022

The latest edition of the 12-year-old Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition promises to guide aspiring student entrepreneurs through the process of transforming an innovative idea into a viable business.

Machine Communicates Emotion with Nearly 80% Accuracy of Human Touch

Dec 17, 2021

New Haptic Device Can Communicate Attention, Gratitude, Happiness, Calming, Sadness, or Love

Esports: The Future of Gaming

Dec 14, 2021

Computer science major, Youngju Shin, a member of the executive board for SC Esports, believes video games can bring people together.

USC’s Cyrus Shahabi, Andrea Armani, and Shri Narayan Elected Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors

Dec 07, 2021

The trio joins a distinguished class of 175 new inductees who “demonstrate a prolific spirit of innovation”

USC Researchers Present 30 Papers at NeurIPS 2021

Dec 06, 2021

Paper topics include machine learning, deep learning, neural networks and optimization.

“Deepfaking the Mind” Could Improve Brain-Computer Interfaces for People with Disabilities

Nov 18, 2021

Synthetic neurological data created using generative adversarial networks could speed up training of brain-computer interfaces, new study finds.

AI Can Tell You If a Therapy Session Will Be Effective

Nov 17, 2021

New tool automates evaluations of cognitive behavioral therapy

USC Researchers Present 30 Papers at EMNLP 2021

Nov 17, 2021

Goals include building fairer commonsense models by reducing bias, detecting polarizing topics to mitigate conflict, and achieving smooth human-AI communication.

USC and UCLA Students Compete in Philanthropic Video Game Tournament

Nov 15, 2021

Proceeds will go to the Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund for Black and Indigenous Students and UCLA Bruin’s Black Bruin Resource Center.

USC Viterbi Students Develop AI-based Alzheimer’s Diagnosis Tool

Nov 12, 2021

A student team developed machine learning algorithms that help predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease using speech.

Randy Hill’s Army Service Ended in 1984. He Still Serves Veterans — With AI, Graphics and VR

Nov 10, 2021

Professor Hill reflects on service, storytelling and his favorite virtual human to fight PTSD

How AI Could Help Screen for Autism in Children

Nov 09, 2021

An interdisciplinary team led by USC computer science researchers is creating a faster, more reliable and more accessible system to help clinicians screen children for developmental disorders such as autism and ADHD.

From the USC Viterbi Magazine: More Than Words

Nov 01, 2021

Every two weeks a language dies. Lina Brixey, a member of the Choctaw Nation and a USC Viterbi Ph.D. candidate, is determined hers will not be next.

If You Can’t See Inside a Cell, Let the Math Look For You!

Oct 18, 2021

Researchers at USC and beyond develop a new structure for modeling the inner functions of a cell

AI To Fight Wildfires

Sep 27, 2021

USC to Co-Lead an NSF-Funded Project for Controlled Burns and Fire Mitigation

Bringing Reinforcement Learning to a Dynamic World: USC Computer Scientists Win Best Paper Award

Sep 15, 2021

The paper outlines a simple approach that solves a complex problem in reinforcement learning (RL): applying RL algorithms to non-stationary environments.

Single Cell Intelligence: Alumni Startup Seeks To ID Cells That Could Transform Medicine

Sep 09, 2021

Co-founded by USC Viterbi alumnus Mahyar Salek, ’11, Deepcell uses AI and imaging to isolate unique cells in areas ranging from cancer to prenatal testing.

Is it A Horror Film or a Rom-Com? AI Can Predict Based Solely on Music.

Sep 02, 2021

USC Viterbi Professor Shrikanth Narayanan and his research group examined the role of music in film through a computational lens to determine how it affects the audience’s perception of genre

SHINE 2021: 58 High School Students Actively Contribute To USC Viterbi Research

Aug 26, 2021

“A sense of confidence, exposure and knowledge:” Students, family, and faculty celebrate the conclusion of this summer’s session of SHINE with annual poster session

Is Your Mobile Provider Tracking Your Location? This New Technology Could Stop It.

Aug 12, 2021

For the first time, researchers have found a way to protect phone users’ identity and location, without compromising connectivity.

ISI Researchers Devise Efficient and Comprehensive Strategy to Decrypt Ciphers

Aug 04, 2021

ISI researchers Jonathan May and Nada Aldarrab devise a new system to improve the accuracy and efficiency of deciphering hidden messages.

USC Collaborates in $20M NSF Institute to Push New Frontiers in AI and Optimization

Jul 29, 2021

The NSF Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute for Advances in Optimization will fuse AI and mathematics to tackle tough challenges, such as food security, supply chain operations and hardware design.

Undergraduate Researchers Impress Viterbi Community With CURVE Symposium Posters

Jul 22, 2021

Over 100 USC Viterbi undergraduates present their year-long research projects virtually at the 2021 Viterbi Research Symposium

New Simulator Helps Robots Sharpen Their Cutting Skills

Jul 22, 2021

A simulation engine developed by USC and NVIDIA researchers predicts the forces acting on a knife as it cuts through common foods, such as fruit and vegetables

Computer Science Professor Wins ‘Test of Time’ Award for Influential Paper

Jul 20, 2021

Shang-Hua Teng’s groundbreaking paper on smoothed analysis of algorithms helped explain a long-debated phenomenon: why do some algorithms work better in practice than in theory?

On the Cutting Edge: USC at the Robotic Science and Systems (RSS) Conference

Jul 16, 2021

USC research focuses on making safe, realistic and efficient robotic systems at the Robotic Science and Systems (RSS) Conference, 2021.

USC+Amazon Center Announces its Selected Projects for 2021-2022

Jul 13, 2021

The new center will support five research initiatives from across USC Viterbi.

USC researchers enable AI to use its “imagination.”

Jul 08, 2021

A team of researchers at USC is helping AI imagine the unseen, a technique that could also lead to fairer AI, new medicines and increased autonomous vehicle safety.

9 Questions With Data Scientist and Duet CTO Lucas Hu

Jul 01, 2021

A triangle of giving: USC Viterbi alumnus Lucas Hu connects donors to global refugees and local stores

Expert Q&A: Does social media misinformation cause vaccine hesitancy?

Jun 30, 2021

In a new analysis, USC computer science researchers found a large anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy community on Twitter.

Need help building IKEA furniture? This robot learns your preferences and lends a hand.

Jun 29, 2021

Researchers at USC created an algorithm that allows machines to learn from humans and predict their next move.

Improving Human-Computer Conversations From Camp Site Negotiations

Jun 24, 2021

Researchers from ICT and ISI devise CaSiNo, a scenario-based dataset for teaching negotiation.

From the Viterbi Magazine: A New Home for CS at SC

Jun 17, 2021

Bright, sustainable and modern—first look at new landmark building reveals a fitting home for computer science at USC.

From the USC Viterbi Magazine: Letting Robots Guide the Learning Experience

Jun 16, 2021

For years, Maja Matarić has been bringing robots into the world of people. Now she wants to bring people into the world of robots.

Find Your Genetic Relatives Quickly and Accurately with USC ISI’s iLASH Algorithm

Jun 11, 2021

ISI researcher and PhD student utilize iLASH to study genetic causes of diseases and the genetic structure of populations.

Viterbi K-12 STEM Outreach: From Molecular Modeling to Addressing Social Problems Using AI to Fighting Hate Speech

Jun 10, 2021

Even in the midst of the pandemic, USC Viterbi professors continued to prioritize K-12 outreach, engaging in projects aimed to foster learning and incite passion for science and engineering

From the Viterbi Magazine: New York Times Data Scientist Turned USC Computer Science Student

Jun 09, 2021

From data scientist at the New York Times to computer science Ph.D. at USC, Alexander Spangher is developing tools that help reporters do their jobs — and find the truth.

The Trojan “Angel” of Palo Alto

Jun 09, 2021

Preetish Nijhawan, former Akamai cofounder, serves as mentor to the next generation of founders through his firm that invests in early-stage technology startups

From the USC Viterbi Magazine: Fighting Fire with… Bananas?

Jun 08, 2021

Based on computer models, Barath Raghavan says the humble banana could prevent wildfire spread—and turn a tidy profit for local communities

ISI’s Jay Pujara Receives Google Grants for Teaching AI to Navigate Context and Uncertainty

Jun 03, 2021

ISI researcher Jay Pujara and team receive grants from Google for their award-winning project on creating probabilistic models for AI systems.

From the Viterbi Magazine: Q & A with Cyrus Shahabi

Jun 03, 2021

Cyrus Shahabi, chair of USC Viterbi’s Department of Computer Science, on what the new Ginsburg building means for collaboration.

From the Viterbi Magazine: A Life Less Ordinary

Jun 01, 2021

Computer science plays a role just about everything in our lives, from the cars we drive to the movies we watch and the many ways we interact with each other every day. In this timeline, we follow one “human of the future” through childhood, adulthood and into old age via critical moments that could be touched by technology developed at USC Viterbi.

Department of Computer Science News

Department of Computer Science

Department of Computer Science
News