Thank you for your interest in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering – and welcome to our website!

I hope you can find time to explore it fully. There is so much happening in the profession and here at the school. Now, more than ever, engineering shapes virtually every aspect of culture and civilization. What engineers do matters in a very substantial way. Technology has become a critical component of contemporary society, and true innovation – rather than financial manipulation – will be the key to renewing and expanding the economy.

Engineering will be the driver of the new century – to solve daunting economic and social problems, from energy, to climate, to health, to sustainability. The Viterbi School has the resources, the opportunity – and, I would say the responsibility – to lead this transformation.

Engineering is also a powerful enabling tool for the arts and sciences. We call this power “engineering+{other discipline},” and the concept permeates our research and education – an education balancing right- and left-brain skills, providing the creative and the technical problem-solving skills needed for these complex challenges.

We attract the most talented, ambitious and diverse faculty and students in the world. They work and learn at the highest levels of technical expertise, and across traditional boundaries – between disciplines, between academia, industry and government, and between nations around the globe. And they work at significant levels – we strive to provide a dynamic and cutting-edge curriculum, and we are a consistent leader in federally funded research.

We continue to make world-changing discoveries in diverse areas such as information sciences, biomedicine, energy, national security and new infrastructure systems for the megacities of the world. The National Academy of Engineering lists 14 grand challenges for engineering, the overwhelming majority of which coincide with active research initiatives at the school – in Energy, Megacities, Engineering+Health, Homeland Security and Advancing the Human Potential. In fact, early in 2009, we will be co-hosting, along with Duke University and the Olin College of Engineering, a summit meeting on the NAE Grand Challenges.

There is a lot going on at the Viterbi School, I invite you to explore our website to learn more.

Our goals for the Viterbi School are:

— To be first at USC
— A leader in the nation
— With constantly rising quality
— And excellence in all our endeavors.

Thank you for visiting us.
Yannis C. Yortsos
Dean
USC Viterbi School of Engineering