University of Southern California Reveals Plans to Streamline Focus on Tech Subjects

USC students participate in new courses and programs and experiential education to prepare them for a tech-intensive world of work.

FREMONT, CA: "I want every student who comes through our programs, whether they are in science, business, the humanities or the arts, to have a solid grounding in technology and the ethics of the work that they do," Folt said. "We will integrate digital literacy across disciplines to create responsible leaders for the workforce of the future."

A USD 1 billion-plus initiative was revealed by USC President Carol L. Folt for computing research and education across disciplines, focusing on artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, gaming, and blockchain.

"We all know the world is changing very fast right now," Folt said. "We need to take that momentum of change — and couple it with USC's history of innovation — to create what has never been done before. And we're going to do it."

USC Frontiers of Computing will push the boundaries of computing forward with a $260 million donation from the Lord Foundation of California. In the fall of 2024, the USC School of Advanced Computing will move into Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall, a seven-story, 116,000-square-foot building. In the fall of 2024, the building is expected to open after completion. It is planned to hire 30 new faculty members specializing in computer science and computing-based research within the first three years, followed by 60 more by 2030. This new faculty member will hold appointments in multiple USC schools because computing methods, especially artificial intelligence (AI), change how people live and work. In addition to expanding its footprint in Silicon Beach, LA's Westside, where two of USC's tech incubators are already located, USC Frontiers of Computing will increase USC's influence across a wide range of industries. The new USC Capital Campus in Washington, DC, has expanded USC's impact to the East Coast, according to a study from 2017. Several academic disciplines will be integrated into computing with this initiative.

"This endeavor is a tremendous opportunity to apply new computing tools to accelerate and expand the impact of scientific discovery. It is not only the ability to solve problems that sets this apart but the speed with which it can be done," says Ishwar K. Puri, USC Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation.

Geoff Garrett, Dean of USC Marshall School of Business, says, "The potential is tremendous not only for great progress in applications such as cryptography and seismic simulations but also for foundational breakthroughs in research areas like black holes, computational biology, and quantum materials."

"The world needs engineers and computer scientists to solve the grand challenges we face. The new School of Advanced Computing will tackle this goal by developing reimagined engineering curricula that also emphasize the ethics of technology in our fast-changing world," says Amber D. Miller, Dean, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts& Sciences.