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In his annual State of the School address,\u00a0Dean Yannis C. Yortsos<\/a> discussed the USC Viterbi School of Engineering\u2019s major accomplishments, milestones and challenges over the past year. They include the strength of the entering class, new faculty, new research accomplishments and distinguished faculty awards. The dean then talked briefly about the financial challenges faced in view of university mandates and then spoke of the looming centrality of artificial intelligence and how USC Viterbi is responding to it.<\/p>\n In his Sept. 18 address at the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall<\/a>, Yortsos started by celebrating several important milestones and achievements:<\/p>\n USC Viterbi\u2019s first-year students come from 35 states and 20 countries. The school\u2019s acceptance rate was 9.2%. One-third of the entering class had a perfect 4.0 unweighted GPA. And for the seventh year in a row, the entering class has reached or neared gender balance. Dean Yannis C. Yortsos at the State of the School (Photo\/Courtesy of USC Viterbi)<\/p>\n USC Rocket Propulsion Lab<\/a> celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. In 2019, RPL became the first student-led group to design, build and successfully launch a rocket, Traveler IV, past the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line \u2014 the recognized boundary of space at 100 kilometers above Earth. And last October, RPL broke its second world record, when Aftershock II became the world\u2019s first amateur -built rocket to reach 470,000 feet. In the second part of his address, Yortsos shared his views about the type of engineers that are likely to flourish in the new AI era, which some call \u00a0\u201cThe Age of Intelligence.\u201d Yortsos stated that such engineers should possess three attributes: a deep domain knowledge of their respective fields, a deep understanding of AI technologies and an outstanding character. \u201cThey must have purpose and character in addition to technical competence, in a combination that leads to trustworthiness, sorely needed in today\u2019s complex world\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Yortsos said USC Viterbi is committed to educating engineers who will not only leverage the many opportunities created by AI but who will do so without \u201ccompromising the well-being of society and humanity.\u201d Simply put, these engineers will play an integral role in harnessing the power of artificial intelligence while ensuring that the technology is \u201chonest, harmless and helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Yortsos, the essential purpose of engineers is to solve problems that can be classified as belonging to four buckets, namely advancing sustainable prosperity, improving health, ensuring security and enriching life. Together, these comprise what he termed a \u201cMaslow hierarchy for humanity.\u201d These will remain constant. At the same time, advanced computing and AI are \u201cchanging very fast, like approaching a singularity, much faster than an exponential.\u201d<\/p>\n <><\/p>\n In a play of the combination of what remains constant and what changes fast, Yortsos devised a schematic equation that combines the Maslow hierarchy triangle for humanity and the hyperbola denoting the singularity to produce \u00a0a new \u201cdouble helix,\u201d representing \u00a0the extraordinary intertwining of technology and society as never before.<\/p>\n He further said that \u201dhumanity is going to provide the trustworthiness and human values needed to ensure \u00a0that \u00a0technology is \u00a0human-centric, that it is regulated and shaped by the human in the loop.\u201d In other words for AI to be \u201chonest, helpful and harmless.\u201d<\/p>\n USC Viterbi, Yortsos added, has recently undertaken several important AI initiatives to strengthen its leadership in the field. The Viterbi School just announced a new B.S. in artificial intelligence, the first undergraduate program of its type on the West Coast, along with a new master\u2019s degree in aerospace and mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on AI and machine learning. Viterbi \u00a0also helps run the USC-wide Center for Generative AI and Society<\/a>. Finally, Yortsos said that all engineering courses would soon include fundamental elements of the technology underpinning artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n Published on September 24th, 2025<\/p>\n Last updated on September 24th, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Image\/Courtesy of MidJourney) In his annual State of the School address,\u00a0Dean Yannis C. 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\nDuring the past year, USC Viterbi has hired several excellent new faculty members, including eight tenure-track assistant professors, two tenured associate professors, who joined Viterbi from other institutions and one tenured full professor, also from a top peer institution. A record 2,357 applicants vied for these positions.
\nUSC faculty members won several prestigious awards.\u00a0Andrea Hodge <\/a>was named an ASM Fellow;\u00a0SK Gupta<\/a>\u00a0won the Society for Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Eli Whitney Productivity Award and the ASME William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award;\u00a0Azad Madni<\/a>\u00a0landed the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award;\u00a0Stacey Finley<\/a>\u00a0received the BMES Mid-Career Award; and\u00a0Maja Matari\u0107\u00a0<\/a>received the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Computing and the MassRobotics Medal. Earlier this year, Matari\u0107\u00a0 was also inducted into the National Academy of Engineering<\/a>, the most prestigious award for an engineer.
\nThe School of Advanced Computing<\/a> \u2013 USC\u2019s 23rd school \u2013 celebrated its one-year anniversary. SAC aims to leverage physical, chemical, biological and social phenomena with advanced computing, especially AI, with the goal of helping to solve the grand challenges of our times. The new school, a unit within USC Viterbi, serves as the epicenter of all computing-related activities across USC.
\nThe Engineering in Society Program<\/a> (EIS), focused on equipping engineers with the communication, ethics, empathy and leadership skills, expanded its curricular and co-curricular offerings. New courses such as \u201cEIS 103: Information Literacy;\u201d \u201cEIS 370: Ethical Issues in Artificial Intelligence;\u201d and study-abroad courses in Germany, Japan and Australia reflect the Viterbi School\u2019s belief that engineers must be global citizens and ethical communicators.<\/p>\n![\"Dean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Yortsos-SOS.jpeg\")
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\nThe Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering<\/a> continues to grow in size and quality and was ranked nationally in the top 10.
\nThe Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science<\/a>, which brought together chemical engineering, materials science and petroleum engineering, marked the 20th anniversary of its naming.
\nFor the past 33 years,\u00a0Hank Koffman<\/a>, a USC alumnus with a bachelor\u2019s degree in civil engineering, has directed\u00a0USC Viterbi\u2019s Construction Management Program<\/a>. Now, thanks to a generous naming gift from his former student,\u00a0Jonathan Emami<\/a>, MCM \u201906, the program will reach new levels of excellence, with plans to add new faculty, students, and new programs. Emami, a successful real estate developer, named a chair in his mentor\u2019s honor: The Henry M. Koffman Endowed Chair in Construction Management. \u201cThis is about legacy and recognizing Hank\u2019s important contributions,\u201d Yortsos said.<\/p>\n