As a result of partnership between USC and Chevron, three of CiSoft's members will be joining Chevron.

May 15, 2009 — The following CiSoft students graduated this year. Congratulations to all our graduates! Best Wishes to you all!

View the video coverage of the NBC of "socially assistive robotics"

Dean Yannis C. Yortsos' speech at the April 1 Viterbi Awards banquet at the California Club

(Dean Yannis C. Yortsos was unable to address the annual Viterbi School Faculty-Staff Luncheon because of a death in his family. Senior Associate Dean John O'Brien spoke in his place).

April 07, 2009 — Maja Mataric´, David Kempe and Sven Koenig's support for their students will be recognized April 21 when they will receive 2008-2009 USC Mellon Awards for Excellence in Mentoring.

March 31, 2009 — Prof. Antonio Ortega has agreed to serve as Associate Chair of Ming Hsieh EE-Systems beginning August 16, 2009.

February 05, 2009 — Craig Knoblock and Massoud Pedram are among 37 computer scientists recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery for "their individual contributions to both the practical and theoretical aspects of computing and information technology."

A simulation of the behavior of millions of atoms in combustion brought graduate student Weiqiang Wang a 'best poster' prize at the Materials Research Society's Fall 2008 meeting in Boston.

Electrical engineering professor Viktor Prasanna will receive a 2009 Outstanding Engineering Alumnus Award from Pennsylvania State University on April 27, 2009, in a ceremony on the Penn State campus.

A USC delegation of engineering faculty and administrators traveled to Mexico City in early-December to initiate a collaborative agreement with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Globalization drives the agenda of modern research universities. A number of goals are typically pursued, from enhancing prestige to maintaining a quality student pipeline to advancing a service mission and to connecting with overseas alumni and other constituencies. In parallel, there are a number of emerging opportunities, from increased global demand for higher education to increased global research and development to the desire for acquiring a foreign education, at home or abroad.

Los Angeles is one of three "megacities" in the United States and 15 worldwide that wlll continue to grow at unprecedented rates well into the 21st century. With a population soon to exceed 20 million people, the metropolitan region faces increasingly complex urban problems that impact its health, vitality, security and economic prosperity.

Chevron is seeking PhD candidates for both internship and full time employment positions. Sign up through the USC portal, connectSC. Deadline is Wednesday, January 7th.

Deepwater Facility Expected to Produce 70,000 Barrels of Oil Equivalent per Day

Guest Editorial by Mehrzad Mahdavi, SPE, Vice President Enterprise Security Solutions, Schlumberger

Offshore drilling has come full circle for alumnus Bob Bauer, who introduced the first floating oil rigs more than six decades ago.

Dean Yannis C. Yortsos, Provost C.L. Max Nikias and two distinguished executives with Viterbi School ties were honored in a ceremony welcoming them into the National Academy of Engineering

The Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science welcomed its new and returning class of undergraduate and graduate students Sept. 5 during a special International Welcome Luncheon, which was webcast for Distance Education Network (DEN) students and the campus community.

Former Chevron executive Donald Paul will work with a new USC institute to further the university’s efforts in energy research.

The University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering has announced that Chevron Corporation has donated $915,000 in scholarships and training to USC students as part of the energy company's global University Partnership Program (UPP). The commitment is a continuation of Chevron's long-standing relationship with USC and the Viterbi School.

A grant from Energy Corporation of America (ECA) will initiate a research effort at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering on better ways to extract natural gas from "tight" shales.

Bakersfield, California was the host of the third annual CiSoft Academy held July 23rd thru July 24th. Fifty Chevron interns from prime universities all over the United States were selectively invited to this workshop to learn about the collaboration between CiSoft members from USC and Chevron's i-field specialists and their united progressions through technology.

Canada's Discovery Channel website covers efforts by Maja Matarić of the Viterbi School's Computer Science Department to develop a robotic system to aid therapists treating children with ASD.

The first issue of the new electronic newsletter produced by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency features a Q&A with the director of the USC Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, both on his work creating supermaterials and on general WMD defense basic research priorities.

A recent report describes how CS Professor Cyrus Shahabi is successfully adapting his Progressive Data Analysis (ProDA) system, which applies signal processing ideas to data processing problems, to the software giant's computing platforms.

The computer scientist, who has a thing for science fiction, tells how a byproduct of his research is improving security at airports.

Iraj Ershaghi of the Mork Family Department discussed the potential for increasing production from the 9-billion-barrel oil field that lies under Southern California.

Congratulations to all of our graduates! Best Wishes to you all!

As a result of partnership between USC and Chevron, four of CiSoft's members will be joining Chevron.

John McDonald, the new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Chevron Corporation, visited the University of Southern California (USC) on Friday, May 9th 2008.

University of Southern California hosted this year's 5th annual CiSoft/i-field Forum from March 24 to March 28.

The 5th annual CiSoft's Forum was the fifth brilliant success in a row, according to participants from the Viterbi School and from Chevron, the lead company in the industry group that funds the effort.

Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering, is being honored by the Society of Petroleum Engineers with the 2008 Western North America Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award.

The Society of Petroleum Engineers has named Viterbi graduate student Hamid Jahangiri as recipient of the Nico Van Wingen Fellowship.

Viktor Prasanna, professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, has earned two honors – an inaugural award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Best Paper award.

USC Viterbi School of Engineering Dean Yannis C. Yortsos is among the 65 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the highest professional distinction that can be accorded to an engineer.

At a brief January 17 ceremony, Chevron Vice President Warner Williams presented a check for $200,000 to Dean Yannis C. Yortsos of the Viterbi School of Engineering, establishing the 2008 Chevron-USC Scholarship and Fellowship Partnership Program.

Viktor Prasanna and Aristides Requicha were part of an elite company of 38 leaders in computing technology recognized this year by being named Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science recognizes Senior Associate Dean Maja Mataric and USC Provost C.L. Max Nikias for distinguished contributions in science and engineering.

Computer scientists at the University of Southern California and the start-up company they created are creating new generations of multi-dimensional world and local maps using an emerging mixed private-academic research model as they do it.

Researchers at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, one of the birthplaces of the Internet, have just completed and plotted a comprehensive census of all of the more 2.8 billion allocated addresses on the Internet - the first complete effort of its kind in more than two decades, they believe.

The Mork Family Department professor will receive the North America Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award.

Jerry Mendel has received a 2008 Pioneer Award from IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, the third USC faculty member to be so honored He will receive it in Hong Kong next June.

Viterbi School Dean Yannis Yortsos announced the first holders of two new endowed professorships: Joe Qin will hold the Fluor Professorship in Process Engineering and Don Zhang the Marshall Professorship in Engineering Technology.

One drop of oil changed everything. Call it Before and After Jack. That’s because in summer 2006, oil giant Chevron announced it had successfully completed the so-called Jack 2 test well in the Walker Ridge Block in the Gulf of Mexico — at more than 7,000 feet of water depth and another 20,000 feet below the seabed. Do the math — that totals more than five miles down.

The Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science's student chapter of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) has been named Chapter of the Month for May, the national SPE office has announced.

USC researchers and Chevron oil production engineers and business planners gathered Feb. 28 - March 1 to take stock of more than three years of cooperation and plan their next steps, including two "grand challenges."

A new communication protocol for wireless sensor networks just released by the Information Sciences Institute is the most efficient yet, more than a tenfold improvement on previous versions.

The Viterbi School applauds 24 talented engineering undergraduates from around the country for their Herculean efforts to build and demonstrate the powers of a parallel computer.

Professor Iraj Ershaghi, who worked with the Viterbi School's Distance Education Network to put the world's first Master's degree program in Smart Oil Fields Technology online, is the winner of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Education Service Award. He will receive the award at a ceremony at the organization's Sept. 25-27 convention in San Antonio, TX.

The Viterbi School's Center for Interactive Smart Oil Technologies (CiSoft) is on target and meeting expectations at the end of its first year, says CiSoft co-executive director Mike Hauser.