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A lawyer’s office could become an unexpected front line in suicide prevention. With the right training, attorneys could recognize warning signs, respond supportively and possibly connect clients in crisis with professional help.

A USC-led study of 756,000 deaths by suicide found evidence that the person had interacted with a legal professional in roughly one of every eight cases—revealing overlooked opportunities to intervene before tragedy strikes.

The research was led by Swabha Swayamdipta, WiSE Gabilan Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the USC Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Stevens School of Computing and AI; Jaspreet Ranjit, a USC Viterbi computer science Ph.D. student and the paper’s lead author; and John Blosnich, associate professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and interim co-director of the USC Center for AI in Society.

Jon May, a USC research associate professor of computer science and principal scientist and AI division director at the USC Information Sciences Institute, was among the co-authors.

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Big news: Terry Benzel has been elected 2027 president-elect of the IEEE Computer Society and will serve as its president in 2028.

Benzel is managing director of the USC Information Sciences Institute, part of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Stevens School of Computing and AI. She currently serves as vice president of the IEEE Computer Society.

As president, Benzel plans to strengthen trust and integrity as AI transforms computing, deliver greater value to members, create more opportunities for students and early-career professionals, and build closer ties among academia, industry and government.

Congratulations, Terry!

Read more: https://lnkd.in/ggQiNK3s
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Big news: Terry Benzel has been elected 2027 president-elect of the IEEE Computer Society and will serve as its president in 2028.

Benzel is managing director of the USC Information Sciences Institute, part of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Stevens School of Computing and AI. She currently serves as vice president of the IEEE Computer Society.

As president, Benzel plans to strengthen trust and integrity as AI transforms computing, deliver greater value to members, create more opportunities for students and early-career professionals, and build closer ties among academia, industry and government.

Congratulations, Terry!

Read more: https://lnkd.in/ggQiNK3s
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A suspicious job interview inspired an AI tool that could help protect others.

USC researchers developed a system that analyzes multilingual job ads and flags patterns linked to human trafficking — before potential victims are harmed.

Trained on more than 85,000 job postings, the tool uncovered warning signs ranging from vague promises of easy visas and unusually high pay to requests that applicants communicate by phone or text.

The research was led by Emilio Ferrara, professor in the USC Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Stevens School of Computing and AI, and a research team leader at the USC Information Sciences Institute.

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https://lnkd.in/gUS-Ze7e
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What if the next leap in computing didn’t move electrons—but waves of magnetism?

Ajey Jacob is leading SWIFT, a three-year, $5.5 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency \(DARPA\)-funded effort to reinvent the transistor. If the technology reaches its targets, a SWIFT-based GPS processor could be approximately 18,000× more energy-efficient than a conventional digital version, while producing less heat and better resisting jamming.

Jacob is director of advanced electronics at the USC Information Sciences Institute, part of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Stevens School of Computing and AI. He also leads ISI’s Application Specific Intelligent Computing Lab and serves as a research professor in the USC Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering .

It’s a bold attempt to change the physics of computation—and potentially reshape everything from AI data centers to phones and satellites.

Read “Building a Better Transistor”:
https://lnkd.in/g9mAQE\_A
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