Latest News

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
View full post
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
View full post
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.

Read the story:
https://lnkd.in/gUS-Ze7e
View full post
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
View full post
Eight years of leadership. Three ISI locations. One well-earned celebration.

On Sept. 1, the USC Information Sciences Institute honored Craig Knoblock with lunches—and cake—in Marina del Rey, Arlington, Virginia, and Boston to celebrate his eight years leading ISI, including two as interim executive director.

During his tenure, Knoblock helped restore ISI’s financial footing and transform the original MOSIS into California DREAMS, a major microelectronics hub.

Knoblock a research professor of computer science and spatial sciences in the USC Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science at the USC Stevens School of Computing and AI, will remain at ISI.

Congratulations, Craig, on an extraordinary chapter of leadership—and the impact still to come.
View full post

Delivering the future

ISI's mission is to advance society through pioneering research and technological innovation. We cultivate an intellectually vibrant environment where researchers are empowered to imagine bold solutions to complex problems and to develop into world-class leaders. Guided by integrity, inclusion, and a commitment to excellence, we create unprecedented capabilities that harness information to transform lives.

Research & Development

Part of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering, ISI is a pioneer in research and development across an exceptionally wide range of advanced information processing, computer, and communications technologies.

Our broad expertise spans artificial intelligence, computational systems and technology, space engineering, informatics systems research, and networking and cybersecurity. Bridging multiple technology disciplines through both academic and industry expertise, ISI continues to shape the technologies of tomorrow.

Explore ISI R&D

Flask Dropper

Centers

ISI Centers are internationally renowned for pioneering research in a multitude of areas and disciplines, with collaborations with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and numerous other organizations. From quantum computing to global space applications, ISI Centers push forward the boundaries of innovation.

Discover ISI's Centers

MOSIS

In 1981, a request from DARPA led to USC establishing The MOSIS Service at ISI — a silicon prototyping and low volume production service for custom and semicustom integrated circuits.

Over the past 40 years, The MOSIS Service has collaborated with over 50 US government laboratories and agencies, 800 domestic and foreign colleges and Universities, and more than 100 commercial companies, and continues to support the advancement of microelectronics.

Learn More About MOSIS

mosis-chip-fabrication

Join the Future

To build upon its successes and global reach, ISI actively recruits exceptional talent. We are dedicated to investing in tomorrow’s leaders, providing numerous internship, job, and program opportunities for students, as well as unique opportunities for exceptional researchers in information sciences and related fields.

Explore Opportunities at ISI

Did you know

In 1985, ISI debuted packet video, led by Stephen Casner and Danny Cohen, and transmitted via a satellite on the building's roof, leading to video becoming a wildly popular fixture of the contemporary Internet.
People in classroom listening to presentationSpeaker

ISI SEMINAR SERIES

Keep up-to-date with the ISI seminar series by subscribing below.

You will have the option of subscribing to individual seminar topics.

subscribe to notifications

ISI SEMINAR SERIES

Keep up-to-date with the ISI seminar series by subscribing below.

You will have the option of subscribing to individual seminar topics.

Information Sciences Institute

As a world-class institution, ISI offers a prestigious, intellectually vibrant environment, combining the best of major research universities and industry labs on both coasts.

ISI is committed to forging a better future. Please visit our careers web page to learn how you can become a part of the ISI community.