Published by the University of Southern California Volume 2 Issue 2 Let There Be Light A Revolution in BioMed Imaging Small and Deadly A Proper Name Searching for Air A Proper Name Pollution Solutions Viterbis Name School of Engineering Digital Reunion Reuniting the Parthenon and its Art Spring/Summer 2004 One man’s algorithm changed the way the world communicates. One couple’s generosity has the potential to do even more. Andrew J. Viterbi: Presenting The University of Southern California’s • Inventor of the Viterbi Algorithm, the basis of Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering. all of today’s cell phone communications • The co-founder of Qualcomm • Co-developer of CDMA cell phone technology More than 40 years ago, we believed in Andrew Viterbi and granted him a Ph.D. • Member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the Today, he clearly believes in us. He and his wife of nearly 45 years have offered American Academy of Arts and Sciences • Recipient of the Shannon Award, the Marconi Foundation Award, the Christopher Columbus us their name and the largest naming gift for any school of engineering in the country. With the Award and the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal • USC Engineering Alumnus, Ph.D., 1962 invention of the Viterbi Algorithm, Andrew J. Viterbi made it possible for hundreds of millions of The USC Viterbi School of Engineering: • Ranked #8 in the country (#4 among private cell phone users to communicate simultaneously, without interference. With this generous gift, he universities) by U.S. News & World Report • Faculty includes 23 members of the National further elevates the status of this proud institution, known from this day forward as USC‘s Andrew Academy of Engineering, three winners of the Shannon Award and one co-winner of the 2003 Turing Award and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering. While we already boast an array of the best faculty in the • One of only four universities nationwide to have two active National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers world, this extraordinary gift will help us attract even more of engineering’s best and brightest • Awarded the first Research Center of Excellence by the Department of Homeland Security scholars, educators and students. Their energy, diversity, creativity and • Consistently ranked in the top three nationally in research funding per tenure-track faculty • Distance Education Network (DEN) is a commitment will further USC’s rich history of innovation, creating a future national leader in the field of e-learning, educating more than 800 graduate engineering students at corporations across the U.S. destined for even greater marvels of human achievement. www.usc.edu/dept/engineering The University of Southern California’s Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering in thisi ssue features page 24 A Proper Name Erna and Andrew Viterbi, Ph.D. EE ’62, Name Engineering School by Carl Marziali page 31 Let There Be Light A Revolution in BioMed Imaging by Diane Ainsworth page 32 Small and Deadly Searching for Air Pollution Solutions by Diane Ainsworth page 33 Digital Reunion Reuniting the Parthenon and its Art p by Eric Mankin 24 departments page 3 Dean’s Message page 4 Editor’s Note page 5 Straight & To the Point Short Subjects page 36 Alumnus Profile Ken Dahlberg, MSEE ’69 page 37 Alumnus Profile p31 Kenneth Wiley, Jr. BSAE ’80 page 38 Alumnus Profile Firouz Naderi, MSEE ’72, Ph.D. ’76 page 39 Alumna Profile Judith Love Cohen, BSEE ’57, MSEE ’62 page 40 Snapshots p33 Winter 2003-2004 & Spring 2004 Events page 43 Calendar page 44 Class Notes & Faculty/Staff Notes page 46 In Memoriam This year’s steel bridge entry was Development Focus once again and Viterbi photos by Michelle A. Michelle by photos Viterbi and H. Smith page 47 an innovative Cover page 48 Notebook design… p see Concrete & Steel for more 42 dean’sm essage Spring Brings New Things It is spring and the USC campus is once again a riot of colorful The third piece blossoms. But along with flowers, spring has brought our School of significant news some very good news that you will find in this issue of USC Engineer. covered in this issue We are now the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, thanks to concerns another the largest naming gift ever given to an existing American new partnership, this engineering school. Andrew (Ph.D. EE ’62) and Erna Viterbi’s one with the Indian $52 million gift nearly doubled our endowment fund and places Institute of us near the halfway mark of our $300 million fundraising initiative Technology (IIT) goal. Our School will be forever associated with one of the great Kharagpur. I traveled engineers of our times, a giant in both the academic and entrepre- to India with USC Senior Vice President Alan Kreditor and on neurial worlds. Furthermore, Andy Viterbi has joined our faculty! March 23, we signed a letter of intent with the Director of IIT However, to focus solely on the Viterbi’s philanthropy would be Kharagpur S. K. Dube and Professor Kalyan Chakravarti, who to miss the larger picture of their investment in USC and the Viterbi is dean of the institute’s Gupta School of Management. This School of Engineering. The importance of professional engineers to partnership was facilitated by Vinod Gupta for whom the society may be greater today than any other time in history. In our management school is named. daily lives, we constantly come in contact with and experience the The IIT Kharagpur is the subcontinent’s top engineering school benefits of the great intellect, vision and imagination of exceptional and India is an important source of graduate students for our engineers. Andrew and Erna Viterbi’s gift will not only enrich School. For many years, USC has been one of the top destinations engineering at USC, but will also ultimately improve life around the for international students from all over the world. world. The quality of the graduate students who come to the School Shortly after the announcement of their gift and shortly before from India is exceptional and in recent years Associate Dean USC Engineer went to press, U.S. News & World Report published Margery Berti, usually accompanied by one of our Indian faculty, their annual rankings of graduate engineering schools. The Viterbi has traveled to India to recruit these highly desirable students. School now ranks sixth in a tie with Caltech. This is a gain of two The new partnership with IIT Kharagpur can only help her efforts. spots from last year and it reflects the increasing quality of both our So, as flowers bloom on campus, nowhere is the bloom of graduate students, particularly Ph.D. students, and of our faculty. spring brighter than at the newly named USC Viterbi School of We graduated more than 100 Ph.D. students in the past year. Engineering. C. L. Max Nikias Dean USC Viterbi School of Engineering as photo by Max S. Max by as photo Gerber Niki USC ENGINEER Vol. 2 No. 2 Spring/Summer 2004 editor’sn ote he Trojan spirit at the USC Viterbi School Our magazine also continues to celebrate Tof Engineering has never been more alive. the lives of Trojans who have become “Trojans This magazine celebrates Trojan spirits every- in spirit,” so to speak. The following excerpt is where, from those found in our research labs, from a eulogy given at the celebration of the Dean pushing the boundaries of reality toward the life of Robert Arrington (MBA ’62, MSEE C. L. Max Nikias stuff that dreams are made of, to the undeni- ’66), one of our School’s most dedicated Chief Executive Officer, External Relations able strength of our alumni, whose profiles in alumni whose profile is on page 46 of this Christopher J. Stoy this issue continue to demonstrate the vitality issue. It describes better than I could what the of Engineering’s Trojan Family. Trojan spirit is made of. Editor, USC Engineer Annette Blain Annette Blain Director, Alumni Relations Managing Editor Bob Calverley “As many of you know, Bob Arrington was a Trojan. Now, some of you might be wondering what a ‘Trojan’ is. Trojans are doctors, lawyers, architects, actors, directors, corporate executives, teachers Contributing Writers Diane Ainsworth, Bob Calverley, Christian Camozzi, and even Naval Captains. John Cohoon, Rick Keir, Eric Mankin, Carl Marziali So what makes a person a Trojan? Well, Trojans come from a school out west in South-Central Los Angeles called the University of Southern California. They are educated like so many other Art Direction & Graphic Design college students today. However, something unique happens during their time in school that forges Tracy Merrigan Creative individuals into Trojans. I don’t believe that making a Trojan has anything to do with IQ or intelligence since USC has We wish to acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions to this issue of USC Engineer: Julie Fox, been making Trojans long before it became one of the top schools in the country. Rather it is more Moira Feighan, Keith Chugg, James Moore, Lora Chen, concerning the heart, or a feeling deep inside, like a torch burning. And it is not necessarily forged on Allen Au, Nancy McHose, Cheryl Dionaldo, the gridiron. But, I do know that the flame can begin to smolder the first time you are at a game, Serena Overhoff, Roberto Padovani, Katharene Poston, down 23 to nothing and you yell ‘Fight On’! Tom Haskins, Jacqueline Williams, Christopher Noll, Joyce Oo Mayne, Barbara Myers, Isadora Gullov-Singh, ‘Fight On!’ Down 23 to nothing, and you look around and no one is leaving? Now there are Matthew Bates, Kim Cabral, Jason Dziegielewski, schools… where people would be leaving in droves at this point in the game.