 n
a recent report on the ISI
Essential
Science Indicators
Web product, the institution garnering the highest percent
increase in total citations in the field of Computer Science
for the bimonthly period August-October 2003 was the
University of Southern California (USC). USC presently ranks
at #17 among institutions in this field, with 807 papers cited
a total of 3,522 times to date. Within the institution itself,
Computer Science ranks at #15 among the 20 fields in the
database in which USC publishes.
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Computer Science at USC: Roots and Current Events
Computer Science at USC dates back to 1972, when it started as a
graduate program administered by a different department. USC was the
first institute in southern California to offer a degree in Computer
Science. It was officially designated a department in its own right in
1976. In 1983, USC computer scientists Paul Mockapetris and John
Postel developed the Domain Name System familiar to every Internet
user.
Since the 1980s, USC has steadily worked to strengthen and improve
its standing in Computer Science through faculty recruitment, degree
programs, and interdisciplinary research. The department has  developed
a strong interdisciplinary relationship with several others, notably
the USC Information Sciences Institute (USC-ISI) and the USC Institute
for Creative Technology. They receive support from external sources
like Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Microsoft. Laboratories range from
the expected database and computational labs to those dedicated to
more unique subjects, including computational neuroscience and
molecular robotics.
Department chair Gérard Medioni is very enthusiastic on the
interdisciplinary nature of the work performed in Computer Science at
USC. Medioni emphasizes that "USC can be defined by teamwork and
collaboration. Most of our recent success stories, such as IMSC
and CT rely on intense collaboration, where the whole is larger than the sum
of the parts."
An inquiry about the breadth of research done at USC, and what
areas in which USC is particularly strong, led Dr. Medioni to cite
various programs, including robotics, where USC is ranked in the top
5, behind Carnegie Mellon in terms of funding, papers, number of
students, etc. USC has also had a strong presence for 25+ years in
computer vision, due to the work of Ramakant Nevatia and Dr. Medioni
himself. USC is considered the top group in the country in intelligent
agents, thanks to the work of Milind Tambe, and in AI in general,
thanks to their connection with USC-ISI. The department excels in
multimedia—they received an NSF Engineering Research Center award
for work done by Ulrich Neumann, Cyrus Shahabi, Shri Narayanan, and
Albert Rizzo. Other areas of strength at USC include Sensor Networks,
thanks to the work of Ramesh Govindan; Software Engineering, led by
Prof Barry Boehm; Nanoinformatics, led by Prof Ari Requicha; High
Performance Computing and Physics based simulation (Priya Vashishta,
Aiichiro Nakano, and Rajiv Kalia); Grid Computing (Carl Kesselman);
Cybersecurity (Cliff Neuman); and, of course, the pioneering work of
Len Adleman on molecular computing, cryptography, and self assembly.
When asked what other cutting-edge technologies stand out at USC,
Dr. Medioni replied, "Nanotechnology presents a potential for
revolutionary potential, and Computer Science plays a critical role. A
number of our faculty is taking a leadership role. We are contributing
to the multimedia revolution. ICT's research on emotional elements of
Human-Computer Interaction is a breakthrough."
As for what is important to the future of the Computer Science
program at USC, Dr. Medioni believes that "Relying on a unique
breakthrough by a single individual is a risky challenge. Instead, I
believe that cross-disciplinary work will provide tomorrow's
opportunities. Good infrastructure to carry out experimental work is
critical. The new Tutor building is a good step in this direction, and
further expansion is needed."
A Researcher’s Perspective
| In-cites also caught up with Dr. Carl
Kesselman, a Research
Associate Professor in the department as well as a Fellow at USC-ISI
and the Director of USC-ISI’s Center for Grid Technologies, for a
researcher’s perspective on USC’s citation achievement in Computer
Science. |
What is the breadth of computer science research at USC? Are there
any areas
in which you feel USC is particularly strong?
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“USC can be defined by teamwork and collaboration. Most of our recent success stories…rely on intense collaboration, where the whole is larger than the sum of the parts.”
~Gérard Medioni |
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The research program at USC is a broad-based, full-featured
computer science program. At USC, we have a particular advantage, in
that in addition to the computer science department, we have the
Information Sciences Institute, a 300-member resource organization
devoted to studying the area of computer science generally referred to
as "systems." The research of the department and ISI has
evolved over time to have complementary skills, for example, there are
no people doing computer science theory at ISI, while there are in the
department, including this year's Turing Award winner, Len Adleman.
Areas in which USC are particularly strong are my research area,
Grids, along with research in computer networking, intelligent
systems, and robotics.
Please give us a little background on your other research efforts
at USC.
All of my research activities are focused on Grid
infrastructure. This is however, a fairly broad research area
and within this I have done work in security, resource management,
visualization, and a range of application areas including geophysics,
climate modeling, and earthquake engineering.
How important are teamwork and collaboration in achieving your
goals?
Teamwork and collaboration are absolutely essential to achieving my
goals. All of my work has been done in the context of
collaboration. These collaborations are interesting in that they
are not just with other computer scientist, but often involve close
working relationships with scientists in other disciplines. For
example, at USC, we have a very active collaboration with the
geophysists associated with the Southern California Earthquake Center,
which I headquartered at USC.
Do teamwork and collaboration entail significant involvement of
your researchers with groups external to the department or
institution?
While there are excellent researchers at USC who I collaborate
with, I also have significant interactions with groups outside of USC.
Of particular note is my decade-long collaboration with Ian Foster, at
Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago. These
outside collaborations are really essential to my work.
Are there other cutting-edge technologies at USC that stand out?
There are many excellent researchers at USC, some of whom I've
already mentioned, for example in Geophysics. It is probably
worth mentioning there are a number of research institutes that are
developing cutting-edge technologies that relate to computer
science. For example, in addition to ISI, there is the Institute
for Creative Technologies, that is developing sophisticated virtual
worlds for training purposes; the Integrated Media Systems Center
which is developing new technology for "Immersipresence;"
and the Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems Engineering Research
Center, which is performing multidisciplinary research that looks at
the coupling between biological and electronic systems.
What research endeavors or capabilities do you see as critical for
the future of Computer Science at USC?
To me, multidisciplinary research is critical to advancing computer
science. These disciplines can be with computer science (for example
looking at the how Grid computing and intelligent systems research are
complimentary) or across scientific domains (for example, between Grid
computing and Geophysics). It is at these intersections that both
interesting computer science and interesting domain science can
emerge.
University of Southern California
Department of Computer Science
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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