CASE STUDY
With an aggressive recruitment and fundraising effort , University of Southern California ( USC ) has launched the single largest comprehensive academic initiative in the university ’ s history : Frontiers of Computing .
The initiative integrates computing throughout education and research to enhance digital literacy for all students as the university aims to hold its lead as a top provider of tech professionals . USC President Carol l . Folt announced the $ 1 billion plus initiative for computing research and education across disciplines – with a focus on AI , Machine Learning and data science , augmented and virtual reality , robotics , gaming and block chain .
“ I want every student who comes through our programs , whether they are in science , business , the humanities or the arts , to have a solid grounding in technology and the ethics of the work that they do ,” Folt said . “ We will integrate digital literacy across disciplines to create responsible leaders for the workforce of the future .”
Seeded with a $ 260 million gift from the Lord Foundation of California , USC Frontiers of Computing encompasses a multipronged effort to push the boundaries of computing into a new era :
• A new school : The USC School of Advanced Computing headquartered in a seven-story , 116,000 square-foot facility , the Dr Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall . The building , now under construction , will formally open in fall 2024
• Recruitment : Hiring 30 new faculty in the first three years who are leaders in computer science and computing-based research – with 60 additional hires by 2030 . The new faculty members will hold appointments in multiple schools at USC in recognition that computational methods , particularly AI , are transforming the way people live and work .
• Economic impact : USC Frontiers of Computing will bolster the university ’ s influence on technology across various industries and expand its footprint in Silicon Beach on LA ’ s West side , which already is home to two of USC ’ s tech incubators , the Information Sciences Institute and Institute for Creative Technologies . ( USC currently has a $ 9 billion economic footprint in the LA area , according to a study in 2017 , and its impact is expanding to
62 INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA www . intelligentcio . com