USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy

The degree is in disruption.

Announcing the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation

With a visionary gift from music-industry leaders Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young, the University of Southern California is establishing a new academy to inspire innovative, entrepreneurial thought in business, design, marketing and the arts.

Conceived as a collaborative environment that brings multidisciplinary students, instructors and professional mentors together, the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation will be a transformational presence on one of the nation’s most dynamic university campuses.

The focus is on invention and conceptual thinking, drawing on the talents and influences of leaders from across industries to empower the next generation of disruptive inventors and professional thought leaders across a multitude of global industries.

Jimmy Iovine

Jimmy Iovine, the Chairman of Universal Music Group’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records unit, and co-founder of Beats Electronics is one of the music industry’s most accomplished and respected leaders. Iovine began his four-decade career as a recording engineer, working with the likes of John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. As record producer, he was instrumental in the career breakthroughs of artists such as Patti Smith, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and U2, as well as Stevie Nicks, Dire Straits and The Pretenders.

Iovine co-founded Interscope records in 1990, widely regarded as the home of music’s greatest artists, including Dr. Dre, Nine Inch Nails, U2, Mary J. Blige, No Doubt, Marilyn Manson, The Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, 50 Cent and Lady Gaga. In 2006, Iovine and hip-hop pioneer/producer Dr. Dre co-founded Beats Electronics, a high-performance headphone and sound transmission company intent on recapturing the fidelity of the studio. With its expansion into smart phones and car audio systems, today Beats by Dr. Dre has captured 40 percent market share of the entire billion-dollar headphones industry. Since 2011, Iovine has shared his insight and expertise with contestants on Fox’s ratings blockbuster American Idol.

Dr. Dre

Born Andre Young in Compton, Calif., artist, producer and entrepreneur Dr. Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru. In 1986, he co-founded N.W.A. and won critical and commercial acclaim with the group’s 1988 landmark rap album Straight Outta Compton. In 1992, Dre released his solo debut, the G-Funk masterpiece The Chronic, which Rolling Stone hailed as one of the greatest albums ever made. In 1993, Dre produced the solo debut of rapper Snoop Dogg, which spawned the worldwide hip-hop hit, “Gin and Juice.”

With the launch of his own record company, Aftermath Entertainment in 1996, Dre went on to discover and nurture such next-generation hip hop superstars as 50 Cent, The Game, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem. With Interscope chief Iovine, Dre created Beats By Dr. Dre — intent on recapturing the fidelity of the studio in an age of ear buds and tiny laptop speakers. Launched in 2008 with the revolutionary Studio headphones, which have become culturally iconic — the signature red B now an instantly recognizable and respected symbol. In 2009, Beats by Dr. Dre partnered with HP to produce the HP Envy notebook, integrated with BeatsAudio, followed by the Beatbox iPod dock. In 2011, the company Electronics opened a flagship retail store in New York City’s SoHo district where each of its new products is introduced.

No other program like this exists anywhere in the world — yet.

“The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media. USC provides an extraordinarily rich academic, research and artistic environment. We are committed to encouraging our students to use their intellectual and creative resources to effect change in all segments of society. Our goal is to ensure that the Academy is the most collaborative educational program in the world.”

—USC President C. L. Max Nikias

USC’s strategic location in Los Angeles, widely viewed as the creative and media capital of the world, provides an unrivaled opportunity for students to take advantage of a living laboratory where music, film and visual arts are deeply intertwined. In addition, the university’s proximity to the city’s burgeoning “Silicon Beach” as well as Northern California’s Silicon Valley provides access to a vast array of technological advances from which students can draw inspiration.

The Academy will enroll its first class of 25 students in fall 2014. Applicants will be accepted based on a rigorous review process encompassing demonstrated academic excellence as well as proven ability for original thought. Students who complete a course of study in the Academy will graduate with a degree that recognizes each individual’s ability to truly engage and to succeed in an educational experience that is constantly asking the question, “Why not?”

The program’s curricular focus is on three areas

The Academy aims to instill in its students an entirely new way of thinking. To accomplish this, the program offers a highly select group of students an integrated, four-year course of study that provides in-depth learning in three essential areas: engineering and computer science; design; and business and venture management. Team-taught interdisciplinary courses have been developed and adapted specifically for the program, offering an unprecedented undergraduate education that empowers the imagination and hastens creative solutions.

Core Curriculum

Through the Academy’s core students learn to think seamlessly across multiple disciplines, and envision possibilities from every perspective. A series of interdependent courses helps students to gain understanding of the theories, concepts, vocabulary and ‘language’ common to each area, and to garner skills in their relevant applied technologies and techniques.

The Academy’s strong focus on the arts and arts-based practices is present at every level of the core. Aesthetics, critical discernment, and an understanding of global culture are considered core competencies for every Academy graduate, as is the ability to analyze and critique existing systems, services, or products. Courses on innovation look at the social and cultural changes that stem from disruption, and survey the growing roster of ideas that have forever altered business, industry, the arts, and the way we live. A broad look into the very nature of creativity and ideation also looks at audio/visual perception, and design as a universal language with unique, problem-solving capabilities.

Additionally, skills-based courses offer instruction in leading creative, analytical, and presentation software; techniques for rapid visualization and rendering; coding and programming; electronic prototyping; feasibility; marketplace assessment; making and manufacturing; financing; and more.

From the very first week, students are challenged to integrate all they are learning into creative practice, particularly through an interactive workshop series known as “The Innovator’s Forum.” In this setting, students meet, hear, and work with innovators from the arts, industry, business, and the public sphere in guided exercises geared toward building a variety of essential skills including: leadership; written, oral, and visual communication; critical thinking; problem solving; adaptability and agility; and building and working effectively in teams.

Curricular Emphases

In addition to the core, in years two and three students choose from a variety of curricular emphases that serve to tailor each student’s experience to his or her individual strengths or desired path. Current emphases include curated experiences in Visual Design, Audio Design, Venture Management, Technology, and Communication, but it is expected that this list will grow quickly to encompass a number of additional areas at USC.

Emphases may be used to enhance or strengthen existing skills with advanced knowledge or applications, or to add a new area of focus. Through academic guidance and advisement, students may also create unique emphases by selecting a course of study from across all of the Academy’s offerings, or from offerings in other schools or academic units at USC.

Advanced skills taught through the Academy’s emphases include: color theory and visual perception; 2-D graphic design, including typography, and motion graphics; 3-D design in both actual and virtual spaces; materials and media in design; rapid-prototyping; web and interactive design; computer graphics and animation; advanced coding; cloud architecture and applications; mobile applications; audio capture and manipulation; live sound design; digital audio theory; acoustics and audio perception; consumer behavior, marketing and branding; project and operations management; financing the startup; business strategies; and more.

The Garage Experience

In year four, the student experience focuses on the Garage, the Academy’s collaborative creative space. In a unique environment that enhances creation with advanced design and prototyping technologies, students work in teams to realize their vision for the future. Throughout the year, students work in close collaboration with top faculty at USC and industry mentors selected from among the leaders in each relevant field or area. Aided by this expertise, students realize their ideas for new products, ventures, art forms, technologies, or services.

Year One: Thinking Across Disciplines

The first year immerses the student immediately in the Academy’s philosophy and way of working. The Innovator’s Forum models the kind of thinking that the Academy seeks to instill in students, while courses in the history and impact of disruptive innovations guide students in making critical decisions about their future. Other courses present unique integrations of the three core areas, and combine the instruction of essential design and software-based skills with rapid visualization of ideas.

Year Two: Applied Skills

The second year of study is designed to strengthen the student’s skill set and cross-disciplinary thinking. Through advisement and input from faculty mentors, students identify the curricular emphases they will pursue while remaining firmly anchored in the Academy’s core through courses in computer coding and programming.

Year Three: From Concept to Creation

In year three the Academy’s core shifts to laying the necessary groundwork for the Garage. In addition to continued work in the emphases, a yearlong course teaches students to move an idea from concept through to creation and implementation. Students will vet actual proposals for the Garage with faculty and outside mentors, and begin to build project teams.

Year Four: Developing a Prototype

The Garage. As the Academy’s capstone requirement and the primary curricular focus for the senior year, the Garage is an intense and time-consuming experience for Academy students, and one that requires consistent dedication and commitment. Aided by faculty and team mentors, Garage teams are expected to create, test, develop, and present completed projects.

Fusing technology, arts, and entrepreneurship to celebrate the essential and enduring qualities of the human spirit.

“The Academy’s core education will create a common, multi-lingual literacy and fluency across essential disciplines. This ‘big picture’ knowledge and skill will equip graduates with a leadership perspective that is unparalleled in an undergraduate degree, and that will be applicable to virtually any industry.”

—Erica Muhl, Inaugural Director of the USC Iovine Young Academy
and Dean of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts

Erica Muhl was appointed dean of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, on May 1, 2013, after serving as interim dean since September 7, 2012. An accomplished composer, Muhl has received grants and awards from organizations such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters and National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the prestigious Whitaker Commissioning Prize. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships from, among others, Italy’s Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Charles Ives Center for American Music, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the American Academy in Rome, the Cultural Ministry of Venezuela, and the State of Saxony, Germany.