USC is taking a groundbreaking step in computing education and research. Last month, President Folt introduced the Frontiers of Computing initiative, a $1 billion-plus,10-year plan – the largest in the school’s history – set to focus on machine learning and data science, virtual reality, robotics, gaming, block chain and quantum computation, and AI. With ethics and responsible tech at its center, this plan fortifies USC’s place as a leader in advanced computing, promoting a curriculum that bolsters digital literacy and the opportunity for students to exist on the cutting edge of technology’s ever-evolving future. USC Iovine and Young Academy is proud to participate in this significant launch. 

“The Iovine and Young Academy’s adaptive learning framework is designed to anticipate and evolve with the pace of societal change. It cultivates digital natives who can innovate at the intersection of design, technology, business and culture to address the world’s most complex challenges. IYA students bring an extraordinary mindset to reimagine how we live, learn, work and create through the Frontiers of Computing,” IYA cofounder Jimmy Iovine remarked in a press release. 

IYA will kick off the initiative along with five other USC schools, including the newly-announced School of Advanced Computing at the Viterbi School of Engineering. The plan will eventually extend to all 22 of USC’s schools, initially focusing on three key areas of technology: advancing AI and machine learning software; improving hardware efficiency and scalability; and, in this era of big data, expanding quantum computing.

At the forefront of technological progression, IYA has tackled the issues of tomorrow, today. Frontiers of Computing will strengthen the school’s capacity to continue to innovate through an intersectional perspective that anticipates unknowns that may potentially affect the workforce, as well as the world at large. 

“This initiative will focus on the exponential technologies that are just now emerging and students will have an opportunity to start to conceptualize how they might be utilized 10, 20, 50 years down the road,” Aaron Siegel, assistant professor of design, notes. 

“Core to the advanced computing initiative is a multidisciplinary approach. IYA's sweet spot is our curriculum's unique ability to explore challenges from an intersectional approach that incorporates design, business, technology, communications, and the spaces between those domains,” adds Matthew Manos, associate professor of design strategy, on how IYA’s mindset directly contributes to this initiative’s lasting imprint. 

The Frontiers of Computing initiative aims to partner directly with companies and leaders in Silicon Beach to expand USC’s technological reach. Manos recognizes that IYA’s challenge-based learning model, which engages with industries to better understand the needs of emerging markets, is positioned to enrich that development. Siegel echoes the value of an intersectional and hands-on education that actively discovers solutions to real-world concerns. 

“At the Academy we focus on the ways we can apply intersectional expertise to opportunities for challenge-based learning, and emerging technologies are an exciting area for application to a lot of contemporary problems,” he adds. 

IYA’s societally-focused ethos also aligns with the Frontiers of Computing mission to examine best uses and ethical practices for technology as it rapidly flourishes. Innovation happens every day, but with it comes responsibility. How does one even begin to analyze the brunt of computing’s mounting influence while making developments rooted in morality and fairness? That is a question the initiative – and IYA – intends to answer. Technology is moving fast, and it’s time to think critically about its societal consequences. 

“This initiative's impact will not just exist through its stated cross-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning within urgent spaces such as AI, block chain, robotics, and more. Impact will also come from the initiatives' commitment to remain anchored in ethics and the development of a responsible mindset,” said Manos.

IYA Among First Cohort of Schools in USC’s Momentous Frontiers of Computing Initiative