ISI@30 Three decades of advanced computer science engineering
Both Keith Uncapher (right) the first director of ISI, and Herb Schorr (left) the current executive director and associate dean of the School of Engineering, are responsible for the ISI’s 30 years of success
Herb Schorr sits, smiling, in a sunny, Marina del Rey high-rise office overlooking the sailboats in the harbor below and an endless golden sweep of California beach and Santa Monica Bay just beyond. His smile is not simply a result of the view. The USC School of Engineering's Information Sciences Institute, of which he is the
Herb Schorr photo by Max S. Gerber
executive director, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and there is much to smile about. During his 14-year tenure, ISI has expanded greatly and pioneered many new areas of computing and computational science. Practical applications of the Institute’s research are popping up in industry and academia– grid computing and artificial intelligence autonomous agents are two examples. Schorr likes to say ISI deals in “real-world results.” Indeed, geophysicists are drawing upon the expansive computer resources made possible by grid computing to better study earthquakes, and a number of organizations are creating agents to do planning, robotics, and even classroom instruction. ISI is also creating new designs for faster and more energy-efficient microchips; computer programs for better understanding, use and translation of languages; new techniques to transmit richer and more varied information with greater security over the Internet; novel ways to structure data using maps and locations instead of traditional indexes; and
more effective ways for government agencies to “ISI under Herb’s direction has compiled a interact with and serve constituents. great record,” Nikias said. “In all the years I’ve The Institute last year utilized $58.3 known him, he has shown consistent, excellent million in research funds, which is roughly half leadership as well as a great technical and of the School of Engineering’s research volume. business sense. That’s why, when I became dean Research dollars for USC Engineering last year, I wanted Herb to be associate dean of consistently rank it in the top 5 schools in the the School.” nation. ISI has a staff of 338, twenty-seven with Nikias was just as laudatory about the joint academic appointments at USC contributions made to ISI by Keith Uncapher Engineering. and Zohrab Kaprielian. The idea for the Engineering graduate students were few at Institute came from Uncapher, then with the ISI when Schorr became director; now there RAND Corporation, and its implementation are as many as 80 involved in different research came from Kaprielian, then the dean of USC projects. Encouraged by C.L. Max Nikias, dean of “Without Uncapher and Kaprielian,” the USC School of Nikias said, “ISI would not exist today.” Engineering, Schorr is now starting to bring undergraduates to ISI's tower campus in Engineering. “Without Uncapher and Marina del Rey as well and plans to engage still Kaprielian,” Nikias said, “ISI would not exist more undergraduate participation through the today.” School’s Distance Education Network. At RAND, Uncapher’s research had been USC ENGINEER
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