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class otes Joyce Oo Mayne (BSG ’99, MSG ’02) was recently promoted to director of development. She previously held the position of director of development operations within external relations at the School. Barbara Myers joined the Viterbi School in December 2003 as executive director of development, following eight years at the Marshall School of Business serving as executive director of development and associate dean of external affairs. Cyrus Shahabi had been promoted to associate professor of computer science. Please keep us informed of your personal and professional progress, as well as changes in your contact information by visiting www.usc.edu/engineering and clicking on Alumni. Or by writing to the Alumni Relations Office at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Olin Hall 300, Los Angeles, California 90089-1454
Department Update Medioni Continues as Chair of Computer Science Saluting his “clear strategic vision,” Dean C. L. Max Nikias announced that Professor Gérard G. Medioni (Ph.D. ’80) will continue as chair of the USC Viterbi School department of computer science. Medioni’s second three-year term begins May 15. Under his stewardship, Nikias said, “the department’s quality grew steadily in all its academic endeavors.” Medioni, a specialist in multimedia, pattern recognition and graphics, received his Ph.D. from USC in 1980 and immediately joined the faculty as a research assistant professor. Except for a four-year period spent as CEO of IC Vision, and a year on sabbatical as CTO of Geometrix, Inc, he has been with USC either as student or faculty member since leaving France in 1978. Medioni pioneered methods of integrating visuals in video images — a technology now routinely used in broadcasts of football games, where the virtual image of the first down line appears as a seamless part of the broadcast. In addition to numerous papers, Medioni holds five patents and has six others pending. He is now nationally prominent in an effort to resolve a longstanding tension in computer science between research and academic faculty roles. During this summer’s upcoming Computing Research Association Chairs meeting, he will be co-chairing a seminar on “The Role of Research Faculty in an Academic Department.” “I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the service Professor Medioni has rendered the department in the past three years, and thank him for agreeing to continue serving in this important leadership position,” said Nikias in his announcement.
James Moore Named Chair of Epstein ISE Department Dean C. L. Max Nikias announced the appointment of Professor James E. Moore as the new chair of the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, effective May 15.
Board of Councilors News Board of Councilors News Jay L. Kear (BSME ’60), chairman of the board of councilors at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, has formed a new $100 million venture capital fund called Southern California Ventures (SCV). The fund will invest in early stage, high technology companies in Southern California. Fariborz Maseeh was honored at a ceremony on April 4 when Computerworld magazine and its parent company, International Data Group, recognized IntelliSense’s achievements, (prior to its merger) with the Computerworld Honors Medal of Achievement. Fariborz founded IntelliSense in 1991. Regina Smith’s new book “The Genomic Age” will be in bookstores September 1, 2004. Targeting non-scientists, the book explains recent news and developments in genomics, cloning, stem cell technology, anti-aging, cancer treatments and more.
Moore’s principal academic appointment moved from civil and environmental engineering to the Epstein department in 2003, bringing with him the program in transportation engineering, of which he will remain director. His chairmanship term is three years. A graduate of Northwestern with a Ph.D. from Stanford, Moore’s research interests include mathematical programming and connectionist models to study transportation network performance and control, especially in networks subject to earthquake or flood damage, evaluation of new transportation technologies, and computation models of the land use and transport systems. He is a frequent author of newspaper op-ed columns on transportation planning policy. See Moore’s op-ed in this issue on page 7. “Professor Moore’s appointment was recommended enthusiastically by ISE faculty,” Dean Nikias noted in his announcement. Moore succeeds Randolph Hall, senior associate dean for research at the Viterbi School . “Under the able leadership of Professor Hall,” said Dean Nikias, “the Epstein ISE department has experienced steady growth in quantity and quality. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for his exceptional guidance of the department in the past three years.
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