USC Information Sciences Institute

?? The 2024 ISI Year in Review Magazine is here! ?? Download the issue here: https://bit.ly/41zF2ge ?? Or request a physical copy here: https://bit.ly/3DVaLRf Every year, ISI researchers push the boundaries of what's possible — from AI and quantum computing to tools for geoscientists and software built for outer space. This year’s ISI Year in Review offers a deep dive into the bold ideas and interdisciplinary work shaping our world. Inside, you’ll find: ?? AI for health care (p. 14) and protein structure modeling (p. 42) ??? New software solutions for space missions (p. 32) ?? Next-gen microelectronics with California DREAMS (p. 24) ??? Cutting-edge cybersecurity testbeds with SPHERE Research Infrastructure (p. 34) and privacy solutions for robotaxis (p. 38) ?? A first-person account by Paul Mockapetris, inventor of the DNS (p. 70) ?? Our first Artist-in-Residence Shantell Martin explores the intersection of tech and creativity (p. 62) ?? Highlights from the AI/nsiders podcast, hosted by Adam Russell (p. 66) ??? Cloudwalkers, our ISI documentary by Emmy Winner Daniel Druhora, now streaming on Amazon Prime https://lnkd.in/gFVBqf_E. 68) ?? A look back at ISI’s role in TECH WEEK by a16z (p. 8) ??? And a message from our Executive Director, Craig Knoblock, on how we’re thinking about the future (p. 6) Whether you're in academia, industry, or just curious about where innovation is headed, we hope you'll enjoy this publication. USC Viterbi School of Engineering University of Southern California

Our next AI seminar is this Friday! Audrey Olivier is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at USC. In this seminar, she'll introduce enhanced algorithms based on ensembling with anchoring for approximate Bayesian learning of neural networks and demonstrate the importance of carefully designing the prior. Join here: bit.ly/43Zjdta

?? Space. Cybersecurity. Generative AI. Three rapidly evolving domains — now intersecting in ways that raise urgent questions for national security, industry, and research. At SCYWAI (Space Cybersecurity With AI), a two-day event held last week at University of Southern California and sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), experts from across government, academia, and tech came together to ask: how do we secure space systems in the age of AI? Featuring participants from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boeing, United States Space Force, Lockheed Martin, Cisco, Northrop Grumman, and more — plus keynotes from Charles Brown (U.S. Space Force) and Neil Siegel (USC) — SCYWAI marked the beginning of a national conversation about how to keep space systems secure, resilient, and trustworthy in the age of AI. Read the full story → bit.ly/42sm8bN Special thanks to?Andrea Belz & Alefiya Hussain of USC, ISI, and CREST (USC Center for Research in Space Technologies) for their leadership in making this important conversation possible. #SCYWAI #AI #Cybersecurity #Space #NationalSecurity #Innovation #USC SpaceWERX Space ISAC SIXGEN Cyware Chainguard Duality Technologies Mandala Space Ventures AIN Ventures

Cloudwalkers in now on Amazon Prime Video: https://lnkd.in/gdK7de5K CAST HIGHLIGHT: this week, watch our interview with Eve Schooler https://lnkd.in/gRq4JWGP Eve Schooler has played a pivotal role in bringing multimedia to the Internet, enabling the functionality of platforms like FaceTime, Zoom, and Netflix. Interviewed by Jon Postel for a position in a multimedia conferencing project, Schooler joined forces with Steve Casner working on bringing voice and video online. Together, they broadcast the first live concert over the internet, a groundbreaking achievement at the time. Their pioneering work laid the foundation for modern internet multimedia protocols, earning them the 2020 IEEE Internet Award for distinguished leadership in developing standards for internet multimedia. At ISI, Schooler was instrumental in developing the Session Initiation Protocol, crucial for internet communications. She later moved to Intel, where she developed emerging technologies in the Internet of Things (IoT). Her efforts have significantly advanced the field of distributed computing and multimedia, making her a key figure in the development of the technologies we rely on today.

?? Call for Representative Experimentation Environments (REEs) Are you a cybersecurity or privacy researcher with reusable, impactful artifacts? SPHERE is offering funded virtual internships ($5,000/month for up to three months) to port your work to our open research infrastructure! Your research could reach a wider audience while advancing reproducibility in our field. Selected REEs will become part of a community-wide infrastructure designed to support nearly 90% of today's cybersecurity and privacy research needs. What's a REE? It's a research artifact that enables realistic experimentation in cybersecurity or privacy research—like code replicating network topologies, censorship detection tools, or privacy survey instruments. Eligible REEs are open-source artifacts from published cybersecurity and privacy research that can reproduce original results and have demonstrated value through reuse by other researchers. ? Deadline: April 15, 2025 Visit the SPHERE website at https://sphere-project.net for complete details on eligibility, benefits, and how to apply. We look forward to your submissions and to strengthening reproducible research in cybersecurity and privacy! USC Information Sciences Institute #Cybersecurity #Privacy #Research #Testbed #SPHERE The image was generated with the assistance of DALL-E 3.

Join us this Thursday for an NL seminar! Julie Kallini is a second-year Ph.D. student in CS at Stanford University. In this seminar, she'll introduce MrT5 (MergeT5), a more efficient variant of ByT5 that integrates a token deletion mechanism in its encoder to dynamically shorten the input sequence length. Join here: bit.ly/427UMYc

?? Shout out to Abigail Horn, a lead scientist at ISI and research assistant professor at the University of Southern California, who is presenting at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 46th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions, happening this week in San Francisco! Professor Horn will be sharing her work on using large-scale human mobility data to measure dietary intake and predict diet-related diseases. Learn about it here: https://lnkd.in/gtmfDWPh

?? Detecting Wildfires with AI As climate change fuels increasingly intense #wildfires — like the January 2025 Los Angeles blazes — USC Information Sciences Institute is developing a novel #AI-powered surveillance system that could detect fires earlier and more accurately than ever before. Led by ISI computer scientist Andrew Rittenbach and research director John Paul Walters, the project uses deep learning to analyze satellite imagery in real time. The goal? A 95% detection rate with near-zero false alarms — a major leap from current capabilities. Read how ISI researchers are transforming wildfire detection with AI and satellite technology: https://bit.ly/4l6C7oo #WildfirePrevention #AIforGood #ComputerVision #USCViterbi #ResearchInnovation #ClimateTech USC Viterbi School of Engineering University of Southern California

Thanks again to Alefiya Hussain and the USC Information Sciences Institute Center for Research in Space Technologies for inviting me to give a talk and participate on a panel at the inaugural SCYWAI - Space Cybersecurity with AI workshop. There were great discussions on the #future of #Space #Cybersecurity and how #AI impacts that future with participation from the National Science Foundation (NSF), United States Space Force, University of Southern California, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo as well as industry leaders Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and of course SIXGEN.

It was great to have Tomasz Ma?kiewicz visit us USC Information Sciences Institute and give a very interesting talk about Lumi and the future Lumi AI Factory.