Special Events To Come

Late Winter or Early Spring 2010 – HST@USC Research Development Retreat
Organizers: Elizabeth Fini and Maja Mataric

This event will take place on the USC Health Sciences Campus. It will focus on research development

Special Events Past

May 12, 2009 – Keck/Viterbi One-Day Follow-up Retreat
Organizers: Elizabeth Fini and Maja Mataric

This event followed up on the successful retreat of October 17-19, 2008 which kicked off the planning process for the new Keck/Viterbi program dubbed "HST@USC".  Held at the Radisson Hotel, Los Angeles Midtown at USC, the event was organized by the research deans, hosted by the deans, and attended by about 80 faculty members.  The morning session was a review of new joint research and educational projects. The afternoon session was a series of three panel discussions that addressed structural models for the developing program.

May 11, 2009 – CTSI Strategic Planning Retreat
Organizers: Thomas Buchanan and Elizabeth Fini

This was a one-day retreat with the goal to review the organizational structure of the Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute and plan for resubmission of the CTSA grant application for the October 14, 2009 due date. A number of outside panelists were invited to participate in the review.  A reorganization plan based on the recommendations from the review panel has been implemented.

May 09, 2009 – Keck School Strategic Planning Retreat
Organizers: Thomas Buchanan and Judy Garner

This was a morning retreat held in the Edmondson faculty center. It was organized by the associate dean for clinical research and the senior associate dean for faculty affairs. It was hosted by the dean.

March 19, 2009 – Keck/Viterbi NIH Stimulus Reception
Organizers: Elizabeth Fini and Maja Mataric

This event was held to stimulate collaborative activities in response to the request for grant applications issued as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Held at the Town & Gown on the University Park Campus, the event was organized and hosted by the research deans and attended by about 50 faculty members.       

March 14, 2009 – Clinical Research Retreat
Organizers: Thomas Buchanan and Jonathan Samet

The purpose of this retreat was to explore strengths, barriers and opportunities for clinical research at the Keck School in five specific areas:

• Translating Discoveries to Human Applications
• Training and Career Development
• Established Faculty, Training and Career Development
• New Faculty and Trainees
• The Clinical Research Environment
• Developing Extramural Partnerships in Clinical Research 

The retreat was organized by the associate dean for clinical research and the chair of the department of preventive medicine. It was hosted by the research dean and the dean. An invitation only event, it was attended by about 100 faculty members selected at the recommendation of their department chairs.

Prior to the retreat, the planned participants were organized into working groups and asked to address one of the six topic areas. The leader(s) of each working group gave a ~20 minute presentation of the group’s main findings and recommendations at the retreat. Each presentation was followed by open discussion. A document summarizing the main findings and recommendations was prepared from the presentations and submitted to the Dean.

October 17-19, 2008 – Keck/Viterbi First Joint Research Retreat
Organizers: Maja Mataric and Elizabeth Fini

This was a joint Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering event that took place over the weekend of October 17-19, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Huntington Beach. It was an invitation-only event attended by approximately 100 faculty members representing the two schools.  It was hosted by the deans of the two schools and organized by the research deans. Development of the retreat program was advised by consultant Martha Gray, recent past co-director of the Harvard/ MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, who also attended the retreat.

The goal of this precedent-setting event was to initiate planning of a new research and educational program in Health Sciences & Technology. This innovative program would bridge the Keck School of Medicine and the Viterbi School of Engineering, leveraging the strengths of both. The initiative was dubbed “HST@USC”.

The research portion of the retreat was organized into the following 8 topic areas:

• Brain, vision, hearing/speech and neuro‐rehabilitation
• Biomedical imaging
• Diagnostics and therapeutics
• Health informatics and bioinformatics
• Regenerative medicine, cancer, and stem cells
• Systems biology, multi-scale modeling in biomedicine, PK/PD for drug design and delivery
• Developmental and metabolic disorders and environmental health
• Surgical/clinical applications of robotics, virtual reality, advanced microelectronics, low‐cost/portable/wearable technology

Research presentations were followed by discussion of models for bringing the two schools together in a collaborative endeavor.

The guest speaker for the Saturday evening dinner was Thomas F. Budinger, Professor and Chair, Department of Bioengineering, UCSF. He shared some of his insights on the challenges and solutions in building collaborative research and academic programs between engineering and medical schools.