Innovation Inside Awards Announced
At $2,000 each, these awards recognize selected faculty who are enhancing their existing undergraduate and/or graduate classes in experimental ways to best cultivate innovative traits and skills in USC students.
Developed as a pilot, this intentionally small and highly selective grant program is designed to establish a diverse cadre of faculty who emphasize innovation in their coursework and are interested in exploring different ways to teach the process.
At the end of the program, the awardees will deliver a short description of the key findings from their project and participate in a one-day summit to share their experiences and lessons learned.
Faculty from across USC were encouraged to apply and the recipients represent a diverse set of disciplines – from technology and medicine to the arts and social sciences. The first recipients are:
• Judith Mussel & Emily White – “Wild Structures” (architecture): In architecture, innovation occurs when digital design methods are tested in real materials and real space at full scale. To help students understand the challenges of such innovation, this design studio will enable students to take their nature-inspired ideas from the abstract digital environment to physical prototypes.
• Karen Halttunen – The Freeman House Project (history): Students will learn about the process of broadening the impact of historical research by engaging in a multiyear, interdisciplinary undergraduate project on the 20th century historical environment of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Freeman House (located in Hollywood and owned by the USC School of Architecture).
• Krishna Nayak – Commercialization of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (electrical engineering): As an enhancement to an existing course sequence on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), students will develop a sense of the marketplace for MRI and how novel ideas can turn into small businesses or be commercialized by major MRI vendors for further development.
• Murali Annavaram & Bhaskar Krishnamachari – Innovative Applications and Network Protocols for Mobile Wireless Devices (electrical engineering): Masters and Ph.D. students in electrical engineering and computer science will pursue hands-on design experience culminating in a design competition on mobile devices donated by Nokia.
• Steve Cronin – Innovation in Nanotechnology (electrical engineering): This course combines both technical and creative components in the emerging fields of nanotechnology. It will give students a practical understanding of nanotechnology and the basic mechanisms underlying nanoscale phenomena, and it will challenge students to brainstorm new applications that deploy the unique capabilities of the new nanotechnology.
• Janet Owen Driggs – Public Art/Public Innovation (USC Roski School of Fine Arts): This class will explore the process by which public art gets incorporated in the public sphere, and students will develop approaches for evaluating the impacts of public art projects.
The proposals were reviewed by a panel of faculty with diverse expertise in innovation. They considered specific criteria, including diversity across disciplines and approaches; effectiveness in developing the traits, skills and knowledge necessary to make greater societal impact; creative ideas for enhancing curriculum, with particular recognition for high risk and potential for reward; enthusiasm and commitment of faculty to participate and share their experiences; impact and potential future impact of the proposed project on students; and sustainability.
“Through this award program, we look forward to partnering with our faculty to experiment, learn and create systematic methods for fostering both the creativity and the pragmatism that will be necessary for USC students to achieve broader impact in their careers,” said Krisztina Holly, vice provost for innovation and executive director of USC Stevens. “The common thread we all share is an eagerness to pioneer new approaches to teaching innovation.”
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The Wall Street Journal highlighted the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
KPCC-FM reported that this fall USC will offer Persian language courses for the first time. A $250,000 grant from the Farhang Foundation helped to establish the program. Bruce Zuckerman of the USC Dornsife College said he has many students interested in the Persian language, culture and region. “The Iranian region is one that has great impact on our lives today and has had great impact going back into ancient times,” he said. The story noted that USC and the Farhang Foundation hope to raise more money to create an Iranian studies minor. Payvand also featured the new courses.
American Songwriter ran a Q&A with Christopher Sampson of the USC Thornton School about the school’s Popular Music program, which Sampson founded. He noted that the program has been available as a major in Songwriting since 2009, and has incorporated a diverse range of musical genres. “We have now established a consistent track record of students having professional success to know that the program gets results,” Sampson said. He also highlighted the achievements of Songwriting faculty members Lamont Dozier, Andrea Stolpe and David Poe of the Thornton School.
The Economist featured research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School finding that short periods of fasting could help cancer patients better tolerate chemotherapy, and may even make treatment more effective. The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported that cancerous tumors are essentially energy hogs. “They need to burn lots of energy just to stay alive,” Longo said. The study was also covered by Irish Independent (Ireland), Magyar Tavirati Iroda (Hungary), Anadolu Ajansi (Turkey), Son Haber (Netherlands), Vietnam+ (Vietnam), Turkish Radio and Television (Turkey) and Romania Libera (Romania).
L.A. Weekly featured research by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has developed video games based around physical movement for people recovering from strokes or other injuries. The games develop strength in specific body parts. Traditional video games weren’t right for these patients, said the institute’s Belinda Lange. “Often, the fun parts of the game would only be unlocked after a series of other levels, which our patients often couldn’t achieve,” she said. The games are now being tested with physical therapists in three major clinics.
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