Courses in engineering were first offered in 1906 in the basement of one of the oldest buildings on campus. Today, 165 full-time faculty serve about 1,800 undergraduates and 3,300 graduate students, utilizing state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms, and live interactive high-speed Internet broadcast systems. The USC Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering's research program of over $147 million per year is funded through strong ties with government and industry.

The Viterbi School of Engineering seeks to provide undergraduate and graduate programs of instruction for qualified students leading to academic degrees in engineering; to extend the frontiers of engineering knowledge by encouraging and assisting faculty in the pursuit and publication of research; to stimulate and encourage in its students those qualities of scholarship, leadership, and character that mark the true academic and professional engineer; to serve California and the nation in providing for the continuing education of engineering and scientific personnel; and to provide professional engineering leadership in the solution of community, regional, national and global problems.

The Viterbi School of Engineering offers various programs leading to the Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Engineer degrees; and, through the USC Graduate School, the Doctor of Philosophy degree.