Courses in engineering were first offered at USC in the 1905-06 academic year in the basement of one of the oldest buildings on campus. Today, 170 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 $157 million per year is funded through strong ties with government and industry.

The USC Viterbi School is an innovative, elite, internationally recognized engineering school that creates new models of education, research and commercialization firmly rooted in real world needs. It seeks 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 USC Viterbi School 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.