August 31, 2016
Earlier this month, Niki and I were thrilled to welcome students back to our campuses, and to start our seventh year as president and first lady of USC. We always look forward to greeting parents and students on Move-In Day, while basking in their wonderful optimism, anticipation, and joy. At New Student Convocation, we celebrated an exceptionally impressive group of students! Twenty percent of our incoming students earned a perfect 4.0 GPA in high school, and the great majority had standardized test scores above the 95th percentile. One in 8 freshmen are the first in their families to attend college. Indeed, they worked hard to earn one of the 2,700 spots in the incoming class, as more than 54,000 students had applied, making this year’s admission rate—at less than 17 percent—the lowest in USC’s history.
While these extraordinary students began their classes, we were all cheering our 44 Trojan athletes at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. USC sent the most athletes of any university in the United States! These remarkable Trojans included track athletes Nia Ali, Andre De Grasse, and Dalilah Muhammad, volleyball players April Ross and Murphy Troy, as well as some of the biggest stars of the Games: Allyson Felix, who is now the most decorated American female track athlete—and an alumna of our Rossier School of Education—and Katinka Hosszú, who earned four swimming medals in Rio, and who earned her bachelor’s from USC Dornsife four years ago. All of our 44 athletes showed their USC spirit in Rio, and made us extremely proud to be Trojans!
Warrior-Scholars program
In July, USC once again hosted the Warrior-Scholar Project, a weeklong “boot camp” that helps newly enrolled military veterans acclimate to an academic environment. The Los Angeles Times published a wonderful story on USC’s program, and noted the university’s strong commitment to first-generation and community college transfer students. Vice Provost Mark Todd, who oversees our veterans programs, said: “By the time they’re done here, they’ve succeeded in something that they previously thought they wouldn’t be able to succeed at.” USC plans to continue hosting the program.
USC Viterbi faculty
Two faculty members of our Viterbi School of Engineering—each focusing on very different, exceptionally dynamic work—received high-profile attention recently. The Washington Post highlighted research by Professor Theodore Berger, who is developing a neuroprosthetic to help Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, stroke, and other patients with brain disorders and injuries. Professor Berger is working with Kernel, a start-up, to refine a cognitive enhancement device to replicate communication signals that have been lost or damaged in the brain. This innovation offers tremendous hope to so many individuals around the world, and significantly reimagines treatment for those facing cognitive challenges.
Meanwhile, earlier this summer, The New York Times published an excellent piece on the 3D printing techniques developed by Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis. Remarkably, his techniques can be used in construction! Professor Khoshnevis has developed a system known as “contour crafting,” which uses robots to “print” buildings with locally gathered materials. This technique allows its users to construct inexpensive, simple homes—an invaluable innovation where there are acute housing needs in our society. “Somehow, we have to address the issue of shelter, which is at the base of the pyramid of needs,” Professor Khoshnevis told the reporter. His system also may be used in space.
USC’s Pulitzer Prize winner
Additionally this past summer, The New York Times published an in-depth profile of Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen of the USC Dornsife College. Professor Nguyen won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his debut novel The Sympathizer, which continues to draw tremendous praise, as readers all over the world discover his deft prose and subtle humor. We are so proud that USC has been Professor Nguyen’s academic home for his entire career. During his two decades at our university, he has received numerous teaching awards, and his students love him!
Niki and I hope you had a relaxing, productive summer. We look forward to the year ahead, and to sending you news on USC’s successes each month. With our warmest regards,
Yours truly,
C. L. Max Nikias
President