New USC Viterbi center aims to bridge the physical, cyber and social worlds

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering has established the Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things, which aims to address societal challenges connecting the cyber and physical worlds.

The CCI will bring USC faculty together with partners in academia, industry and government who will focus on improving urban living through smart infrastructure and connected communities.

Directed by Bhaskar Krishnamachari, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, the CCI includes more than 30 affiliated faculty and researchers with expertise in big data, machine learning, manufacturing, robotics, sensor networks, devices and circuits, synthetic and systems biology, wireless and mobile health, smart grids, smart buildings, environmental monitoring, transportation, controls, security, systems engineering, software engineering, and entrepreneurship.

The center will build on thought leadership by organizing workshops and seminars. It will also establish an Internet of Things (IoT) testbed at USC to evaluate new hardware, software platforms and applications. In addition, CCI will help develop new curricula for graduate, undergraduate and executive education programs in the areas of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and IoT.

“The incoming torrent of the IoT will provide opportunities to improve the everyday life of all people, particularly those in urban environments,” said USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos. “CCI will seek solutions to grand challenge problems, particularly as they affect society at large, and provide thought leadership across academia and the industry.

A center such as CCI is ideally suited to further expand the Silicon Beach ecosystem.

Yannis C. Yortsos

“A center such as CCI is also ideally suited to further expand the Silicon Beach ecosystem, in which USC Viterbi is playing an empowering role,” Yortsos added. “CPS and IoT represent a major new frontier in engineering and computer science, one which we aspire to shape and advance for the creation of new scientific knowledge for the benefit of society.”

New insights

Krishnamachari added: “CPS and IoT technologies have the potential to revolutionize a wide range of fields, from urban operations to manufacturing, medicine, business, education and even social work. They enable the automated collection and processing of sensor-based measurements to provide quantitative new insights about previously invisible phenomena. These new insights in turn will be used to secure and improve the performance of complex systems involving physical infrastructure as well as sociocultural factors.”

The CCI will seek to partner with relevant industry organizations and government agencies to form a consortium. Consortium members will have an opportunity to partner on cutting-edge research, collaborate on new research topics and participate in the center’s workshops and educational programs. In addition, CCI events will provide networking opportunities for companies, organizations and students.

“By providing seamless connectivity to bridge the physical, cyber and social worlds, the Internet of Things will bring on major positive changes in how we live and work,” Krishnamachari said.