About ISI
Delivering the Future
As technology becomes more powerful and accessible, the research opportunities and challenges are boundless. At ISI, we do world-class research and development in information technologies ranging from AI to cybersecurity and networking to computing and communication systems and technologies and informatics. Our research directly addresses society’s challenges in application domains ranging from national security to health. We work directly with our sponsors, collaborators, and transition partners to ensure the relevance of our research.
Our research is distinguished by the teams of researchers and engineers that deliver working prototypes and can span from fundamental to applied research and development. Our close relationship with academic departments in Viterbi, including research faculty appointments for select ISI researchers, allows us to work with top PhD and master's students. Much of our work is published and shared as open source, and we also do restricted research.
We encourage you to read about our work, attend our open seminars, and learn what our researchers and their students are working on as they deliver the future today.
Interim Vice Dean of Engineering and Michael Keston Executive Director
Dynamic, Pioneering, Impactful
At ISI, our research ranges from artificial intelligence, including natural language, machine translation and information integration; networking and cybersecurity, such as the highly regarded DETER cybersecurity research program; informatics focused on medical applications; computational systems and technology, including supercomputing approaches and quantum computation; and advanced electronics for space, biomimetics and other purposes.
We also research space systems and technology, and partner with the USC Viterbi School on the Space Engineering Research Center, a hands-on effort that enables students to participate at every stage of space research, development and flight. Our MOSIS integrated circuit unit drives innovation through its shared-services model, and has brokered fabrication of more than 50,000 integrated circuits for customers worldwide.
Distinguished Past, Innovative Present
A pacesetter since 1972, ISI helped conceive, design and implement the Internet, including communications protocols that remain fundamental to Net operations. We also invented and developed the Domain Name System (DNS), the text-to-numerical-IP-address system that is essential to Internet functionality. And we managed significant Internet functions, including the Request for Comments that catalyzed and captured the emerging network, for decades.
The Institute employs about 350 engineers, research scientists, graduate students and staff. About half of our researchers hold Ph.D.s, and about 40 serve as USC faculty. We are based in Marina del Rey, California, with offices in Arlington, Virginia and Waltham, Massachusetts, which support all divisions of ISI.
ISI BY THE NUMBERS
440+
ISI staff, faculty, and PhD students
$70
Million in research funding in 2025
110
Ph.D. Students
3
USA office locations
Paving the Future
In addition to working on current ISI research projects, students also lead their own smaller research projects, receiving guidance from ISI researchers that are experts in their fields.