News
Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Interns Showcase Results at ISI
September 2, 2019
Ten students from ISI's Research Experiences for Undergraduates
(REU) program recently concluded their 10-week
internship with a poster showcase.
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The Conversation: Examining a video's changes over time helps flag deepfakes
August 29, 2019
Wael Abd-Almageed and his team are developing ways to tell the
difference between realistic-looking fakes and genuine videos
that show actual events as they happened.
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ISI Spotlight: Ninareh Mehrabi, Ph.D. Student and Graduate Research Assistant
August 29, 2019
When it comes to advanced degrees such as Ph.D. programs, there are many different tracks and research options. Some students choose on-campus teaching and research roles, while some focus on publishing papers. We talked with Ninareh Mehrabi, who initially planned to take the traditional Ph.D. track, but later joined ISI to advance her path in academic research.
Read More >ISI Spotlight: Ashok Deb, Lieutenant Colonel & Ph.D. Candidate
August 29, 2019
From driving military vehicles and teaching soldiers in foreign battlefields, to tackling computational social sciences projects at a research instituteâ&euro"ISI PhD candidate Ashok Deb has done it all.
Read More >In Memoriam: Danny Cohen, Distinguished Computer Scientist and Long-time ISI Staff Member, Dies at 81
August 21, 2019
Distinguished computer scientist Danny Cohen, a long-time ISI researcher whose work paved the way for voice over IP (VOIP) technology, has died aged 81.
Read More >ISI Spotlight: Mayank Kejriwal, Computer Scientist and Research Assistant Professor
August 20, 2019
ISI computer scientist Mayank Kejriwal, a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 finalist, uses his computer science skills to solve high- impact social problems like fighting human trafficking and responding to natural disasters. We sat down with him to learn more about his work and his experiences at ISI, where he is part of the Center on Knowledge Graphs.
Read More >USC researchers receive $12.5M grant for craniofacial research data-sharing endeavor
August 6, 2019
Nearly half of all birth defects involve the face and skull and, for the most part, scientists remain unclear as to why most occur. To better serve families at risk for these conditions, scientists need a comprehensive and systematic understanding of how the faces of healthy children form and what goes wrong to cause common malformations, such as cleft lip and palate.
Read More >ISI Researcher Explores Origin of Spam and Other Online Intrusions
July 26, 2019
From a confidence trick originating in the late 19th century, to sophisticated AI that can manipulate reality, recreating anyone's face or voice with almost pinpoint accuracy—spam has come a long way.
Read More >ISI Researchers Tackle Lack of Diversity in Genetics Research
July 19, 2019
Genotyping, or determining which genetic variants an individual possesses, has paved the way for understanding how common variations in our DNA can be associated with health conditions like heart disease and diabetes. The hope is to determine your risk of developing a disease and, hopefully, prevent it.
Read More >ISI Spotlight: Nazgol Tavabi, Ph.D. Student and ISI Graduate Research Assistant
June 27, 2019
Nazgol Tavabi, a Ph.D. student at ISI, has participated in award-winning large-scale projects with her advisor Kristina Lerman, a research assistant professor in computer science and ISI principle scientist. Originally from Iran, at ISI, Tavabi is part of the Machine Intelligence and Data Science research group, developing machine learning algorithms to analyze data for a variety of applications, from social science to biomedicine and cybersecurity. Tavabi sat down with us to share her experiences.
Read More >Deepfakes: ISI Researchers Develop Forensic Techniques to Identify Tampered Videos
June 21, 2019
Computer scientists from the USC Information Sciences Institute (USC ISI), including Ekraam Sabir, Jiaxin Cheng, Ayush Jaiswal, Wael Abd-Almageed, Iacopo Masi, and Prem Natarajan, have developed a method that performs with 96 percent accuracy in identifying deepfakes when evaluated on large scale deepfake dataset.
Read More >FastCompany: USC ISI Scientists are Fighting Back Against Deepfakes
June 21, 2019
Researchers at the USC Information Sciences Institute (USC ISI) have just announced the creation of new software that uses artificial intelligence to quickly detect deepfake video with 96% accuracy.
Read MoreMensa Foundation: Mayank Kejriwal Honored by Mensa for AI System Combating Human Trafficking
June 17, 2019
For his high-impact artificial intelligence technology combating
human trafficking, Mayank Kejriwal is the 2019 winner of the
Mensa Foundation's Intellectual Benefits to Society Award and
the Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement.
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PC Mag: Is That Your Fingerprint or a Fake? This AI Can Tell
June 7, 2019
As high-level security systems transition to gathering biometric data via facial recognition, iris scans, and fingerprints, researchers such as USC ISI's Wael Abd-Almageed are creating AI neural nets to spot fakes.
Read MoreISI Student Battles Bias in AI
June 6, 2019
AI systems are increasingly being used for everything from predicting crime to determining insurance rates—but what happens when human bias creeps into AI? Bias in machine learning algorithms can have serious consequences: people can be denied health services, wrongly targeted for crimes, or turned away for a job because of a discriminatory algorithmic decision.
Read More >USC ISI and Intel Custom Foundry Collaborate to Spur Microelectronics Innovation
June 3, 2019
USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) and the Intel Corporation’s custom foundry organization today announced a collaboration to design, fabricate and package integrated circuits (ICs) through USC ISI’s MOSIS unit.
Read More >USC ISI Lab Seeks to Unravel Quantum Dimensions of Light
April 25, 2019
When we think of information, we think of bits and bytes, computer algorithms and communication networks. But information is physical, stored on physical things like electrons, RF radiation, even water and light.
Read More >Want to Know the Secret of a Good Idea? It Could be Hidden in Language.
April 22, 2019
What makes a good idea, good? Why do some innovations—like the touchscreen—thrive, while others fall into obscurity? Remember the minidisc, anyone?
Read More >Work of Graduate Students Showcased at Annual ISI Event
April 2, 2019
The so-called dark and deep web, a portion of the hidden internet estimated to be up to 500 times bigger than the common internet, is known as a hub of illegal activities including cybercrime and terrorist activity. And with good reason—it is hard to access the deep and dark web, nevermind police it.
Read More >ISI Spotlight: Fred Morstatter, Computer Scientist
April 2, 2019
Predicting the next geopolitical event—from who will be the next Pope to who will win the national election in India—is no easy task. But ISI Computer Scientist Fred Morstatter is up for the challenge.
Read More >Video: Pedro Szekely Keynote at DARPA AI Colloquium
March 29, 2019
ISI Research Director Pedro Szekely gave a keynote on natural
language processing at the recent DARPA AI colloquium.
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Students Deliver USC's Third CubeSat Satellite
March 25, 2019
A satellite built by students at the USC Information Science Institute (ISI) Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) took a giant step toward space last week, when the team successfully delivered the miniature satellite, or CubeSat, to space technology company Vector Launch Inc. for launch later this year. This marks the third time that USC has built and delivered a CubeSat for space.
Read More >In Memoriam: Michael Keston
March 4, 2019
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Keston passed away Feb. 9. Together with his wife, Linda, the Kestons established a tradition of giving at USC that spanned decades.
Read More >USC ISI Researchers Receive Amazon Research Awards
February 4, 2019
Two researchers from the USC’s Information Science Institute (ISI) — Greg Ver Steeg and Xiang Ren — have received 2018 Amazon Research Awards for their work in invariant representation learning and neural-symbolic deep learning for natural language processing, respectively.
Read More >ISI Researchers Fight Biometric Spoofing
February 1, 2019
A bad guy cases the supposedly secure Southern California headquarters of a major aerospace corporation with close governmental ties. He notes that everyone from the janitor to the CEO gains entrance after a facial recognition scan confirms their identities.
Read More >ISI Researcher’s Machine Learning Method Unearths Early Signs of Alzheimer’s
January 28, 2019
Nearly 50 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. While age is the greatest risk factor for developing the disease, researchers believe most Alzheimer’s cases occur as a result of complex interactions among genes and other factors. But those factors and the role they play are not known—yet.
Read More >Breaking the Cycle of Victimization
January 17, 2019
A team of researchers at USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) created software called DIG that helps investigators quickly scour the internet to identify possible sex traffickers and begin the process of capturing, charging and convicting them.
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