USC Viterbi School of Engineering students and staff can expect a new, state-of-the-art computer science building, according to a memo sent out by the school’s Dean Yannis Yortsos Wednesday morning. The 98,000-square-foot structure, which will be constructed on Parking Lot 6, will include labs and classrooms designed to help students collaborate with one another on projects among themselves and with students from other schools.
“Research and teaching in the building will focus on advancing computer science’s critical role in improving and benefiting society through areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics,” USC wrote in a press release.
“We have a lot of laboratories for things such as robotics, which is a big activity here on campus,” Yortsos said in an interview with USC Annenberg Media. “There will be an auditorium in the basement, lots of meeting spaces and lounges… The most important thing is that it will act as a hub for activity in the field of computer science and computation.”
This new building will be made possible due to a donation from Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg, who previously donated $10 million dollars to a separate research study for debilitating neurosensory diseases at the USC Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics in August 2018. Yortsos declined to reveal the amount of the recent donation. The gift will also create the Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Early Career Chair in Computer Science, which will be held by a junior faculty member.
He also added that an exact construction timeline has not yet been confirmed but students can expect it to be completed two years after they start building.
“The plans for the building have already been made,” he said. “We are in an iteration process to go through a second review of these plans and see whether we can actually put more sustainability features because this is a priority for the new president.”
“This new building will provide a cutting-edge home for our computer science students, researchers and other experts from numerous disciplines across the university as they collaborate on pressing issues like Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, human trafficking and homelessness. We are deeply grateful to Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg for this wonderful gift,” President Carol Folt told USC News.
“One of the most exciting aspects of computer science is its power to accelerate breakthroughs in nearly every field,” Allen Ginsburg told USC News. “Charlotte and I believe our support of computer science at USC will lead to bold new ideas and advances that will benefit humankind and our planet.”
The expected location for the new building currently has 12 reserved spaces, two Americans with Disabilities Act spots and 37 short-term pay-by-plate spaces, according to USC Transportation. It said it will most likely reallocate some of these spaces to Downey Way Structure and east-side campus parking spots, such as McCarthy Way Structure and the Shrine Auditorium.
“We’ll eliminate the number of parking spots, including mine,” Yortsos said. “That’s where I parked my car today.”
He also added that he doesn’t know exactly how many parking spots will be eliminated, but he doesn’t think this is the biggest concern and that they’ll be able to accommodate that.
According to USC, the computer science department has more than 90 faculty members, 360 doctoral students, 2,000 master’s students and 1,200 undergraduates. Its student population has tripled since 2011.
Vanshika Sridharan, a USC student pursuing a master’s degree in computer science, shared what she hoped will be included in the new building.
“Often for running computing computer-intensive applications, you need a lot of graphics software and a lot of extra heavy computational resources,” Sridharan said. “So probably labs with highly equipment machines and computers to work on would be really good.”
Nilay Pachauri, a junior majoring in computer science, stated that he’s excited for the new building because he hopes the space will provide a more centralized space for Viterbi students.
“The other schools usually have a centralized building, like SCA has their entire theatres and stuff, Fertitta has their nice building with lots of different breakout groups where you can work together, and large classrooms,” he said. “The [department of computer science] is a little different in that all my large lecture halls and all of my classes are scattered across campus… like, I have a class in Bovard this year.”
Pachauri also revealed he is not the biggest fan of Salvatori Computer Science Center, the current computer science building.
“It’s way too crowded, and the ambiance isn’t very nice,” he said. “It’s definitely a place where a lot of people do their work together, but it’s not my preferred, go-to meet-up spot. I still go to Fertitta if I want to meet up with my CS group.”
For now, students and faculty will have to see what changes this new building will bring.