The University of Southern California (USC) announced last week the launch of an over $1 billion USD initiative to grow its university programmes for extended reality (XR), generative artificial intelligence, and ethical technology.
The university aims to boost innovative solutions backed by its education and research with the new programme.
Speaking on the new Frontiers of Computing initiative, Carol L Folt, President, USC said in a statement,
“I want every student who comes through our programs, whether they are in science, business, the humanities or the arts, to have a solid grounding in technology and the ethics of the work that they do. We will integrate digital literacy across disciplines to create responsible leaders for the workforce of the future”
This comes after Folt announced at the time the university would expand technological research “in a strategic and thoughtful way.”
USC XR Programme Aims and Agendas
The USC’s XR-linked programme will accelerate growth across numerous disciplines. Specialities include computer science, data analytics, the creative economy, telemedicine, imaging, and others. It will also spearhead a School of Advanced Computing to incubate computing projects for advanced technologies.
Disciplines will include research and development (R&D) for AI, machine learning (ML), quantum information, blockchain, and data science.
It noted that plans to boost industry collaboration follow a $260 million USD contribution to the USC in 2019. Backing over 1,330 students, the University is set to support the next generation of tech experts in the industry.
The USC Frontiers of Computing programme has invested in Southern California’s state economy. This covers key regions such as Silicon Beach, including Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey. These host the USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering’s Information Sciences Institute and Institute for Creative Technologies, respectively.
Full Sail University and XR Education
USC’s Frontiers of Computing Programme follows several key efforts from universities in the United States to develop the virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) industries.
The Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Association (VRARA)’s Central Florida Chapter took centre stage with Full Sail University in late March.
The institution hosts degrees for associate, bachelor, and master’s degrees for students across entertainment media, XR, and emerging technologies. Founded in Dayton, Ohio in 1979, Full Sail University launched as an audio recording workshop. After successes in enrolment, it later expanded to its Winter Park-based campus in 1989.
At the impressive event, the partners launched their first-ever Central Florida Immersive Technology Summit, hosting industry leaders across the globe.
Up to 40 thought leaders, professionals, companies, and researchers attended the day-long event to discuss the future of XR technologies. According to the summit, industries covered included healthcare, aerospace, entertainment, travel, higher education, and sports and fitness.
John A Cunningham, Head of Government and Aerospace, Unity, joined the in-person gathering with Pearly Chen, Vice President, HTC VIVE, Dylan Evers, Director, Microsoft, Mattney Beck, Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo, Dr David Stargel, Technical Director, United States Air Force, John Meyers, Executive Director, US Navy, among others.
Unity, The VRARA, and XR
Cunningham also serves as VRARA’s Central Florida Chapter President. XR Today interviewed the key executive on the sidelines of the Immerse Global Summit (IGS 2022 Europe) in Madeira, Portugal in October last year.
In the interview, he shared his extensive knowledge of how digital twins would transform operations across industry verticals.
In a separate speech, he explored the subject, highlighting the Metaverse would become the “next step in the evolution of the Internet.”
The head of aerospace also explored three categories for metaverse destinations — digital destinations, digital twins, and world augmentation — which would create the digital transformations crucial to developing the next generation of spatial communications.
