For a newborn giraffe or wildebeest, being born can be a perilous introduction to the world—predators lie in wait for an opportunity to make a meal of the herd’s weakest member. This is why many species have evolved ways for their juveniles to find their footing within minutes of birth. It’s an astonishing evolutionary feat…

A new generation of outdoor lights spreading across landscapes require greater scrutiny to reduce harm to wildlife, says a USC-led research group that developed a new tool to help fix the problem. The team of biologists surveyed select species around the world to determine how the hues of modern light-emitting diode (LED) lamps affect wildlife.…

Researchers have been pushing the capabilities of materials by carefully designing precise structures that exhibit abnormal properties that can control acoustic or optical waves. However, these metamaterials are constructed in fixed geometries, meaning their unique abilities are always fixed. Now, new 3D printed metamaterial developed by a team led by University of Southern California researchers…

Video games are increasingly allowing players to custom design their own characters — often with the intention of inserting themselves into the game. Until now, players relied on predesigned faces and body types provided by a game’s creators. Researchers at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies are making character design more personal. They’ve released a…

Thanks to new LEGO-like components developed by researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, it is now possible to build a 3D microfluidic system quickly and cheaply by simply snapping together small modules by hand. Microfluidic systems are used in many fields including engineering, chemistry and biotechnology to precisely manipulate small volumes of fluids…

This week, a team of researchers from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering will share results from a pilot study on the effects of using humanoid robots to help children with autism practice imitation behavior in order to encourage their autonomy. Findings from the study, entitled “Graded Cueing Feedback in Robot-Mediated Imitation Practice for Children…

With cutting-edge technology, sometimes the first step scientists face is just making sure it actually works as intended. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering is home to the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center (QCC), a super-cooled, magnetically shielded facility specially built to house the first commercially available quantum computing processors – devices so advanced that…

With cutting-edge technology, sometimes the first step scientists face is just making sure it actually works as intended. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering is home to the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center (QCC), a super-cooled, magnetically shielded facility specially built to house the first commercially available quantum computing processors – devices so advanced that…

Study demonstrates that when the D-Wave quantum processor is led astray by noise, error correction can ensure that it functions as intended Seeking a solution to decoherence—the “noise” that prevents quantum processors from functioning properly—scientists at USC have developed a strategy of linking quantum bits together into voting blocks, a strategy that significantly boosts their…