We are increasingly coming to recognize how much representation matters in STEM. When youth see adults who look like them doing interesting work, it’s easier for them to imagine themselves embarking on similar journeys. [Read more]

Supercomputing has expanded the field of engineering. While computations have always had their place in engineering research, the ability to employ hundreds and even thousands of computer processors on one computational task has transformed what used to be speculative into the realm of the possible. [Read more]

In addition to doing research specific to each of their professor’s engineering labs this summer, SHINE students are also learning many transferable skills that they’ll use in college and beyond. To help foster the students’ intellectual curiosity and shape their understanding of scholarly research conventions,  [Read more]

Three of our SHINE students come to USC Viterbi after being nurtured by the TELACU Education Foundation. As participants in TELACU’s College Success Program, these SHINE students have earned excellent grades, laudatory teacher recommendations, and good test scores.  [Read more]

It was a beautiful sunny day when SHINE students gathered together with other summer researchers on the E-quad to celebrate the 4th of July this Monday, 7/2/18. The sounds and smells of summer were all around. [Read more]

Professor Pierluigi Nuzzo’s electrical engineering lab may not look like a conventional STEM lab. But that’s because neither test tubes nor white coats are necessary for the kind of research he and his team are doing. [Read more]

Every Friday during the seven weeks of SHINE, the cohort focuses as a group on one area of engineering research: this past week featured Aerospace research conducted in the labs of Professors Geoff Spedding and Eva Kanso.  [Read more]

Research proves that diversity of training, disciplines, and even lived experience is crucial to innovation. University of Southern California recently opened the Michelson Center to break researchers out of their academic silos by sharing lab and office spaces.  [Read more]

When the SHINE18 cohort arrived at MATLAB training on Tuesday, 6/26/18, they didn’t quite know what they were in for. Or what they would soon be capable of. Obviously, all SHINE students are rather good at math. [Read more]

The productive tension between the tiny details of any research project and the research’s broader significance is a theme this first week of the SHINE program. The SHINE students were thrown into labs structured by precise methodology, expensive equipment and highly educated mentors. [Read more]