A collaborative graduate’s level program between the

USC EE Department and the Intel® Corporation

USC and Intel® are collaborating in the development of a first-in-the-country Graduate degreed program in the high technology field of Signal Integrity Engineering.  This program will fill a serious shortage of manpower by providing experienced graduates and put USC in a positive position as a leading Signal Integrity research university.  Intel® engineers in Columbia develop the fastest, most powerful computers in the world and the Columbia site is the center of excellence of Signal Integrity for Intel®. 

Signal Integrity engineering fundamentally ensures that electronic circuits interconnect reliably without unintended variations in signal quality.  Poor signal quality can cause computers and electronic equipment to crash and that can result in corrupt bank accounts, airplane accidents, electric grid failures, and communications blackouts.

Moore’s law (Gordon Moore of Intel®) states that transistor sizes will continue to shrink with time thus driving faster and faster microelectronics.  This increased circuit speed steals the design margin from past generations of electronics, thus driving a Signal Integrity engineering discipline that must keep pace with the steep ramp of technology. The number of qualified Signal Integrity engineers is not keeping pace with this rapidly expanding field so this program is being developed to address the shortage and to put USC in a strong research position in this field.

The USC / Intel® collaboration and new degree program is consistent with President Sorensen’s and Mayor Coble’s vision of connecting the university, the City of Columbia and high technology industry.  As proof of that vision’s outcome, other high technology companies like Ansoft and Synopsis have decided to participate in this program’s formation and success and other companies are considering joining.