USC Viterbi Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering News
USC Engineering Insights - Researchers across USC Viterbi explore what El Niño could mean for Southern California, from changing ocean conditions and sea-level rise to atmospheric turbulence, inland flooding and coastal erosion.
USC Engineering Insights - USC Viterbi professor Geoff Spedding examines the subsurface physics of El Niño, explaining how eastward-moving warm water reduces the nutrients reaching surface waters off South America, while related changes in ocean circulation extend north toward California.
USC Engineering Insights - USC Viterbi professor Mitul Luhar explains how intense El Niño rainfall could send fast-moving, debris-filled water through the Los Angeles River - and why some sections of the river are more vulnerable than others.
USC researchers are teaching a flexible, nature-inspired machine to crawl, cling and someday inspect spacecraft or explore places robots cannot reach
Azad M. Madni has been awarded the 2026 John Fritz Medal, widely regarded as engineering’s highest honor and often called the “Nobel Prize of Engineering.”
A 1:120-scale hydraulic model paired with an interactive flow simulation enables a USC team to evaluate restoration concepts as they take shape.
Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering @ USC
Aerospace and mechanical engineers design and build unique, complex mechanical-optical-electronic (mechoptronic) systems, ranging in scale from the International Space Station to microscale electric generators and pumping systems.
A broad range of engineering science research is critical to developing novel, complex mechoptronic systems. As a consequence, aerospace and mechanical engineers conduct extensive basic and applied research within and crossing their usual disciplinary boundaries, they also synthesize research from many other disciplines.
Message from Assad Oberai, Department Chair
What is Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering?
Featured Research
From the perspective of USC researcher Wen Chen, human history is a tale of material transformation.
Researchers at USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a novel method for fabricating highly precise and stretchable electronics that conform seamlessly to the body.
