Here is a list of some innovation course work available at USC. If you have a course or workshop you would like to include in this list, please contact us.
AME 503: Advanced Mechanical Design
Specific problems and methods of analysis in mechanical systems design.
BAEP 551: Introduction to New Ventures Study and development of analytical and conceptual skills in the management of new enterprises and new ventures within large organizations.
BAEP 556: Technology Feasibility for High Tech Ventures This course gives students the critical thinking and analytical skills they need to evaluate, value, and manage technology as intellectual property. Students will learn the technology commercialization process, use data mining and assessment techniques for patent databases, and study the unique business issues facing high technology start-ups. This is an e-team course, which means that students will either use their own technology concepts or work on technical teams with scientists and engineers.
BAEP 557: Technology Commercialization Technology is probably the most financially under-utilized asset in either the private or public sector. Many firms possess technology and know-how that are not commercialized or are held only for captive applications. Most of the thousand of patents granted never find their way to the market. This course explores how to recognize and screen technology opportunities in diverse areas, from e-commerce to information systems, telecommunications, and biotechnology, to name a few. You will learn the ins and outs of intellectual property acquisition, creation, and protection. The course will discuss how to license technology that others have patented and license your own technology to others to creative multiple revenue streams. The unique business model issues related to high technology start-ups will also be covered. Offered in the spring semester for business and non-business graduate students.
CTIN 488: Game Design Workshop The purpose of this workshop is to examine models and strategies for creating electronic games that are based in solid play mechanics. Students will experience the fundamentals of game design through the study of classic games, as well as design their own games and playtest/critique the games of others.
ENGR 301/BUAD 301: Technology Entrepreneurship Starting and managing a technological business: developing a viable concept, market and financial planning, product development, organizing the venture, protecting intellectual property rights.
ENGR 493/BUAD 493: Dean's Seminar in Entrepreneurship
Overview of starting and developing a new business. Discussions with successful business leaders and entrepreneurs.
*Enrollment limited. Interested Viterbi students should request D-clearance from RTH 110.
FA 436: Art and Technology An interdisciplinary course between the USC Schools of Fine Art and Engineering. It will be co-taught by Ann Page SOFA, Skip Rizzo of ICT and Stephan Themis, IMSC. Students will research and experiment with the visual potential of 360° through the development of intrinsic content, context, and imagery captured by a 360°DV camera or created in compositing and virtual 3D software.
GSBA 556:Business Development in the Networked Digital Industry The Networked Digital Industry (NDI) is a dynamic emerging industry that is taking shape around new products and services delivered through broadband digital networks and wireless communications, creating new value chains, new business models, and entire new sets of relationships. A new business “ecosystem” has been formed around the NDI with many opportunities and challenges – and new business development job opportunities for graduates entering the marketplace. The NDI ecosystem has evolved and been shaped through the platforms provided by the telecom industry and the internet. It extends from “chips to content” and includes digital communications, telecom, media and entertainment, content and data mining, online gaming, social networking, and computer software & services. The NDI ecosystem is becoming increasingly meshed on many fronts through digital platforms to the Creative Industries.
*Interested Viterbi students should request D-clearance from RTH 110. Interested VSoE students should send email to Carolyn Suckow to request D-clearance.
ISE 545: Technology Development and Implementation Principles and practices of technology development and implementation,with application to products and systems in manufacturing and services
ISE 555:Invention and Technology Development This project-oriented course elaborates on the process of engaging creative thought, tools and techniques for invention, and issues involved in bringing inventions to the production phase.
ITP 499: iPhone Application Development An introduction to developing applications for iPhones and iPod Touch devices. Go through the process of building an iPhone application from start to finish using the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit). In lecture sessions, you will learn the basics of the Objective-C programming language, how to design iPhone interfaces visually in Interface Builder, how to use the libraries to build applications that have the iPhone look and feel, how to use table views, how to design and handle user input, and other aspects.
ITP 499: Technologies and Processes for Building Web Startups An introduction to the basic technologies and processes involved in the building Internet Startups. Learn the process and different phases of building Web 2.0 startups, which include: Idea Analysis, product prototyping building and product launch. During sessions, you will gain an understanding for what it takes to build a web startup and the Web 2.0 market place, learn about using web as a platform, the processes for building Web 2.0 applications, the technologies (hardware and software) behind Web Startups, how to build information architectures, how to create web strategy plans, and learn about the basics of online marketing
LAW 599x: Intellectual Property Law for Inventors
MOR 467: Managing Technology and Innovation Theories and methods for managing technology in organizations. Emphasizes project management, implementing technology, creativity, valuing technology, negotiating technical sourcing and competitive intelligence/benchmarking.
MOR 561: Strategies in High Technology Businesses How high-tech companies achieve competitive advantage through leveraging technical, management and financial resources. Technology trends and industry evolution. Focus on electronics and bio-technology. Cases and speakers.
MPTX 511:Introduction to Medical Product Regulation To highlight the basic analytical techniques employed in control theory, systems analysis and model identification, and to demonstrate how these quantitative principles can be applied to obtain an improved understanding of the dynamic processes involved in physiological regulation.
MPW 990: Business of the Business
To register for Business of the Business, please apply to MPW mpw@college.usc.edu or call 213-740-3250 for registration and additional information.
Summer Program in Historic Preservation Consisting of 15 days of classes over a two-and- a-half-week period, these courses, taken as a whole, are intended to act as a general introduction to the field of historic preservation. Courses are led by noted preservation experts from Southern California and the United States. Designed for students, design professionals, community leaders, established preservationists, planners, and developers seeking to situate their practice within a contemporary context, this series of short courses in historic preservation will be of interest to any individual concerned with the conservation of our cultural heritage. In addition to lectures examining the history and philosophy of the preservation movement, field trips to historic sites throughout the Los Angeles area will introduce students to a broad range of legal, economic, aesthetic and technical issues associated with the documentation, conservation, and interpretation of historic structures, landscapes, and communities. Among sites visited are the Gamble and Freeman Houses, Rancho Los Alamitos, and the Getty Conservation Institute. Courses may be attended individually or in combination and qualify as AIA Continuing Education units. The entire sequence may also be taken as ARCH 450 (Fundamentals of Historic Preservation) for four units of credit towards the Graduate Certificate or Master's Degree in Historic Preservation.
Marshall School of Business: MDA 356: The Art and Adventure of Leadership This course is designed to expose you to the areas of knowledge and kinds of competencies that are fundamental to the study and practice of leadership in multiple settings. The content of the course draws from several academic disciplines that inform the study of leadership. We will focus on the conceptual aspects of leadership, and will discover the skills and practices of exemplary leaders. At the conclusion of the course, it is expected that you will be acquainted with the interpersonal and technical skills needed for effective communication, decision-making, motivation, and public policy.
This course is structured to emphasize some of the philosophical and historical foundations of leadership. The relationships among leadership theory, leadership practice, and the moral-ethical aspects of leadership will be emphasized. A variety of innovative teaching techniques will involve a high level of classroom participation and will require student participation in intensive group situations. In each class, you will be challenged to think critically and imaginatively about the content covered. Classes will actively involve you through lectures, seminar-style discussions, reading assignments, movies, debates, guest speakers, and case studies.
In short, this is not a course for the passive thinker. The course is designed for you, if you are prepared to work hard and commit to the challenges presented. It seeks actively to engage and challenge you to challenge yourself, your peers, and your instructors.
Innovation Lab (offered through the USC Gould School of Law)
Intellectual property is one of a number of tools that innovators can use to capture value from innovation investments in the face of imitation from competitors. This seminar will be devoted to understanding the manner in which innovators exploit intellectual property rights, together with contract, technology and complementary business strategies, to achieve this goal. The seminar will consist of three parts. First, we will review basic principles in understanding intellectual property from an economic point of view. Second, we will examine the legal and business models typically used in the academic research, open-source software, film, music, database and fashion industries (tentative list). Third, each student will undertake a research project that describes and analyzes the “IP strategies” used by a particular firm or market segment, as selected by the student in consultation with the instructor. Students will present their research in a formal in-class presentation and submit a final paper by the end of the semester.
" We envision USC as a powerful engine for making a better world in the 21st century. To realize this vision, we must have faculty and students who are capable of engaging in research of the highest caliber and of connecting with colleagues in industry and venture capital to address real-world problems.”
Mark Stevens, General Partner, Sequoia Capital USC Alumnus and Trustee
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