The 2013 Most Innovative Award at the 2013 Grodins Graduate Research Symposium goes to Junseob Shin. Jun is working on an adaptive beamforming technique for ultrasound imaging. Although ultrasound imaging is non-invasive, relatively cheap, portable, and has real-time imaging capability, one of its greatest challenges has been the contrast resolution. This inherent weakness of ultrasound imaging becomes more severe becomes very problematic when imaging large patients as important anatomical structures may be further obscured and become hardly visible.

USC Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy PhD candidates,  Rami Hashish and Sachithra Samarawickrame are examining the biomechanical changes and physiological adaptations that occur when habitual shoe runners transition from running in shoes to running barefoot. They are dedicated to developing a safe and effective transition program for runners. Their study will allow the development of clinical tools that can be used to predict injury potential, rehabilitate after injury, as well as enable athletes to train for better athletic performance.

Have you seen those weird and stunningly trendy glove-like shoes that have five toe compartments? Or people running on the side of the road in a shoe that seemingly has less support than a sandal? Or, better yet, people running without wearing any shoes at all? Well, as you are surely aware, we have dialed back the clocks and are now entrenched in the barefoot running era.

The Human Encyclopedia was created by USC Marshall MBA students Samuel Ho and Marisa Wahl, both of which come from two very different backgrounds: Entertainment and the Aerospace & Defense Industry.

Hightide Handplanes - a way to use the waste from the surfboard production facility and create handplanes to bodysurf with.

Matthew Lucido, an MBA candidate at the USC Marshall School of Business, creates Overlap - a bookmarking application for places, including, and not limited to, restaurants and beaches.

Office towers and commercial buildings account for nearly one-fifth of all energy consumed in the United States. Burcin Becerik-­Gerber has found a cheap way to cut a building’s energy use by a third.

Afterschool.me inspires kids beyond the classroom in sports, arts and technology.

Young H. Cho is a research scientist at Networks Division of USC/ISI. He also has joint appointments as Research Assistant Professor at EE and CS Departments of USC. He is currently leading a number of projects in cyber-physical embedded wireless systems and energy harvesting and monitoring technology.

Hypemarks’ mission is to make web discovery more efficient and meaningful for everyone. We essentially help you easily discover the web through people you care about. Think Pinterest but for websites and links.

Planana is a simple, customizable tool that leverages Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help event organizers sell more tickets. Using Planana, event organizers can create rewards, like VIP benefits or discounted tickets, that can be redeemed by attendees who do social actions to promote the event to their networks.

Cyrus Shahabi, professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and recipient of funding from the Ideas Empowered Class of 2011 is developing ClearPath, a transportation route planning application for smart phones that will predict how traffic will change during the course of a commute to ensure a driver picks the best route from the start.

Communication and journalism professor Josh Kun has curated with The Grammy Museum the first large-scale exhibit on Los Angeles music by an LA museum. “Trouble In Paradise: Music and Los Angeles, 1945-1975” has been unveiled in conjunction with the Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time.

Tim Sae Koo and his team, Eunice Noh and William Wang, are the proud visionaries behind Hypemarks. Hypemarks is a social discovery website where friends turn into personal tour guides throughout the web. Friends can recommend and share their collection of websites making the web experience less daunting and more relevant. This innovative vision makes it easy and effortless to create personalized recommendations and find interesting and new sites from people you trust. The innovators are recent graduates and graduating this year.

Sonic Edge integrates ultrasound smart-sensors with disposable surgical tools such as needles and catheters in turn, leads to faster, safer and more cost effective medical procedures.

Developing new molecules to change cell fate is fascinating! The new era of Regenerative Medicine allows scientists and clinicians to form medicine-based strategies .It has been fun to see this project evolved and become an important conceptual approach for translational science.

MyCourthouse provides a number of tools specifically for the legal profession – document sharing, event scheduling, and secure messaging – so that law students can leverage the benefits of social networking in a professional environment with tools made specifically for them.

Internet users will schedule over 57 million events this year, but current online solutions do not provide an accurate estimate of how many guests will actually attend these events. To address this frustrating and inefficient process, trueRSVP is launching the first RSVP system that is flake-proof.

Sanguine Biosciences, is establishing itself in the field of personalized medicine by developing a web-based database providing immediate access to DNA sequences and associated medical records.

Founded by two USC alums, Triptrotting, Inc. is an online community of world travelers and local hosts who are matched together based on similar interests in order to get an out-of-the box experience.

USC Graduate student at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at USC creates a social venture aimed at alleviating third-world, low-income and disaster relief housing shortages with the development of a durable and transportable shelter unit.

A graduate student at USC and finalist in the 2010 Student Innovator Showcase and Competition has been working on an iPhone app, a mobile-based learning application that relies on a series of “statistical markers” to create profiles for student users, providing them with custom educational materials tailored to their needs.

One Percent Foundation believes that philanthropy should not be driven by income or age, but by the power of collective action to create lasting change.

USC student is researching and inventing new and improved materials that lead to better medical devices and more effective treatment options for neurological diseases.

Three students at the USC School of Architecture are working together to create the USC Trousdale Exposition Gateway Plaza; a landscape project that will improve the intersection by turning it into a central gathering place that focuses on sustainability and the reduction of waste.

The Dish Dash is the only student-driven guide to bridge university students and their local community businesses using mobile technology; go to DishDashLA.com for great dining discounts!

William Chandler, an undergraduate at the School of Theater was a participant and FINALIST at the 2010 Student Innovator Showcase and Competition, where he presented his innovatove personal transportation device called, The Green Machine.

Too busy during the week to organize your weekend schedule? Ravi Teja Vadrevu, a Graduate student at Viterbi School of Engineering has developed a unique algorithm that assists in planning your weekend and holiday to-dos!

Graduate student at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Films and Television Production has developed a graphic novel that is based off of a Broadway style musical.

Freshman at USC is striving to make a large impact on society by developing, Little Big Things.  Look up Dayta on iTunes to check out the software application he created for the iPhone!

Travis Herndon, a student at USC Marshall School of Business was one of the participants at the 2010 Student Innovator Showcase and Competition, where he presented "Music Nation;" a program for kids that teaches the value of music and art, while providing them with an opportunity to learn to play instruments from professionals.

David Black founded Mindfulness Research Guide in September 2009 in an attempt to organize the overflow of scientific information for the research community.

Along with his brother, Garrett Weiss founded FUNDaFIELD, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to enriching
the lives of less fortunate youth in Africa through sports.

Vivek Pradeep received his BS in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, where he was awarded the department medal for his undergraduate thesis. He started his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at USC in 2005.

Ellis Meng is an award winning assistant professor of biomedical and electrical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Dr. Andrea Armani is an award winning biochemical engineer. She is also an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.

Tina Hovsepian recently graduated from the USC School of Architecture where she created Cardborigami, a portable emergency housing structure.

Tom Grasty is an entreprenuerial and strategic media executive creating a place where anyone with a camera and a point of view can polish, publish and promote their content to a potential audience of millions.

Alexander Taits is a researcher from USC who specializes in airbreathing cycle augmentation for modern launch vehicles to significantly boost payload capacity with minimal system modifications.

The Odd Gentlemen are video game developers striving to becoming masters of the short form game experience.

Today, in a society where children are undercared for in emergency medical situation, Jeffery Upperman has developed a way to use robots to help save young lives.

USC Interactive Media students are making waves in the new, independent gaming industry. Ben Sherman and Max Geiger are two that have created a game that is a combinatorial storytelling engine controlled through a Wiimote driven gestural interface.

Tal Flanchraych, the founder of whyshouldWEcare.org was recognized by United Kingdom's Prime Minister Gordon Brown for her social networking experiment about philanthropic issues in Africa.

Kicks for a Cause is a non-profit founded by seven students at the University of Southern California driven by a desire to further diversity and empower others to affect change in the world. The idea stemed from an assignment is President Sample's class, The Art and Adventure of Leadership.

USC undergraduate studen James Mieners creates a way for motorcyclist to breathe easy on the LA streets.

A Research Scientist at Intelligent Automation Inc. in Rockville, MD, Dr. Parachuri earned his PhD in Multiagent Systems from USC’s computer science department. Praveen's research interests include Applied AI, Agents/Multiagent Systems, Decision/Game Theoretic Reasoning, Safety/Security Issues and Linear/Nonlinear/Mixed Integer programming.

Jean-Pierre Rwigema is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. He has studied in South Africa and now continues his education at the USC School of Dentistry focusing his stem cell research on immortalized human fetal bone marrow and the possibilities it offers. 

Michael Naimark is a long time media artist and researcher. His work in new media has led to a collaboration of Google-proportions between the USC Interactive Media Division and Institute for Creative Technologies.

Bryan Stimmler began his researching career by gathering samples in the rivers of the San Gabriel mountains. Now doing research that is more laboratory based, he is researching two different projects at the USC School of Dentistry.

Rungnapa Warotayanont is a Ph.D. candidate in Craniofacial Biology program and a research assistant at the Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology (CCMB) at the USC School of Dentistry. Joining the Trojan Family from Thailand, Rungnapa's research is dedicated to stem cell research for bone formation.

Based on the concept of creating a repeatable and low cost prototype flight vehicle that simulates the key techniques required to descend and land on the lunar surface, LEAPFROG is pioneered by USC Astronautical Engineering Students.

Mark Wilde is a PhD candidate in the Ming Hsieh department of Electrical Engineering at USC. He and his collaborators, Todd Brun and Hari Krovi, are exhausting novel ways to exploit quantum mechanics for quantum communications in the future.

Ivan Wong is a masters student in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering at USC. He is the entrepreneurial spirit behind Flixya.com, a social networking site that pays ad revenues to users.

Professor Gua9rard Medioni has been at USC since 1983 after earning his MS and PhD in computer science. Technology developed by Prof. Medioni, licensed by Pasadena start-up Big Stage, enables users to create 3D digital avatars for all forms of digital media and can place them in the action.

Founded in the Spring of 2006, thatgamecompany has landed a three-game deal with SONY for the Playstation 3 Network creating experimental, innovation games, tapping into different emotional experiences not offered in today's primary video game market.

Ronald Nguyen is a young dental student at the University of Southern California'. Beginning with the common phrase, "why can't they make this better?", a true innovator, Ron pursued his idea and successfully developed a new dental product, the Feather Light.

As the creator of "Swim with Mike,' a fundraising swim-a-thon, Ron has overseen the accrual of $7.4 million in scholarship funds for physically challenged athletes, 69 student athletes have received scholarships at universities throughout the country. Ron received the President's Award for Staff Achievement at USC in 1992 and is a noted national speaker on alcohol and drug education.

Project:Possibility is a nonprofit, community service project committed to creating groundbreaking software for the disabled community--for free.

Bahman Elyassi didn't realize that when he set out to create the miniaturized oxygen sensor he would win an international award, have a patent pending, publish four papers, and fall in love.

The Windfall Fund is an interdisciplinary collaborative effort between three USC undergraduate students. Together, these young innovators created The Windfall Fund, a charitable nonprofit that enables a person to make a small donation today, and with 150 years of compounding interest, that small donation will have a large charitable impact tomorrow.

A cultural historian of early modern science, Bleichmar's work focuses on the production and uses of visual material in science and more.

USC Law School J.D. Candidates, pioneering forces behind The Prometheus Institute

Sean Rad is an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. Gaining marketing and business experience working for various entertainment firms in Los Angeles, Sean has further experience from years of working with his family's business, ESI International, manufacturers and distributors of popular electronics brands such as Akai, Nakamichi, iSymphony, and Cellboost.

Co-founder and director of the EA Game Innovation Lab, Chris Swain is a game designer, entrepreneur, and co-author of the textbook Game Design Workshop.

Dr. Wei-Min Shen is the Director of Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory, the Associate Director of the Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems, and a Research Associate Professor in Computer Science at University of Southern California. Dr. Shen has more than 20 years of research experience. His current research interests include self-reconfigurable and metamorphic systems, autonomous robots, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Life Science.

USC Student Ari Levinson is making a name for himself as one of Los Angeles's premiere young photographers and innovators.Through his work, he is hoping to create social change necessary to save the African wildlife environment raising money through the sales of his safari photographs to preserve, educate and inspire.

Geobiologist Kenneth Nealson leads a USC College-based effort to develop bacteria-powered fuel cells that could act as remote, portable power supplies for a multitude of purposes.

Dr. Johnson is also the current director of the Center for Advanced Research in Technology for Education at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California, where he is principal investigator of the Tactical Language project. His work on Tactical Language won him the DARPA's Significant Technical Achievement Award in 2005.

R. Pete Vanderveen Chair in Therapeutic Discovery and Development
Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering
 and Neurology
Norris Foundation Laboratory for Neuroscience Research
Director, USC STAR Science Education Program