USC Trustee Mark Stevens is known for investing early in the people, ideas and businesses that go on to transform the world. As a partner at Sequoia Capital, he made early-stage investments in Google, Yahoo, YouTube and NVIDIA that landed him on Forbes\u2019 Midas List.<\/p>\n
Now, Stevens (BS\/BA \u201981, MS \u201984) and his wife, Mary, are making a landmark $200 million investment in USC, the university they believe will be the national leader in AI-powered research and creativity.<\/p>\n
In recognition of this gift, the USC School of Advanced Computing \u2014 the university\u2019s nexus for interdisciplinary research, teaching and innovation in AI \u2014 has been renamed the USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs AI becomes ever more powerful, it creates enormous opportunities to improve lives and solve some of our greatest challenges, if used the right way,\u201d USC President Beong-Soo Kim said. \u201cMark and Mary Stevens\u2019 generosity will allow USC to leverage our existing interdisciplinary strengths and capitalize on these new opportunities at a critical inflection point for our society. As a top destination for AI talent, USC can accelerate our mission of educating future leaders, addressing real-world problems, and enhancing human values and agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the next great universities will be those that invest in computing,\u201d Mark Stevens said. \u201cThis is a key moment. I am confident that USC has the leadership and direction to run quickly and stake our position as the trailblazer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMark and Mary have always understood the myriad opportunities that exist at the intersection of technology and domain expertise,\u201d said Yannis C. Yortsos, dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. \u201cTheir generosity at this pivotal time, when we enter the transformative Age of AI, will lead to breakthroughs, innovation and thought leadership here on the USC campus and around the world. We are grateful for their extraordinary gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school was launched in 2024 with a founding investment from the Lord Foundation of California and is headquartered in the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Human-Centered Computation Hall.<\/p>\n
Because of the USC Stevens School\u2019s unique interdisciplinary model, the Stevenses\u2019 investment will power research and education across the university.<\/p>\n
Interdisciplinary faculty expertise has also been key to launching efforts like USC\u2019s new degree in Artificial Intelligence for Business, which trains students to bring the power of AI into business settings and applications; the USC Institute on Ethics and Trust in Computing, which connects USC philosophers, computer scientists, journalists, doctors, policymakers and others to explore how society can balance innovation with the responsible use of AI; and the USC Center for AI in Society, one of the first \u201cAI for Good\u201d centers, which focuses on the use of computing to support vulnerable people and communities.<\/p>\n
AI is even supporting students\u2019 creative work in places like USC\u2019s No. 1-ranked game design program as well as the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where emerging filmmakers use cutting-edge technologies to film with virtual production.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot thank Mark and Mary enough for their generosity,\u201d said Gaurav Sukhatme, inaugural director of the USC Stevens School. \u201cThe timing of their gift \u2014 which builds on the momentum of our launch, the opening of Ginsburg Hall and the rapidly growing impact of computing and AI on every field \u2014 has positioned USC to be a national and global leader for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
A top 25 computer science powerhouse, the USC Stevens School builds on the university\u2019s nearly 60-year history of leadership in computing, which began with its acquisition of a mainframe computer in the mid-1960s, continued through its faculty\u2019s work to design and develop the early internet in the 1970s, and pioneered R&D in AI and other cutting-edge creative technologies beginning in the late \u201990s.<\/p>\n
Today, more than 30 AI- and computing-related majors, minors and graduate degree programs enroll thousands of USC students, with a new Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence being introduced this fall. After graduation, Trojan alumni are leading the AI era: USC is the nation\u2019s top producer of computer and information sciences graduates and the second-most common alma mater in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n
One of those Trojans is Mark Stevens, who has been a leading figure in tech industry venture capital since the early \u201990s. The Stevens family has long been a driving force for excellence and innovation at USC.<\/p>\n
In 2004, they contributed $22 million to establish the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, which advances university discoveries to the marketplace through technology transfer. In 2015, the university named the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute in honor of their $50 million gift to support Provost Professor Arthur W. Toga\u2019s work to apply innovative imaging and information technologies to study of the brain.<\/p>\n
Their gift of $10 million established the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Center for Orthobiologics in the Keck School of Medicine of USC. And just last year, they contributed another $10 million and were recognized as cornerstone donors to USC Athletics\u2019 new Bloom Football Performance Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USC Trustee Mark Stevens is known for investing early in the people, ideas and businesses that go on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,1221,18643,18644,52,18645,18646,18647,18648,18649,18650,18651],"class_list":{"0":"post-28213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-computing","11":"tag-frontiers-of-computing","12":"tag-interdisciplinary","13":"tag-research","14":"tag-solving-problems","15":"tag-top-research","16":"tag-usc-history","17":"tag-usc-mark-and-mary-stevens-school-of-computing-and-artificial-intelligence","18":"tag-usc-news","19":"tag-usc-news-top-stories","20":"tag-usc-staff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}