Sponsors

C.L. Max Nikias is Dean of the University of Southern California School of Engineering and holds the Zohrab A. Kaprielian Dean′s Chair in Engineering. Nikias is a nationally recognized leader in multimedia and Internet technologies and was appointed dean of the School of Engineering in July 2001. Before becoming dean, he was the founding director of the school′s Integrated Media Systems Center, the sole National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for multimedia and Internet research. As a result of his research achievements in digital signal processing, which lies at the core of multimedia technologies, Nikias was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1991, when he was 38. His research interests also include biomedical engineering, digital communications and military radar and sonar. He holds eight patents, has published more than 100 academic articles, 180 conference papers and three textbooks. He also has a security clearance and serves as a defense consultant. Nikias joined USC in 1991 as a professor of electrical engineering, and served as associate dean from 1992 to 2001. He previously held academic appointments at Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Connecticut in Storrs. After graduating from the National Technical University of Athens in 1977 with a degree in electrical and mechanical engineering, Nikias earned his master's and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the State University of New York, Buffalo.