Electrical Engineering (Multimedia and Creative Technologies) (MS)

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Students may earn a specialization in multimedia and creative technologies by completing the general
requirements for the Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and the following additional requirements:

At most four units of electives can be taken outside of the Viterbi School of Engineering with adviser approval. Some examples are CTAN 452 Introduction to 3-D Computer Animation (2 units) and CTIN 483 Introduction to Game Development (4 units).
Computer science courses that are cross-listed with EE can (but do not have to) count toward the 18 EE units. Up to nine units of other CSCI courses that either are or are not cross-listed can also be used. Multimedia and creative technologies draws heavily on concepts and techniques from computer science.
Students must include the following three courses in their program
EE 483 Introduction to Digital Signal Processing
Units: 3
EE 519 Speech Recognition and Processing for Multimedia
Units: 3
EE 569 Introduction to Digital Image Processing
Units: 3
A course can be waived if a student can demonstrate equivalent knowledge of the material and if the course instructor will certify it.
Students must include six courses from the following list of courses in their programs for a total of 18 units.

Approved Courses for the Multimedia Specialization

Courses in Electrical Engineering

EE 450 Introduction to Computer Networks Units: 3
EE 522 Immersive Audio Signal Processing Units: 3
EE 555 Broadband Network Architectures Units: 3
EE 577a VLSI System Design Units: 3
EE 586L Advanced DSP Design Laboratory Units: 4
EE 596 Wavelets Units: 3
EE 619 Advanced Topics in Automatic Speech Recognition Units: 3
EE 669 Multimedia Data Compression Units: 3

Courses in Computer Science

CSCI 455x Introduction to Programming Systems Design Units: 4
CSCI 485 File and Database Management Units: 4
CSCI 551 Computer Networking Units: 4
CSCI 571 Web Technologies Units: 4
CSCI 574 Computer Vision Units: 3
CSCI 576 Multimedia Systems Design Units: 4
CSCI 580 3-D Graphics and Rendering Units: 4
CSCI 582 Geometric Modeling Units: 3
CSCI 585 Database Systems Units: 4

Courses from the School of Cinematic Arts

CTAN 452 Introduction to 3-D Computer Animation Units: 2
CTIN 483 Introduction to Game Development Units: 4

Course in Information Technology

ITP 411 Multimedia and Video Production Units: 3

Additional Requirements

Students may replace courses in the above list with a combined maximum of multimedia-related EE 599 or CSCI 599 Special Topics courses in their programs. Every course requires prior approval from the faculty adviser, recorded each semester on the plan of study form.
Students may include a maximum of 6 units of EE 590 Directed Research in their programs. Before registering for these units, the faculty adviser must approve a written description of the intended multimedia research project signed by the faculty member who will supervise the student.
Students entering this program are expected to have already completed, either at USC or at another institution, formal course work equivalent to USC course EE 364 Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Electrical Engineering. If an approved course has either EE 441 or EE 464 as a prerequisite, then the student must first take and pass the placement examination that is given each semester for either EE 441 or EE 464 before taking the approved course. Information about placement exams can be found at ee.usc.edu.
Although not required, students should be proficient in C or C++ programming, at the level taught in CSCI 455 .
Although not required, ITP 411 Multimedia and Video Production (3 units) will provide the student with hands-on experience in using multimedia application tools. This will help the student prepare a portfolio, which is expected by the industry from students who major in a multimedia program.