IMPACT LAB welcomes new members
IMPACT LAB welcomes new master's students Soowhan (Steve) Yi, Yiyang (Justin) Wang, Li-Hsin (Chris) Den, and Aaron Benedek.
University of Southern California
Intelligent
Machines for
People through
AI and
Computing
Technologies
We study and develop AI-based intelligent systems for engineering design, analysis, manufacturing, and self-organizing missions of the future.
About the lab
Data-driven intelligence for engineering design, manufacturing, and autonomy.
USC IMPACT LAB studies and builds data-driven intelligent systems for future engineering design, analysis, manufacturing, and autonomous operations. We develop and apply advanced AI methods, intelligent agents, and autonomous robots that can reason and act in complex engineering environments.
Our work supports intelligent engineering in domains such as automotive and ship design, electrical system design, engine-room anomaly monitoring, autonomous collision avoidance, robotic operation in jobshops, and multi-agent self-organizing systems for manufacturing in volatile markets. Our research aims to build intelligent machines that work with people and enable new ways of designing, operating, and forming engineered systems.
News
Latest updates
IMPACT LAB presents three papers at IDETC/CIE 2026
Prof. Yan Jin and Ph.D. students Ardalan Aryashad, Sara Sourani, and Shih-Chun (Morris) Deng attended IDETC/CIE 2026 in Houston, where the students presented three IMPACT LAB papers.
ML4EA book companion portal launched
The companion portal for Prof. Yan Jin's Machine Learning for Engineering Applications book is now live with learning resources, chapter guidance, application examples, instructor materials, and community resources.
Research
Research themes
Over the years, USC IMPACT LAB has established a broad portfolio spanning design methodology, AI-integrated systems, self-organizing systems, VLA robotic models, autonomous systems, and organization modeling, with a focus on AI-integrated engineering, where People + AI are at the core of engineering.
AI-integrated engineering systems
Embedding agentic AI into engineering workflows, digital threads, SysML modeling, lifecycle data backbones, and toolchain integration.
Self-organizing systems
Studying decentralized multiagent systems that learn, adapt, collaborate, and solve complex engineering problems through emergent behavior.
VLA model-based robots
Building vision-language-action robotic systems for autonomous, interpretable, and scalable operation in manufacturing jobshops.
Design methods
Developing intelligent design support methods that improve creativity, efficiency, knowledge extraction, and design decision-making.
Autonomous systems
Improving the safety, reliability, and efficiency of autonomous navigation, ship collision avoidance, and risk-aware path planning.
Organizational and collaborative engineering
Modeling how teams, organizations, negotiation, and collaboration shape the success of complex engineering projects.
Projects
Current project areas
AI-Integrated Design
AIDIO - AI-Integrated Design, Inspection, and Optimization
An AI-agent-based platform that connects ship design, inspection, optimization, simulation, and robot-ready production data.
Agentic Systems Engineering
SEMAA - Systems Engineering Modeling with Agentic AI
An agentic AI assistant for model-based systems engineering in maritime and ocean engineering domains.
Process Intelligence
AIPM - AI-Integrated Process Management
A model-based process intelligence platform for planning, scheduling, traceability, and change management.
Self-Organizing Manufacturing
SmartSOM - Self-Organizing Manufacturing System Integration
Multiagent self-organizing manufacturing methods for personalized production under volatile market conditions.
Robotic Operations
VLAG - VLA with Graph Modeling for Robotic Operations
A graph-routed vision-language-action framework for modular, interpretable robotic operations.
Join us
Build AI-integrated engineering with us
We welcome students, researchers, and collaborators interested in AI-integrated design and manufacturing, autonomous systems, robotic operations, and self-organizing engineering systems.
Contact
Find us at USC
USC IMPACT LAB
Dept. of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
Viterbi School of Engineering, USC, VHE-213.
Los Angeles, CA, USA