The University of Southern California has announced a $15 million gift from Andrew and Erna Viterbi to boost scholarship in engineering and genocide studies.

Awarded through the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, the gift includes $10 million to the USC Viterbi School of Engineering to establish five endowed faculty chairs and five graduate student fellowships, and $5 million to the USC Shoah Foundation — the Institute for Visual History and Education to endow the Andrew J. and Erna Finci Viterbi Executive Director Chair and support efforts to share the testimonies of Holocaust and genocide survivors around the world. Stephen Smith, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation, will serve as the inaugural Viterbi chair.

Andrew Viterbi, a co-founder of Qualcomm, created what is known as the Viterbi algorithm, which has applications in a large number of fields, including wireless and satellite communications, data recording, speech recognition, and search engines. In 1962, he earned a doctorate in digital communications from USC. He currently holds the presidential chair in engineering at USC, serves on the board of councilors at USC Viterbi, and has been a member of the USC board of trustees since 2000. In addition to her longtime support of the USC Shoah Foundation, Erna Viterbi has served in leadership roles at philanthropies around the world.

"Andrew and Erna Viterbi stand among USC's most ardent champions, and this generous gift reflects their longstanding commitment to investing in people," said USC president C.L. Max Nikias. "Through these endowments, the Viterbi School and Shoah Foundation can support transformative faculty and talented students, helping them to advance research that will benefit our world for generations to come. We remain deeply grateful for the Viterbis' continued confidence."