SIAS Lab — Societally-aware Interactive Autonomous Systems
University of Southern CaliforniaUSC Viterbi School of Engineering

Teaching

Put theory to work.
Let life challenge the theory.

Research is a way of seeing, questioning, and discovering—and everyday life is its largest classroom.

Graduate course

CE 513

Game Theory for Interactive Autonomy

Concept illustration of people, robots, and autonomous vehicles interacting across connected pathways.
  • Game theory
  • Multi-agent decisions
  • Interactive autonomy

Course overview

What should an intelligent agent do when everyone else is making decisions too? Designed by Ruolin Li, this graduate course connects game theory with AI, robotics, and autonomous systems. Students examine competition, cooperation, and incentives—and how individual choices shape collective outcomes.

Who it’s for

For graduate students interested in strategic decision-making across civil engineering, computer science, robotics, control, and related fields. Bring your disciplinary perspective and an application you care about. Students from other programs can contact Ruolin to discuss fit and preparation.

What to expect

Learn to formulate interactions as games, reason about equilibria and incentives, and critically connect theoretical models to autonomous systems. Expect to move between mathematical reasoning, concrete examples, and open research questions.

Undergraduate course

CE 471

Principles of Transportation Engineering

AI-generated concept illustration of an urban street with bus transit, protected bike lanes, pedestrians, and signalized crossings.
  • Transportation systems
  • Traffic operations
  • Mobility planning

Course overview

Why do queues form, how do networks move people, and what makes a transportation system work well? This undergraduate course introduces transportation planning, design, and operations, connecting engineering fundamentals to the streets, intersections, and mobility systems people use every day.

Who it’s for

For undergraduates building a foundation in transportation engineering, particularly students in civil and environmental engineering. Students in related programs who are curious about mobility can contact Ruolin to discuss course fit; enrollment follows USC requirements.

What to expect

Build the vocabulary and analytical perspective to understand transportation problems, evaluate engineering choices, and connect classroom ideas to real systems. Explore what careers in industry, public agencies, technology, and academic research can look like.