CILQ stands for “Communications, Information, Learning, & Quantum” and represents a group of faculty and students within the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at USC who are researching and teaching in these areas. CILQ also includes the administrative staff who are providing valuable support. Some folks in our group pronounce CILQ by saying each letter:  “C-I-L-Q.” Others in our group pronounce it with the more smooth sounding “silk.”  

CILQ emerged out of the primordial soup of the Communication Sciences Institute (CSI). CSI was formed in 1982 by a core group of faculty with interests in communications and information theory, including Professors Gagliardi, Golomb, Lindsey, Reed, Scholtz, and Weber (five of these are members of the National Academy of Engineers). Eventually, CSI expanded its faculty to represent areas of communication networks, quantum computing, and machine learning.   Our official name change from CSI to CILQ took place in 2019.  The CILQ name better represents our faculty. Of course, we are very proud of our CSI foundations.