Information Sciences Institute

The Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing. It helped spearhead development of the Internet, including the Domain Name System and refinement of TCP/IP communications protocols that remain fundamental to Internet operations.
ISI conducts basic and applied research for corporations and more than 20 U.S. federal government agencies. It is known for its cross-disciplinary depth, including expertise in computing organizations, interfaces, environments, grids, networks, platforms and microelectronics. ISI has more than 350 employees, approximately half with doctorate degrees; fifty are faculty at USC. The Institute has a satellite campus in Arlington, Virginia. ISI is currently led by Herbert Schorr, former executive and scientist at IBM.
ISI is one of 12 organizations that operate or host internet root name servers.