Azad M. Madni, Ph.D., is University Professor of Astronautics, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering, and Education at the University of Southern California, the university system’s highest academic designation, and executive director of the Systems Architecting and Engineering Program. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, or NAE, and a fellow of 16 professional science and engineering and honor societies.

Dr. Madni pioneered the field of transdisciplinary systems engineering and wrote an award-winning book on the subject, Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering: Exploiting Convergence in a Hyperconnected World (Springer, 2018). For this and other systems engineering accomplishments, he received the Simon Ramo Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2023. Dr. Madni has authored or edited 400 publications, including books, book chapters, journal articles, peer-reviewed conference papers, and research reports.

Dr. Madni transformed engineering education through TRASEE, an award-winning engineering educational paradigm based on principles from his book and the learning sciences. For his achievements, Dr. Madni received the 2023 NAE Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, the highest honor in engineering education. He and his wife donated the $500,000 prize to USC and to the NAE to establish an NAE fund to advance transdisciplinary systems engineering with the active involvement of women and historically underrepresented groups.

Dr. Madni has made significant contributions over the past 40 years to advance women engineers in management, education, technology development, and program management. While leading a simulation team at Rockwell International on NASA’s Space Shuttle program, his lead developers were women. As the technology leader of Perceptronics Inc., several of his key hires were women who served as program managers for U.S. Department of Defense research and development programs. Dr. Madni founded Intelligent Systems Technology Inc., where both the chief operating officer and chief financial officer are women. 

After joining USC as a full professor, Dr. Madni served as the dissertation chair and advisor to several women students, many of whom completed their graduate studies under his guidance and now hold leadership positions in industry and government. He has contributed significantly to the dramatic increase in the recruitment, promotion, and retention of women engineering students and women engineering faculty. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering has maintained parity in the number of men and women students for the past several years. 

Dr. Madni earned a B.S., an M.S., and a Ph.D. in engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is married to Carla Madni, an engineer and member of the Society of Women Engineers, and has three daughters, all of whom are USC graduates.