Computer Vision and Robotics Laboratory

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NARENDRA AHUJA
Donald Biggar Willett Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Coordinated Science Laboratory, and
Beckman Institute

University of Illinois
405 N. Mathews Avenue
Urbana, Illinois 61801

Telephone: (217) 333-1837; Fax: (217) 244-8371

Education
Ph.D. Computer Science
University of Maryland, College Park, May 1979
Thesis title: Mosaic Models for Image Analysis and Synthesis
Thesis advisor: Professor Azriel Rosenfeld

M.E. Electrical Communication Engineering (with Distinction) Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, July 1974
Thesis title: Machine Recognition of Spoken Digits Thesis advisor: Professor B.S. Ramakrishna

B.E. Electronics Engineering (with Honors)
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, May 1972
B.E. Project: Design of a Digital Voltmeter
Project advisor: Professor Mohi Mukherjee

Awards and Honors

2008 TA Stewart-Dyer/Frederick Harvey Trevithick Prize Institution of Mechanical Engineers
2008 Open Innovation Research Award of Hewlett-Packard
2008 Distinguished Alumnus Award of University of Maryland
2006 IEEE Best Paper Award
2006 Associate in the Center for Advanced Study
2002 On Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students
1999 Donald Biggar Willet Professorship of UIUC College of Engineering
1999 UIUC Campus Award for Guiding Undergraduate Research – Honorable Mention
1999 Emanuel R. Piore Award of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
1998 Technology Achievement Award of SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering)
1998 Associate in The Center for Advanced Study
1996 Fellow of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)
1996 Fellow of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
1995 Fellow of SPIE (International Society for Optical Engineering)
1994 Fellow of IAPR (International Association for Pattern Recognition)
1992 Fellow of AAAL (American Association for Artificial Intelligence)
1992 Fellow of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
1990 Beckman Associate in the Center for Advanced Study
1985 University Scholar Award
1984 Presidential Young Investigator Award
University Grants Commission Fellowship for the two-year Master’s studies
National Scholarship for the five-year undergraduate studies
President of India’s Award for merit in High School
President’s (Eagle) Scout

Professional Experience

Teaching: Courses in Computer Vision, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Computer Architecture.
Research: Computer Vision, Image Processing, Robotics, Pattern Recognition, with particular interests
in 3D computer vision, information integration, special sensors, human computer interfaces,
visual communication, image synthesis.

Professor 8/88 -
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science,
Beckman Institute, and Coordinated Science Laboratory
Associate Professor 8/84 – 8/88
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Coordinated Science Laboratory
Assistant Professor 8/79 – 8/84
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Coordinated Science Laboratory
Research Associate 5/79 – 8/79
Computer Vision Laboratory, University of Maryland
Faculty Research Assistant 5/78 – 5/79
Computer Vision Laboratory, University of Maryland
Graduate Research Assistant 8/75 – 5/78
Computer Vision Laboratory, University of Maryland
Scientific Officer 9/74 – 7/75
Department of Electronics, Government of India

Research Students Supervised
Ph.D. – 31 completed; M.S. – 36 completed; Undergraduate Honors Projects – 45 completed.

Professional Societies

IEEE Computer Society, Fellow American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Fellow
Association for Computing Machinery, Fellow
International Society for Optical Engineering, Fellow
Optical Society of America, Member
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow
IEEE Technical Committee on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Member
IEEE Technical Committee on Robotics, Member
ACM/TEEE-CS Curriculum Task Force, Reviewer
IEEE PAMI EIC Evaluation Committee, Member, 1996
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award Committee Member, 1999-2001
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award Committee, Chair, 2001-2003
SPIE Technology Achievement Award Committee, Member, 2003-2004
SPIE Engineering Excellence Award Committee, Member, 2004

Editorships

Member, IEEE Multimedia Communications Technical Committee, 2009-
Associate Editor: Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing Journal
Member of Advisory Board: IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence Journal
Associate Editor: Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision
Associate Editor: Journal of Information Science and Technology
Guest Coeditor, Special Volume on Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence Jrnl., Vol. 78, No. 1 2, Oct 1995
Member, Editorial Board: Pattern Analysis and Applications Journal
Member, Editorial Board: International Journal of Imaging Systems & Technology
Member, Editorial Advisory Board: Trans on Electrical And Electronic Engr, (Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan)

Professional Conferences

IMMERSCOM, 2009, Member, Program Committee
IEEE Workshop on Computer Vision, 1987, Program Co-chair.
American Association for Artificial Intelligence Conference, 1987, Member – Program Committee.
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 1988, Member – Program Committee.
North American Manufacturing Research Conference, 1988, Member – Organizing Committee.
IEEE Workshop on Interpretation of 3D Scenes, 1989, Invited Panelist.
IEEE Workshop on CAD Based Vision, 1991, Invited Panelist.
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 1991, Member – Program Committee.
NSF Workshop on Future Directions in Computer Vision Research, 1991, Invited Speaker.
NSF Workshop on Active Vision Research, 1991, Invited Participant.
IEEE Workshop on Visual Motion, 1991, Member – Program Committee.
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 1992, Program Co-chair.
AlS’92 3rd Annual Conference on Al, Simulation and Planning, 1992, Member – Program Committee.
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 1992, Invited Panelist.
AAAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1993, Member – Program Committee.
5th UNB International Artificial Intelligence Symposium, 1993, Member – Advisory Committee.
IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 1994, Area Chair.
3rd Int. Conf. on Automation, Robotics and Computer Vision, 1994, Member – Int. Advisory Committee.
Int. Conf. on Expert System for Development, 1994, Member – International Advisory Committee.
TENCON, 1994, Member – International Advisory Committee.
International Dedicated Conference on Mechatronics, 1994, Member – Program Committee.
International Conference on Pattern Recognition, 1994, Member – Program Committee.
2nd Asian Conference on Computer Vision, 1995, Member – International Advisory Committee.
Int. Computer Science Conference, ICSC’95, Hong Kong, Member – International Advisory Committee.
Int. Symp. on Automotive Tech. & Automation, Stuttgart, Germany, 1995, Member – Program Committee.
IEEE Computer Vision Symposium, 1995, Member – Program Committee.
IFIP World Congress 1996, Canberra, Australia, Member – Program Committee.
4th Int. Conf. on Automation, Robotics and Computer Vision, 1996, Member – lnt. Advisory Committee.
Dedicated Conf. on Simulation, Diagnosis & Virtual Reality in the Automotive Industry, Florence, Italy,
1996, Member – Program Committee.
3rd Int. Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics & Vision, Singapore, 1996, Member – Int. Advisory Committee.
Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Albuquerque, NM, 1997, Member – Program Committee.
IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Puerto Rico, 1997, Member – Program Committee
Int. Conference on Intelligent Information Systems, Bahamas, 1997, Member – Program Committee
TENCON’97, Member – International Advisory Committee
6th Int. Conference on Computer Vision, Bombay, India, Jan. 4-8, 1998, – General Co-Chair
IEEE/ATR Workshop on Computer Vision for Virtual Reality Based Human Comm., Bombay, 1/3/98-CoChair.
3rd Asian Conference on Computer Vision, Hong Kong, 1998, Member – Program Committee
31st Int. Symp. on Automotive Technology & Automation, Dusseldorf, Germany, June 1998, Member – Program
Committee
IEEE Int. Conference on Image Processing, Chicago, IL, Oct. 4-7, 1998, Member – Program Committee
Image and Vision Computing New Zealand ‘98, Auckland, NZ, Nov. 1998, Member – Program Committee
Int. Conf. on Control, Automation, Robotics & Vision, Singapore, Dec. 1998, Member – Int. Advisory Comm.
7th IEEE Int. Conference on Computer Vision, Kerkyra, Greece, Sept. 1999, Member – Program Committee
4th Int. Conf. Advances in Pattern Recognition & Digital Techniques, Calcutta, 12/99, Member – Advisory Committee
4th Asian Conference on Computer Vision, Taipei, January 8-11, 2000, Member – Program Committee
6th Int. Conf. on Control, Automation, Robotics 7 Vision, Singapore, Dec. 2000, Member, Int. Program Committee
ICMI’2000, 2000, Program Committee Member
Indian Conf. on Computer Vision, Graphics 7 Image Processing, Bangalore, India, 12/00, Int. Advisory Committee
Int. Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Quebec City, Canada, Aug. 2002 – Member, Program Committee
Asian Conferenmce on Computer Vision, 2002, Member, Program Committee
Indian Conf. on Vision, Graphics & IP, Akmedabad, Gujarat, India, Dec. 2002, Member Tech. Program Comm.
IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, June 2003, Madison, WI, Member-Program Committee
Asian Conference on Computer Vision, Jeju, South Korea, January 2004, Member, Program Committee
European Conference on Computer Vision, Prague, Czech Republic, May 2004, Member, Program Committee
IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition, Washington, DC, June 2004, Member, Program Committee
International Conf. on Pattern Recognition, Cambridge, England, September 2004, Member, Program Committee
IEEE Conf. On Enabling Technologies for Smart Appliances, Hyderabad, India, Jan. 2005, Member, Advisory Panel
IEEE Conf. On Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2004, Member-Program Committee
International Conference on Computer Vision, 2005, Area Chair
11th Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications, Perth, Western Australia, October 2005, Member, Program Committee
International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Hong Kong, August 2006, Member, Program Committee
ICPR’06 Wkshp on Intelligent Computing in Pattern Analysis/Synthesis, Xian, China, Aug. 2006, Member, Program Comm
IEEE Int. Conf. On Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Southampton, UK, April 2006, Member, Program Committee
3rd International Conference on Visual Information Engineering, Bangalore, India, Sept. 2006, Member, Program Committee
Pacific-Rim Symposium on Image and Video Technolgy, Hsinchu, Taiwan, December 2006, Member, Program Committee
Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing, Madurai, India, Dec. 2006, Member, Program Committee
IJCAI-2007 Workshop on Multimodal Information Retrieval , Hyderabad, India, Jan. 2007, General Chair
Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision, Austin, TX, Feb. 2007, Co-General Chair
IEEE Conf. On Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Anchorage, Alaska, 2008, Co-General Chair
Workshop on Computer Vision for Developing Countries (in conjunction w/ ICCV 2007), Oct. 2007, Member, Program Committee

New Courses Developed and Taught

Introduction to Image Processing and Computer Vision (senior/graduate)
Introduction to Robotics: Sensing, Control and Manipulation (with Mark Spong) (senior/graduate)
Computer Vision (graduate)
Introduction to Robotics (1/2 semester, with Seth Hutchinson and Mark Spong) (senior/grad, ½ semester)
Robot Sensing (1/2 semester) (senior/grad, ½ semester)
Pattern Recognition (graduate)
Visualizing & Navigating Knowledge Networks (with N. Contractor & M. Twidale) (senior/graduate)
Seminar: Computer vision (graduate)

New Laboratories Developed

Computer Vision and Robotics Laboratory in Beckman Institute (Research)
Vision and Robotics Laboratory in Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Teaching)

LargeTeam-Courses Co-Developed and Co-Taught
Seminar: Introduction to Computational Neuroscience (Coordinator: Bill Greenough) (graduate)
Introduction to Manufacturing Engineering (Coordinators: Tom Conry, Dick Devor) (junior/senior)
Introduction to Cognitive Science (Coordinator: Janet Keller) (senior/graduate)

Courses Taught but not Developed

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (senior/graduate)
Advanced Artificial Intelligence (graduate)
Introduction to Computer Engineering (sophomore/junior)
Computer Organization and Design (senior/graduate)
Microcomputer Laboratory (senior/graduate)
Probability with Engineeriong Applications (junior/senior)

Consulting

Scientific Applications International Corporation
United Nations Development Program-Distinguished Scientist Consultant
Illinois Department of Commerce, Springfield, Illinois
US Army Center for Night Vision, Ft. Belvoir, Virginia
Battelle Corporation, Columbus, Ohio
CMC Limited, Secunderabad, India
Corning Incorporated, Corning, New York
A&T Systems, Silver Spring, Maryland
Lockheed Inc., Atlanta, Georgia
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, New York
Honeywell Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Westinghouse, Baltimore, Maryland

Technology Transfer

Texture Generation Algorithms used in Flight Simulators developed by General Electric Company
Computational Grouping Algorithms used in Defense Applications Systems developed by Westinghouse
Feature Detection Algorithms used in Map Data Processing Systems developed by Advanced Technology, Inc.
Octree Software Adapted for a Defense Application System Developed by Honeywell
Developed an Automatic, Weld-Evaluation Hardware and Software System for Computer-controlled High-fidelity Welding
for Adaptation by General Motors, Caterpillar and MTS Inc.
Assisted U.S. Army Night Vision Laboratory in the Development of a Radar System
Assisted Corning Inc. in Formulating Plans for Automation of their Measurement and Production Systems
Assisted CMC Limited in Developing a Fingerprint Recognition System

Technology Demonstrations

Demonstrations of Omnifocus Camera Technology at:
Capitol Hill, to the Members of Congress, at the invitation of Congressional Institute for the Future, May 22, 1995
Software Technology and Intelligent Systems Symposium, at the invitation of Advanced Research Projects Agency,
Chantilly, Virginia, August 29, 1995
Image Understanding Workshop, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Palin Springs, California, February 14, 1996
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia, February 20, 1996
Illinois State Environment Protection Agency, Springfield, Illinois, May 10, 1996
Department of Defense Demonstration, Arlington, VA, July 24, 1996
Department of Defense Demonstration, Arlington, VA, July 29, 1996
National Communications Forum – Info-Vision, Rosemont, IL, October 14-15 1996
U.S. Army Federated Laboratory Symposium, College Park, MD, Feb. 3-5, 1998.
U.S. Army, Ft. Benning, GA, May 14, 1998.
U.S. Army Infantry Conference, Ft. Henning, GA, June 9-11, 1998.
Tech East ’98, Boston, MA, Nov 3-5, 1998.
U.S. Army Federated Laboratory Symposium, College Park, MD, Feb. 2-4, 1999.

Recent Media Coverage

Channel 15 News, Champaign, July 4, 1990
Daily Illini, July 12, 1990
Engineering Outlook, Winter 1990
Inside Illinois, September 6, 1990
Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1991
San Francisco Examiner, May 27, 1991
Oxnard (CA) Press Courier, September 15, 1991
Optical Materials and Engineering News (OMEN), September 1993, pp. 5-6
Illinois Technograph, October 1993
Photonics Spectra, November 1993, p. 29
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Science Program “Quirks and Quarks”, December 18, 1993;
Repeated in December 1995
International Science and Technology Satellite News, March 2, 1994
Arlington Heights Daily Herald, l,ake County, Illinois, April 4, 1995
Champaign-Urbana News Gazette, April 20, 1995
IEEE Expert, April 1995, pp. 67-70
Popular Mechanics, August 1995, p. 24
Graduating Senior, September 1995, pp. 15-16
Discover Magazine, November 1995, p. 48
ZDF German Television’s Program Science and Technology, 1995
San Diego Post Tribune, January 3, 1996
Super Interessante Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 1, Brazil, January 1996, p. 10
San Francisco Examiner, January 1996
Aviation Week and Space Technology, January 1996
ASME Mechanical Engineering Magazine, April 1996, p. 14
Boys’ Life, July 1997, p. 12
ASEE PRISM, February 1998, p. 22
Channel 15 News, February 1999

Champaign-Urbana News Gazette, Aug 2001