Narendra Ahuja received the B.E. degree with honors in electronics engineering
in 1972 from Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Pilani, India; M.E. degree
with distinction in electrical communication engineering in 1974 from Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, India; and Ph.D. degree in computer science in
1979 from University of Maryland, College Park, USA. From 1974 to 1975, he was with
the Department of Electronics, Government of India, New Delhi. Since 1979, he has been
with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he is currently Donald Biggar
Willet Professor of Engineering, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Beckman Institute, and Coordinated Science Laboratory.
His research interests are in computer vision, robotics, image processing, image
synthesis, sensors, and parallel algorithms, and the use of information technology
in societal development. His research emphasizes integrated use of multiple image
sources of scene information to construct three-dimensional descriptions of scenes;
the use of integrated image analysis for realistic image synthesis; special sensors
for computer vision; extraction and representation of spatial structure, e.g., in
images and video; and use of the results of image analysis for a variety of
applications including visual communication, image and video editing and manipulation,
video retrieval, robotics, and scene navigation.
He received the 1999 Emanuel R. Piore award of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, and the 1998 Technology Achievement Award of the International
Society for Optical Engineering. He received honorable mention for the 1999 University
of Illinois Award for Guiding Undergraduate Research. He was selected as Associate
(1998-99) and Beckman Associate (1990-91) in the University of Illinois Center for
Advanced Study. He has been on the University of Illinois' list of "Teachers Rated
Excellent by their Students." He received founding University Scholar Award (1985),
NSF/White House's founding Presidential Young Investigator Award (1984), UGC
Fellowship (1972-74), National Scholarship (1967-72), and President of India's
Merit Award (1966). He is fellow of: Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, International
Association for Pattern Recognition, Association for Computing Machinery, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and International Society for Optical
Engineering. He has served on the editorial boards of the journals IEEE Transactions
on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence; Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image
Processing; Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision; Journal of Pattern Analysis
and Applications; Int. Journal of Imaging Systems and Technology; and Journal of
Information Science and Technology, and as guest coeditor of Artificial Intelligence
Journal's 1995 special issue on vision.
He has coauthored the books: Pattern Models (Wiley, 1983), Motion and Structure
from Image Sequences (Springer-Verlag, 1992), and Face Detection and Hand Gesture
Recognition for Vision-Based Human Computer Interaction (Kluwer, 2001). He has
coedited the book Advances in Image Understanding (IEEE Press, 1996). He has
published about 20 book chapters, 80 journal papers and 200 conference papers. He
has received 4 patents. He has graduated 30 Ph.D. students and 32 M.S. students.
He has supervised 45 undergraduate research projects. He has been a chair/committee
member/keynote speaker for 40 national and international conferences. He has served
as reviewer for over 60 professional journals, magazines and conferences. He has
developed and taught 4 new courses, established 2 new laboratories and taught a number
of engineering courses. He has codeveloped and taught 2 new interdisciplinary courses.
The results of his research have been used in industrial systems at General Electric,
Westinghouse, Lockheed, Honeywell and Advanced Technology, Inc., and for the development
of a radar system. He has consulted with 15 national and international, commercial
and government organizations.
