When: Friday, October 30, 2:15 p.m.

Where: Rashid Auditorium (4401) Gates & Hillman Centers

Shree K. Nayar,
T.C. Chang Professor and Chair
Computer Science Department
and Director, Columbia Computer Vision Laboratory
Columbia University

Joint SCS/ECE Alumni Lecture

Abstract:
Today, the camera is almost exclusively designed for, and marketed to, adults. A typical consumer camera comes with a sleek silver or black exterior and is densely packed with components and features. If one tries to open up one of these devices to study its innards, it is unlikely to function when put back together.

We believe camera manufacturers have overlooked a large demographic in kids and a compelling application in education. In this talk, I will present a digital camera that has been designed to expose students to important concepts in science and engineering. Our target audience is under-privileged students between the ages of 8 and 16 years.

Shree K. Nayar received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in 1990. He is currently the T. C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. He co-directs the Columbia Vision and Graphics Center. He also heads the Columbia Computer Vision Laboratory (CAVE), which is dedicated to the development of advanced computer vision systems. His research is focused on three areas; the creation of novel cameras, the design of physics based models for vision, and the development of algorithms for scene understanding. His work is motivated by applications in the fields of digital imaging, computer graphics, and robotics.

He has received best paper awards at ICCV 1990, ICPR 1994, CVPR 1994, ICCV 1995, CVPR 2000 and CVPR 2004. He is the recipient of the David Marr Prize (1990 and 1995), the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (1992), the National Young Investigator Award (1993), the NTT Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award (1994), the Keck Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching (1995) and the Columbia Great Teacher Award (2006). In February 2008, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

2:00 pm - Scary Refreshments

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