Shaping PRISM: the Center for Perceptual Robotics, Intelligent Sensors and Machines at the City College of New York

Drs. Zhigang Zhu & John Xiao
Thursday, April 20, 2006
10:00AM - Sand Key 220, Student Union

Abstract


This joint talk will present the recent work in vision and robotics research at the City College of New York (CCNY). After a brief introduction of the CCNY and the current efforts in the establishment of a Center of Perceptual Robotics and Intelligent Systems (PRISM Center), the talk will be divided into two parts.

In the first part of the talk, Prof. Zhu will present the current research in the CCNY Visual Computing Lab, which includes: (1) dynamic pushbroom stereo approach for 3D reconstruction and moving target extraction; (2) multimodal media integration and presentation in a Virtualized Classroom; (3) multimodal integration of EO, IR and laser vibrometry sensors for surveillance and inspection and (4) vision-based localization of a sensor network in an unknown 3D environment with wall-climbing robots.

In the second part of the talk, Prof. Xiao will present the ongoing projects at the CCNY Robotics Lab, which includes: (1) Design of mobile robots with wall-climbing and wall-to-wall transition capabilities; (2) Smart reconfigureable miniature robot systems based on system-on-programmable-chip technology.

The work is supported by NSF, ARO, AFRL, NYSIA and CUNY.

Short Bio


Zhigang Zhu received his Ph.D. degree in computer science from Tsinghua University, Beijing, in 997. Dr. Zhu is currently an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department, the City College of New York, and the Department of Computer Science at the CUNY Graduate Center. Previously he has been an Associate Professor at Tsinghua University and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His research interests include 3D computer vision, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), multimodal sensor fusion, video representation, and various applications in education, environment, robotics, surveillance and transportation. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the ACM.

John (Jizhong) Xiao received his Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University in 2002; Master of Engineering degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and MS, BS degrees from East China Institute of Technology in 1999, 1993, and 1990, respectively. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department of CCNY in 2002 as an assistant professor and served as Doctoral Faculty in Engineering Program and Computer Science Program at CUNY Graduate Center. His research interests include robotics and control, embedded systems, digital signal processing, computer vision, and intelligent systems. He is the senior member of the IEEE.