Smart Spaces: 6th Annual Smart Lighting ERC Industry – Academia Days
Speaker Biographies and Company Information
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Kim Boyer
Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
Dr. Kim Boyer is Head of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received the BSEE (with distinction), MSEE, and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical engineering, from Purdue University in 1976, 1977, and 1986, respectively. From 1977 through 1981 he was with Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ; from 1981 through 1983 he was with Comsat Laboratories, Clarksburg, MD. From 1986-2007 he was on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of IAPR, and a former IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Speaker. Dr. Boyer is also a National Academies Jefferson Science Fellow at the US Department of State, spending 2006-07 as Senior Science Advisor to the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. While at State he studied the impact of technological innovation on economic development in scientifically lagging and scientifically developing countries. He also developed policy recommendations for the use of science and engineering as instruments of diplomacy. He retains his Fellowship as a consultant on science and technology policy for the State Department.
Dr. Boyer’s research interests include all aspects of computer vision and medical image analysis, including perceptual organization, structural analysis, graph theoretical methods, stereopsis in weakly constrained environments, optimal feature extraction, large modelbases, and robust methods.
Dr. Boyer is Past President of the International Association for Pattern Recognition, as well as a US delegate to the Governing Board. He is a former Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Area Editor of Computer Vision and Image Understanding, Associate Editor of Machine Vision and Applications, Chair of the first two IEEE Computer Society Workshops on Perceptual Organization, was a charter member of the DARPA IUE Technical Advisory Committee, and was a member of the initial ORD RADIUS Technical Oversight Committee. With Kuntal Sengupta, he won the Siemens Best Paper Award at CVPR93. In 1995, a student team co-directed by Prof. Boyer won the International Unmanned Ground Vehicle Competition for its vision-guided Autonomous Robotic Transporter. He is a former Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.
Dr. Boyer has published five books and more than 100 scientific papers. He has lectured in nearly 30 countries around the world. His books include “Computing Perceptual Organization in Computer Vision,” World Scientific, 1994 (with Sudeep Sarkar); “Perceptual Organization for Artificial Vision Systems,” Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000 (with Sudeep Sarkar); and “Robust Range Image Registration: Using Genetic Algorithms and the Surface Interpenetration Measure,” 2005 (with Luciano Silva and Olga Bellon). His most recent book, with Cem Unsalan, is Multispectral Satellite Image Understanding: From Land Classification to Building and Road Detection, Springer, 2011.
George C. Brainard
Professor, Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson
Dr. Brainard has directed Jefferson’s Light Research Program since 1984. This program’s research studies the effects of light on neuroendocrine physiology and circadian regulation in humans. Using the techniques of photobiology, radioimmunoassay, and performance testing, this group has documented how various visible and nonvisible light sources influence both hormonal balance and behavior. Current studies include elucidating the action spectrum of melatonin regulation, investigating the phase shifting capacities of light, studying the influence of light on tumor progression, and testing new light treatment devices for winter depression.
Lee K. Brown
Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico
Dr. Brown was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and grew up in a Long Island suburb of New York City. He received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his medical degree from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York. Following residency training in internal medicine at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, he completed a pulmonary fellowship at Mt. Sinai Medical Center of Greater Miami. Dr. Brown went on to serve for twelve years on the faculty of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and then five years on the Phoenix-based faculty of the University of Arizona College of Medicine at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. In 1993 he assumed the position of medical director of the New Mexico Center for Sleep Medicine (part of the Lovelace Sandia Health System) and was appointed Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He joined the full-time faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in August of 2004 as Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Executive Director of the Program in Sleep Medicine/University Hospital Sleep Disorders Center, and Associate Chief (Outpatient Services) of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. In April of 2004 Dr Brown was promoted to Vice Chair (Clinical Program Development) and in July of 2010 to Interim Vice Chair (Clinical Affairs) of the Department of Internal Medicine; as of July 1, 2006 he was granted tenure.
Dr. Brown served as chair of the Sleep Network and formerly served on the Steering Committee of the Sleep Institute of the American College of Chest Physicians. He is a member of the editorial board of CHEST, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. He previously chaired the Membership Committee, the Publications Committee, and the Education Committee for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and served a 3-year term as a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Brown also completed 3 years of service on the Board of Directors of the American Thoracic Society (ATS), and was chair of the Council of Chapter Representatives of the ATS. Dr. Brown also completed 3 years as chair of the ATS Health Policy Committee and has previously served on the Planning Committee and Audit and Finance Committee, the Planning Committee of the ATS Assembly on Clinical Problems, and chaired that Assembly’s Nominating Committee. He served as president of the Greater Albuquerque Medical Association in 2008 and remains on that organization’s Board of Trustees.
Kenneth Connor
Director of Education and Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Connor teaches courses on plasma physics, electromagnetics, electronics and instrumentation, electric power, and general Engineering. His research involves two primary topics: 1) The application of heavy particle beam -based diagnostics to plasmas of interest to the thermonuclear fusion community, for which he was made a Fellow of the IEEE in 1997; and 2) The study of electromagnetic phenomena, especially those associated with high frequency waves. Dr. Connor also maintains an interest in other plasma physics and electromagnetics topics, photonics, engineering education, diversity in the engineering workforce, and technology enhanced learning. Since joining the Rensselaer faculty in 1974, he has been continuously involved in research programs at such places as Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Universities of Texas and Wisconsin in the US, Kyoto and Nagoya Universities in Japan, the Ioffe Institute in Russia and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology in Ukraine. He was ECSE Department Head from 2001-2008 and served on the board of the ECE Department Heads Association from 2003-2008.
Robert F. Karlicek
ERC Director and Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Robert F. Karlicek, Jr. is currently the Director of the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an NSF and industry funded program exploring advanced applications for next generation lighting. Prior to joining RPI, he spent over 30 years in industrial research and R&D management positions with corporations including AT&T Bell Labs, EMCORE, General Electric, Gore Photonics, Microsemi, Luminus Devices and SolidUV. His technical experience includes epitaxial growth of high performance LEDs and lasers, advanced device fabrication and high power LED packaging, thermal management, control systems design and applications in solid state lighting as well as other novel LED uses such as IR and UV LED applications. Dr. Karlicek is well known globally as an LED industry expert, and is a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops. He obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and has over 40 published technical papers and 24 U.S. patents.
Thomas Little
Associate ERC Director and Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept., Boston University
Thomas D.C. Little is a professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. Prof. Little is Associate Director of the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center — a collaboration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of New Mexico, and Boston University. His recent research efforts include video sensor networks and streaming in wireless settings, ubiquitous optical networking with visible light, vehicle-to-vehicle/infrastructure (V2X) communications, and the application of wireless sensors in health monitoring. Dr. Little founded TVisions, Inc. (now Molecular, Inc.), in 1994 with Ralph Folz. Dr. Little received the BS degree in biomedical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1983, and the MS degree in electrical engineering and PhD degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University in 1989 and 1991. He is a senior member of the IEEE, a member of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Multimedia Tools and Applications and on various program
committees for the IEEE and ACM.
Silvia Mioc
ERC Director of Industrial Collaboration and Innovation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Silvia Mioc received her PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management. Her professional experience spans displays, medical devices and optical technologies, in settings ranging from academia and national labs to startups, large companies and non-profits. In addition, she has been involved in working with state, local and regulatory agencies, and has lobbied federal legislators for sustained increased funding for R&D and Math and Science Education. She speaks 5 languages, and has done business in Europe and Asia. Dr. Mioc comes to RPI after having been with Corning, Inc. since 2006 as a Business Development Manager in the Display Future’s Emerging Markets and Technologies group. In that role, she was a key player in bringing to the corporation the understanding of the latest developments in the display industry in order to feed and support early R&D projects in the pipeline. Among other responsibilities, she led
the strategic external engagement with academia and industry. She also organized complex series of events targeted at increasing the visibility of Corning Display Futures group and establishing a dialogue with key thought leaders in the industry. Prior to Corning, Dr.Mioc spent 8 years in the medical devices industry in both technical and business development roles. She worked in Colorado for the pulse oximetry division of Datex-Ohmeda, a Finnish company that became part of GE Healthcare in 2003.
Richard Radke
ERC Controls Thrust Leader and Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Richard J. Radke joined the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2001, where he is now an Associate Professor. He has B.A. and M.A. degrees in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University. His current research interests include computer vision problems related to modeling 3D environments with visual and range imagery, designing and analyzing large camera networks, and machine learning problems for radiotherapy applications. Dr. Radke is affiliated with the NSF Engineering Research Centers for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS) and Smart Lighting, the DHS Center of Excellence on Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response (ALERT), and Rensselaers Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). He received an NSF CAREER award in March 2003 and was a member of the 2007 DARPA Computer Science Study Group. Dr. Radke is a Senior Member of the IEEE and an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. His textbook Computer Vision for Visual Effects was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012.
Shayla Sawyer
Associate Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
Shayla Sawyer is an associate professor in the Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her Nano-Bio Optoelectronics research program expands the fundamental understanding, engineering processes, and potential applications of hybrid inorganic/organic materials for optoelectronic devices and sensors. This includes the development of optoelectronic sensors and systems primarily in the blue/ultraviolet wavelength range. The optoelectronic devices are comprised of hybrid inorganic/organic materials what may include semiconductor metal oxide nanostructures, conductive polymers, conductive nanostructures, and bio-chemical solutions. Applications include sensitive ultraviolet detectors, environmental monitoring, radiation detection, and energy harvesting for various cross-disciplinary interests. Her overall research goal is aimed at effectively developing and characterizing novel sensors with consideration of systems that require sensitivity and/or selectivity to bring quantitative measurements in typically qualitative worlds. Her research is funded by National Security Technologies/Department of Energy, NSF Smart Lighting Research Center, NSF Connection One Industry/University Cooperative Center, and the NSF GK-12 Community Situated Research Center.
Linda Schadler
Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., RPI
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Dr. Linda S. Schadler joined Rensselaer in 1996 and is currently a full Professor in Materials Science and Engineering. She graduated from Cornell University in 1985 with a B.S. in materials science and engineering and received a PhD in materials science and engineering in 1990 from the University of Pennsylvania. After two years of post-doctoral work at IBM Yorktown Heights, Schadler served as a faculty member at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA before coming to Rensselaer. Active in materials research for 20 years, Schadler is an experimentalist and her research has focused on the micromechanical behavior of two-phase systems, primarily polymer composites. Her interests have broadened to include the mechanical and electrical behavior of nanofilled polymer composites. Schadler has co-authored more than 110 journal publications, several book chapters, and one book. Dr. Schadler received a National Science Foundation National Young Investigator award in 1994 and the ASM International Bradley Staughton Award for Teaching in 1997. She received a Dow Outstanding New Faculty member award from the American Society of Engineering Education in 1998 and is an ASM International Fellow.
John Wen
ERC Human Factors Thrust Leader and Professor, Electrical, Computer & Systems Engineering Dept., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
John Wen is a Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, & Systems Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of
Mechanical, Aerospace, & Nuclear Engineering. He is also the Director of the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS), a
New York State designated Center for Advanced Technology. His research interest is related to themodeling and control of complex dynamical
systems, with applications to precision motion, robot manipulation, active optics, thermal management, active flow control, and smart lighting.
He received B.Eng. from McGill University, M.S. from University of Illinois, and Ph.D. from RPI, all in Electrical Engineering. He was also
a systems engineer in Fisher Controls, and a member of technical staff in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Wen is a Fellow of IEEE.
Payman Zarkesh-Ha
Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering Dept., UNM
Payman Zarkesh-Ha received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Sharif University, Tehran, Iran, in 1994 and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, in 2001, respectively. He is currently an assistant professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM. Prior to joining University of New Mexico in 2006, he was a senior research engineer with LSI Logic Corporation, Milpitas, CA; where he worked on interconnect architecture design for the next ASIC generations. Prof. Zarkesh-Ha served as industry liaison for LSI Logic Corp. with Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) and Microelectronics Advanced Research Corporation (MARCO) from 2001-2006. His research interests includes: low-power and high-performance VLSI designs, RF circuit design, and statistical modeling of nanoelectronic devices and systems. He has published over 50 refereed papers and holds ten issued patents in this field. He has been involved with Smart Lighting NSF-ERC project at RPI since 2009, where he was working on an integrated LED/detector arrays for visible light communication.