My Students' Awards

My PhD student Yi Zheng won the Boston University Department of Computer Science 2021/2022 CS Research Achievement Award.

My student Mona Jalal won the 2019 Hariri Institute for Computing Graduate Student Fellowship which recognizes outstanding PhD students who pursue computational and data-driven research at Boston University.

My PhD student Wenxin Feng won the 2018 CS TF award.

My PhD student Wenxin Feng and her team at the startup Pison Technolgy won the Assistive Technology Challenge in December 2016. The $400,000 award was given by two teams by the ALS Association and Price4Life. Wenxin's team was praised for developing "unique and innovative technologies" and having the "promising potential for offering life altering communication solutions for people living with ALS." They are creating a "motionless communication and control system for people with ALS and other neuromuscular conditions. It will allow a person with little to no movement ability to have full control of a laptop, a phone, and home robotics 24/7." Wenxin is responsible for designing and implementing the interaction software.

My students Mehrnoosh Sameki, Mattia Gentil, and Elham Saraee won a "Best Paper Runner-Up Award" for "CrowdTrack: Interactive Tracking of Cells in Microscopy Image Sequences with Crowdsourcing Support" at the GroupSight Workshop at The Fourth AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing (HCOMP) in November 2016.

My PhD student Ajjen Joshi won the 2014/15 Boston University Computer Science Teaching Excellence Award in May 2015.

My PhD student Danna Gurari won the 2014/15 Research Excellence Award of the Boston University Department of Computer Science for her research in computer vision and human computation, May 2015.

Danna Gurari, Diane Theriault, and Mehrnoosh Sameki won a "Best Paper Award for Innovative Idea" for "How to use level set methods to accurately find boundaries of cells in biomedical images? Evaluation of six methods paired with automated and crowdsourced initial contours" at the MICCAI Workshop on Interactive Medical Image Computation (IMIC), September 2014.

Danna Gurari and Seule Ki Kim won a "Best Paper Award" for "SAGE: An Approach and Implementation Empowering Quick and Reliable Quantitative Analysis of Segmentation Quality" at the IEEE Workshop on the Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) in Clearwater, Florida, in January 2013. This was one of two awards selected among 161 submitted and 75 accepted papers at WACV.

Zheng Wu won the Boston University Computer Science Department's Research Achievement Award for 2011-2012 for his contributions to "video-based multi-object tracking."

Samuel Epstein won a 2011 Solomonoff Student Prize at the Fourth Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), August 2011 for the co-authored paper "An Information Theoretic Representation of Agent Dynamics as Set Intersections," August 2011.

MA student Christopher Kwan won the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Award on his work entitled "Camera Canvas: Image Editing Software for People with Disabilities," Boston University Science Day, March 2011.

Christopher Kwan won the 2nd Place Poster Award at the Boston University Undergraduate Research Symposium for the presentation "Camera Canvas: Image Editing Software for People with Disabilities" in Fall 2010. UROP News.

David House won the "Best Poster Award" at the Boston University Undergraduate Research Symposium, for the presentation of ``Image Analysis of Microorganisms: Developing a System for Tracking Cell Populations'' in Fall 2009. BU CAS Magazine article.

Caitlin Connor won the Clare Booth Luce Undergraduate Summer Research Fellow award in 2008.

Maria Shugrina won the Boston University "College Prize for Excellence in Computer Science" in May 2007.

Jingbin Wang won the Boston University Computer Science Department 2006/7 Research Excellence Award.

Benjamin Waber won the Boston University Computer Science Department "Research Achievement Award " in May 2006.

Michael Chau won the Boston University "College Prize for Excellence in Computer Science" in May 2005.

Angshuman Bagchi won the President's Award at BU's Science and Engineering Day 2005 for "Tracking Large Variable Numbers of Objects in Clutter," selected from more than 150 contributions to Boston University's Science and Technology Day, March 2005.

Diane Hirsh won the Lubee Bat Conservancy Award at the 33rd Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research for the outstanding oral presentation on "Censusing Brazilian Free-tailed Bats Using Infrared Thermal Imaging and Computer Vision Methods," October 2003. She also won the Boston University Computer Science Department "Academic Achievement Award" in May 2004.

Stephen Crampton won the Chancellor's Award for "Counting Fingers in Real Time: A Webcam-based Human-Computer Interface with Game Applications" among 165 contributions to Boston University's Science and Technology Day, March 2003.

Harrison Hong won the Provost's Award for "Automatic 3D Registration of Lung Surfaces in Computed Tomography Scans" among more than 120 contributions for Boston University's Science and Technology Day, March 2002.

Courses that I recommend my PhD students to take

Reading Recommendations

Info for New People in Computer Science

My Current PhD Students

Stan (Sha) Lai,

Yiweng Gu,

Wenda Qin,

Kaihong Wang,

Hao Yu,

Yi Zheng.

My Graduated PhD Students

Elham Saraee

Ajjen Joshi

Wenxin Feng

Mehrnoosh Sameki

Andrew Kurauchi

Mikhail Breslav

Danna Gurari

Diane Hirsh Theriault

Zheng Wu, PhD thesis on "Occlusion Reasoning for Multiple Object Visual Tracking," September 2012. Now postdoc in my group.

John Magee, PhD thesis on "Adaptable Interfaces for People with Motion Disabilities," September 2011. Now at Clark University, Worcester, MA

William Mullally, PhD thesis on "Image Registration and Computational Modeling of the Lung," May 2009. Until recently Reveal Imaging Technologies, Inc., Bedford, MA, now Software Design Engineer at KEYW Corporation, North Andover, MA

Jingbin Wang. PhD thesis on "Object segmentation using shape constraints," May 2007. Now Software Engineer at Google, Mountain View, CA.

Group Alumni:

My MA Thesis Students

Mahir Patel, MA thesis on "Structural Analysis for Dynamic 3D Pose Optimization and Tracking," May 2022.

Seule Ki Kim, MA thesis on "Integrating Computer Vision Techniques into a Touch Pad System," May 2013.

Wajeeha Akram, MA thesis on "Designing and Evaluating Computer Vision Based Interfaces for Users with Disabilities," June 2007. Then CS professor in Pakistan. Now in London.

Lisa Premerlani, MA thesis on "Stereoscopic Reconstruction and Analysis of Infrared Video of Bats," May 2007. Now at MIT Lincoln Labs.

Angshuman Bagchi MA thesis on "A Clustered Data Association Technique for Expedited Multi Target Tracking," September 2006. Now at Bloomberg.

Johanna Brewer MA thesis on "Real-Time 4D Tumor Tracking and Modeling from Internal and External Fiducials in Fluoroscopy," September 2004. Now in PhD program at UC Irvine.

Stephen Crampton MA thesis on "Counting Fingers in Real Time Using Computer-Vision Techniques," September 2004. Now computer science teacher at The Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ.

John J. Magee MA thesis on "A Real-Time Human-Computer Interface Based on Gaze Detection from a Low-Grade Video Camera," May 2004. Now in BU's PhD program.

Harrison Hong, MA thesis and journal paper on "Landmark Detection in the Chest and Registration of Lung Surfaces with an Application to Nodule Registration," May 2003. Now at Revealimaging Technologies, Inc.

William Mullally, MA thesis and journal paper on "Segmentation and Registration of Nodules in Chest Computed Tomography," May 2003. Now in BU's PhD program.

Jason Ruel, MA thesis on "Tracking and Predicting of Tumor Motion in the Abdomen," August 2003. Now at University of Washington.

My MA Project Students

Saurav Chennuri, 2022/23.

Qitong Wang

Ashutosh Sanan

Kratesh Ramrakhyani

Huy Le

Divya Appapogu, 2022.

Shreya Pandit, January 2020.

Yifu Hu, 2019.

Feiyu Shi, Spring 2015.

Brian Borucki, Fall 2014.

Zhongchen Shen, "Video-based Detection of the Orientation of a Drivers Head by Measuring the Shadow of the Nose," May 2013.

Gordon Towne, "Error Analysis and Design Considerations for Stereo Vision Systems Used to Analyze Animal Behavior," May 2012. To be published in the Proceedings of the Workshop on Visual Observation and Analysis of Animal and Insect Behavior (VAIB 2012), to be held in conjunction with the 21st International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR 2012) Tsukuba, Japan, November, 2012.

Luis Carrasco, "Picture Identification by Mining Existing Image Search Platforms," January 2012.

Alex Leyong Tan, "A Gesture-based Human-computer Interface of Google Earth using the Kinect Game Console," September 2011.

Tianqiang Liu, "Hand Dection and Tracking with Multiple Dynamic Hidden State Shape Models," September 2011.

Chris Kwan, "Camera Canvas: Image Editing Software for People with Disabilities," May 2011. Now Software Engineer at Lattice Engines.

Jiaxu Fu, "3D Camera Mouse by Virtual Tracking of 3D Face Features Using Stereo Cameras," May 2011. Co-advisor: Janusz Konrad

Byung Hyung Kim, "Interactive Art Using a Camera-based Hands Tracking Tool for Interaction between Humans and Computers," September 2010.

Chao Chung Hsieh, "Intelligent Video-Based Tracking Systems," September 2010.

Shuo Zeng, "Diagnostic Image Analysis of the Chest: Feature-based Registration Techniques," May 2010. Co-advisor: Thomas Little

Hari Mohan, "Visual Tracking at Sea using the Covariance Tracking Algorithm," May 2010. Co-advisor: Thomas Little

Yun Wang, "Visual Tracking at Sea using the Mean Shift Algorithm," May 2010. Co-advisor: Thomas Little

Harshith Chennamaneni, "MCC: A Multi-Camera Capture System for Human-Computer Interaction," January 2010.

Esra Ataer Cansizoglu, "An Information Fusion Approach for Multiview Feature Tracking," May 2009. Now at Northeastern University.

Jawad Mahmood, MA project on "Facial Modeling: Progeny Phenotype Revelation," January 2009. Co-advisor: M. Alanyali.

Esra Ataer Cansizoglu, May 2009

Kevin Hu, MA project on "Segmentation of the minor fissure on CT," May 2007. Now at Bloomberg.

Marianne Procopio, MA project on "Bat Flight Analysis: Further Insight into the Emergence of Brazilian Free-Tailed Bats," May 2007. Now at MIT Lincoln Labs.

Jared Wickman, MA project on "Graphical User Interface Layouts and the Camera Mouse," May 2007.

Benjamin N. Waber, MA project on "Web Mediators for Accessible Browsing," May 2006. Now at MIT.

Laura Tiberii, MA project on "A Customizable Camera-based Human Computer Interaction System Allowing People with Disabilities Autonomous Hands-free Navigation of Multiple Computing Tasks," May 2006. Now at Raytheon.

Mikhail Gorman, MA project on "MusicMaker: A Camera-based Music Making Tool for Physical Rehabilitation," January 2006. Now at Bluestreak.

Omar Al-Hinai, MA project on "Real-time suppression of tremor motion from Camera Mouse signal using finite impulse response filters," September 2005. Now at Aramco.

Vladimir Rydzevsky, MA project on "Computing a Uniform Scaling Parameter for 3D Registration of Lung Surfaces," September 2005.

Michael Chau, MA project on "Real Time Eye Tracking and Blink Detection with USB Cameras," May 2005. He won the "College Prize for Excellence in Computer Science" in May 2005. He is now an Analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Eddie Lee, MA project and NASBR conference abstract on "Bats in Motion: Stereo Object Recognition and Trajectory Analysis of Flying Bats," May 2005.

Michelle Paquette, MA project on "IWebExplorer: A Web browser designed for use with an eye controlled mouse device," May 2005. Now Software Engineer/Developer at Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Eugen Tsykinovskyy, MA project on "Segmentation of the Respiratory Vessel Tree on CT," May 2005.

Shuang Tang, MA project and NASBR conference abstract on "Challenges of censusing colonies of Brazilian free-tailed bats at Eckert James River, Frio, and Davis Blowout caves using infrared thermal imaging and initial censusing results," January 2005.

Kashan Arshad, MA project on "Dimensionality Reduction and Efficient Retrieval of Medical Images from Large Databases," September 2004.

Peter McNerney, MA project on "A stereo-based approach to digital image compositing," September 2003. Was at USC's Integrated Media Systems Center, and at Insomniacgames.com. Now at DreamWorks.

Thomas Castelli, MA project on "Facial Feature Tracking and Detection of Facial Occlusion due to Hand Gestures, " August 2003. Now at Raytheon, Marlborough, MA.

Ramasri Raghavan, MA project on "Analysis on Karyotype Images," 2002-2003. Now in Apex, NC.

Emily Stuckey, MA project on "Methods of Token-Based Authorship Attribution for an English-Language Online Discussion Community," May 2003.

Haobing Wang, MA project on "Comparison of Methods to Predict Abdominal Tumor Motion," May 2003. Now at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Robyn Cloud, MA project and workshop publication on "Experiments with a Camera-Based Human-Computer Interface System," May 2002. Now at Lockheed Martin, Maryland.

Jonathan Lombardi, MA project and workshop publication on "A Self-initializing Eyebrow Tracker for Binary Switch Emulation," May 2002. Now at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Yannis Minadakis MA project on "GazePoint: Tracking Eye Movement to Determine Gaze Direction," January 2003. Now at Teradyne.

My Undergraduate Research Students:

Sweekriti Satpathy, Spring 2015.

Ke Peng, Spring 2015.

Seule Ki Kim and Eugene Yang, "Generating ground truth for cell segmentation," Summer 2012.

Maxwell Porter, UROP project "Expanding a 3D Computer Model of Bats in Flight Using Visible Light Footage," Summer 2012.

Jamal Rasheed, "Visualization of flight paths of bats," AY 2011-2012.

Gordon Towne, UROP project "Three Dimensional Reconstruction for Intelligent Tracking Systems," Summer 2011. Symposium Abstract

Christopher Kwan, UROP project "Camera Canvas: Image Editing Software for People with Disabilities," Summer 2010.

Gordon Towne, UROP project "A Computer Vision Aproach to Track Running Performance," Summer 2010.

Eric Missimer, Summer 2009-Spring 2010 as undergrad and AY 2010/11 as PhD student.

Rufat Mammadyarov, Fall 2009.

Ying Quan Tan, "Bats or Birds," Spring 2009.

Jacqueline Crescimanno, undergraduate research assistant (NSF-REU) on "bat imaging project," Summer 2008.

Caitlin Connor, undergraduate research assistant (UROP) for the project "Automated Initialization of HCl and Automated Recovery from Breakdwn of HCI Features of Camera Mouse for Users with Severe Disabilities," Summer 2008.

David House, undergraduate research assistant (UROP) for the project "Image Analysis of Microogranisms: Developing a System for the Detection, Segmentation, and Tracking of Cells and Cell Populations," Summer 2008-Spring 2010.

Emily Yu, undergraduate research assistant on Camera Mouse project, Summer 2008. Supported by the CRA-W Distributed Mentoring Program. Emily is a student at Williams College.

Igor Fedyuk, Won-Beom Kim, Christopher Kwan, joint Directed Study project (CAS CS 492) on "Camera Canvas: Image Editor for People with Severe Disabilities," May 2008. pdf. Abstract.

Eric Immermann, undergraduate research assistant on "bat imaging project," Spring and Summer 2007.

Maria Shugrina, undergraduate research assistant. Research project: "Empathic Painting: Interactive stylization through observed emotional state." Summer 2006, AY 2006/7.

Marianne Procopio, undergraduate research assistant on "bat imaging project," 2004-2006.

Benjamin Waber, Directed study on "Video-based HCI system," academic year 2004/2005.

Diane E. Hirsh, BA thesis on "Evaluation of Computer Vision Methods for Analyzing Infrared Thermal Video and Censusing Brazilian Free-tailed Bats," May 2004. MA at MIT 2006. Now at BAE Systems.

Jessie Burger, The College of New Jersey, Summer 2003

Christen Ng, DePaul University, Summer 2003

Sarah Dubauskas, 2002-2003

Kenda Stewart, 2002-2003. JD at Boston College, now lawyer in Boston.

Katelyn Mann, Colby College, Summer 2002. Now graduate student at Tufts University.

Deborah Thomas, Bethel College, Summer 2002

Chekema Prince, May 2002. PhD student at University of Waterloo.

Students involved in research via a "Directed Study"

Smita Deshpande, "RefLink: An Interface that Enables People with Motion Impairments to Analyze Web Content and Dynamically Link to References." Fall 2008. Joint paper published at The 9th International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in Information Systems (PRIS 2009), Milan, Italy, May, 2009, pages 28-36, INSTICC Press, pdf. Continues as research consultant and works at Motus Games.

My BA Thesis Students at Boston College

Jun Kawai, BA thesis on "Gaze Detection via Self-Organizing Gray-Scale Units," May 1999, now at Sony, Japan.

Cleo V. Bertrand, BA thesis on "Computer Enhancement Techniques for CT Scans," May 2000, now at NYU.

Peter Fleming, BA thesis on "The Camera Mouse," May 2000. Now at Accenture.

John Magee, BA thesis on "Finding Eyes in Faces," May 2001. Now at BU.

William Mullally, BA thesis on "Region Classification for Factory Circuit Board Error Detection," May 2001. Now at BU.

Kristen Grauman , BA thesis on "Automatic Eye Blink Detection and Duration Analysis in Real Time for Communication Purposes," May 2001. Now CS professor at UT Austin.

Christopher Fagiani, BA thesis on "Evaluation of Tracking Methods for Human Computer Interaction," May 2002.

Former student members of my Computer Vision Research Group at Boston College

Cleo Bertrand (now at New York University)

Cahn Cao

Dewin Chandra (now at Arrowpoint, Boston)

Nicholas Dunn (BC Law, September 2005)

Chris Fagiani (now at NBC)

Peter Fleming (now at Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting)

Kristen Grauman (now at MIT)

Bob Hatcher (still at BC)

Jun Kawai (now at Sony, Japan)

John Magee (now at BU)

Bill Mullally (now at BU)

Huan Nguyen (Teradyne, Waltham, MA)

Gerry Nesbitt (still at BC)

Francis Nostrame (now at IBM)

Margrit Betke, Associate Professor Computer Science Department Boston University 111 Cummington Street ( campus map ) Email: betke @ cs.bu.edu URL: http://www.cs.bu.edu/faculty/betke Phone: 617-353-8919 Last updated: January 2017