Irfan Essa

Irfan Essa

Irfan Essa

Senior Associate Dean; College of Computing
Professor; School of Interactive Computing

Irfan Essa is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing and Senior Associate Dean in the College of Computing (CoC), at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Essa works in the areas of Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Computer Graphics, and Social Computing, with potential impact on Content Creation, Analysis and Production (e.g., Computational Photography & Video, Image-based Modeling and Rendering, etc.) Human Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Behavioral/Social Sciences, and Computational Journalism research.He has published over 150 scholarly articles in leading journals and conference venues on these topics and several of his papers have also won best paper awards. He has been awarded the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and was elected an IEEE Fellow. He has held extended research consulting positions with Disney Research and Google Research and also was an Adjunct Faculty Member at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. He joined Georgia Tech in 1996 after his earning his Master's (1990), Ph.D. (1994), and holding a research faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab (1988-1996).

irfan@cc.gatech.edu

404.894.6856

Website

Research Focus Areas:
  • AI
  • Machine Learning
  • Robotics
  • Additional Research:

    Healthcare Security; Machine Learning; Mobile & Wireless Communications; Computer Vision and Robotics; Computer Graphics and Animation; Computational Photography and Video; Intelligent and Aware Environments; Digital Special Effects; Computational Journalism; Social Computing


    IRI Connections:

    Gil Weinberg

    Gil Weinberg

    Gil Weinberg

    Professor; School of Music
    Coordinator | M.S. & Ph.D. Programs; School of Music
    Director; Center for Music Technology

    Gil Weinberg is a professor and the founding director of Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, where he leads the Robotic Musicianship group. His research focuses on developing artificial creativity and musical expression for robots and augmented humans. Among his projects are a marimba playing robotic musician called Shimon that uses machine learning for Jazz improvisation, and a prosthetic robotic arm for amputees that restores and enhances human drumming abilities. Weinberg presented his work worldwide in venues such as The Kennedy Center, The World Economic Forum, Ars Electronica, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum, SIGGRAPH, TED-Ed, DLD and others. His music was performed with Orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the National Irish Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish BBC Symphony while his research has been disseminated through numerous journal articles and patents. Dr. Weinberg received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and his BA from the interdisciplinary program for fostering excellence in Tel Aviv University.

    gilw@gatech.edu

    404.894.8939

    School of Music Profile Page

  • Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology
  • Google Scholar

    University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
  • Human Augmentation
  • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
  • Additional Research:

    Music Technology; Computer Music; Robotics; Developing Artificial Creativity and Musical Expression for Robots and Augmented Humans


    IRI Connections:

    James Rehg

    James Rehg

    James Rehg

    Adjunct Professor; School of Interactive Computing

    Dr. Rehg's research interests include computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, robotics, and distributed computing. He co-directs the Computational Perception Laboratory (CPL) and is affiliated with the GVU Center, Aware Home Research Institute, and the Center for Experimental Research in Computer Science. In past years he has taught "Computer Vision" (CS 4495/7495) and "Introduction to Probabilistic Graphical Models" (CS 8803). He is currently teaching "Pattern Recognition" (CS 4803) and "Computer Graphics" (CS 4451). Dr. Rehg received the 2005 Raytheon Faculty Fellowship Award from the College of Computing. His paper with Ph.D. student Yushi Jing and collaborator Vladimir Pavlovic was the recipient of a Distinguished Student Paper Award at the 2005 International Conference on Machine Learning. Dr. Rehg currently serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Computer Vision. He was the Short Courses Chair for the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) in 2005 and the Workshops Chair for ICCV 2003. Dr. Rehg consults for several companies and has served as an expert witness. His research is funded by the NSF, DARPA, Intel Research, Microsoft Research, and the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories.

    Note: Rehg recently moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the Founder Professor of Computer Science and Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering.

    james.rehg@cc.gatech.edu

    404.894.9105

    Office Location:
    TSRB 221A

    Rehg Lab

  • College of Computing Profile
  • Center for Health Analytics and Informatics (CHAI)
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
  • Additional Research:

    Computer Vision; Computer Graphics; Machine Learning; Robotics; and Distributed Computing


    IRI Connections:

    Matthew Gombolay

    Matthew Gombolay

    Matthew Gombolay

    Anne & Alan Taetle Assistant Professor; School of Interactive Computing

    Dr. Matthew Gombolay is the Anne and Alan Taetle Assistant Professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 2011, a S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2013, and a Ph.D. in Autonomous Systems from MIT in 2017. Gombolay's research interests span robotics, AI/ML, human-robot interaction, and operations research. Between defending his dissertation and joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Gombolay served as a technical staff member at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory transitioning his research for the U.S. Navy, earning him an R&D 100 Award for his development of "Human-Machine Collaborative Optimization via Apprenticeship Scheduling" (COVAS). His publication record includes a best paper award from American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and he was selected as a DARPA Riser in 2018. Dr. Gombolay's research has been highlighted in media outlets such as CNN, PBS, NBC, CBS, Harvard Business Review, Gizmodo, and national public radio

    matthew.gombolay@cc.gatech.edu

    IC Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Collaborative Robotics
  • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
  • Additional Research:

    Robotics; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Human-Robot Interaction


    IRI Connections:

    Yongxin Chen

    Yongxin  Chen

    Yongxin Chen

    Assistant Professor; School of Aerospace Engineering

    Yongxin Chen was born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China. He received his BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong university, China, in 2011, and a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering, under the supervision of Tryphon Georgiou, from University of Minnesota in 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Before joining Georgia Tech, he had a one-year Research Fellowship in the Department of Medical Physics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with Allen Tannenbaum from 2016.8 to 2017.8 and was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University from 2017.8 to 2018.8. He received the George S. Axelby Best Paper Award (IEEE Transaction on Automatic Control) in 2017 for his joint work "Optimal steering of a linear stochastic system to a final probability distribution, Part I" with Tryphon Georgiou and Michele Pavon.

    yongchen@gatech.edu

    404.894.2765

    Office Location:
    Guggenheim 448B

    Personal Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    control theory; optimal mass transport; machine learning; robotics; optimization


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Anthony Yezzi

    Anthony Yezzi

    Anthony Yezzi

    Julian T. Hightower Chair; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Professor; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Professor Yezzi was born in Gainsville, Florida and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He obtained both his Bachelor's degree and his Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota with minors in mathematics and music. After completing his Ph.D., he continued his research as a post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, MA. His research interests fall broadly within the fields of image processing and computer vision. In particular he is interested in curve and surface evolution theory and partial differential equation techniques as they apply to topics within these fields (such as segmentation, image smoothing and enhancement, optical flow, stereo disparity, shape from shading, object recognition, and visual tracking). Much of Dr. Yezzi's work is particularly tailored to problems in medical imaging, including cardiac ultrasound, MRI, and CT. He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in the fall of 1999 where he has taught courses in DSP and is working to develop advanced courses in computer vision and medical image processing. Professor Yezzi consults with industry in the areas of visual inspection and medical imaging. His hobbies include classical guitar, opera, and martial arts.

    anthony.yezzi@ece.gatech.edu

    404.385.1017

    Office Location:
    TSRB 427

    Lab of Computational Computer Vision

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    Computer Vision; Image Processing; Shape Optimization; Geometric PDE's


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Erik Verriest

    Erik Verriest

    Erik Verriest

    Professor; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Erik I. Verriest received the degree of 'Burgerlijk Electrotechnisch Ingenieur' from the State University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium in 1973, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in 1975 and 1980, respectively. He was employed by the Control Systems Laboratory and the Hybrid Computation Centre, Ghent, Belgium, where he worked on process simulation and control in 1973-74. His doctoral research at Stanford was on the algebraic theory and balancing for time varying linear systems and array algorithms. He joined the faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech in 1980. He spent the 1991-92, 1993-94 and 1994-95 academic years at Georgia Tech Lorraine. He has contributed to the application of the theory of systems over finite fields in cryptography, data compression, sensitivity analysis of array algorithms with applications in estimation and control, algorithms for optical computing. More recently he contributed to the theory of periodic and hybrid systems, delay - differential systems, model reduction for nonlinear systems, and control with communication constraints. He served on several IPC's and is a member of the IFAC Committee on Linear Systems.

    erik.verriest@ece.gatech.edu

    404.894.2949

    Office Location:
    VL 492

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    Mathematical system theory


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Patricio Vela

    Patricio Vela

    Patricio Vela

    Associate Professor; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Patricio Vela was born in Mexico City, Mexico and grew up in California. He earned his bachelor of science degree in 1998 and his doctorate in 2003 at the California Institute of Technology, where he did his graduate research on geometric nonlinear control androbotics. Dr. Vela came to Georgia Tech as a post-doctoral researcher in computer vision and joined the ECE faculty in 2005. His research interests lie in the geometric perspectives to control theory and computer vision. Recently, he has been interested in the role that computer vision can play for achieving control-theoretic objectives of (semi-)autonomous systems. His research also covers control of nonlinear systems, typically robotic systems.

    pvela@gatech.edu

    404.894.8749

    Office Location:
    TSRB 441

    ECE Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    Computer Vision; Control Theory


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Samuel Coogan

    Samuel Coogan

    Samuel Coogan

    Demetrius T. Paris Junior Professor; School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Associate Professor

    Sam Coogan received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2015, he was a postdoctoral research engineer at Sensys Networks, Inc., and in 2012 he spent time at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Before joining Georgia Tech in 2017, he was an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering department at UCLA from 2015–2017. His awards and recognitions include the 2020 Donald P Eckman Award from the American Automatic Control Council recognizing "an outstanding young engineer in the field of automatic control", a Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 2019, a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2018, and the Outstanding paper award for the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems in 2017.

    sam.coogan@gatech.edu

    404.385.2402

    Office Location:
    TSRB 437

    Personal Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    Control Theory; Formal Methods; Cyber-Physical Systems; Transportation Systems


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Panagiotis Tsiotras

    Panagiotis  Tsiotras

    Panagiotis Tsiotras

    Professor & David and Andrew Lewis Chair; School of Aerospace Engineering
    Associate Director, Institute for Robotics & Intelligent Machines

    Dr. Tsiotras holds the David & Andrew Lewis Endowed Chair in the School of Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is also associate director at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. His current research interests include nonlinear and optimal control and their connections with AI, planning, and decision-making, emphasizing autonomous ground, aerial, and space vehicles applications. He has published more than 350 journal and conference articles in these areas. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Dr. Tsiotras was an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Virginia. He has also held visiting appointments with the MIT, JPL, INRIA, Rocquencourt, the Laboratoire de Automatique de Grenoble, and the Ecole des Mines de Paris (Mines ParisTech). Dr. Tsiotras is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the IEEE Technical Excellence Award in Aerospace Controls, the Outstanding Aerospace Engineer Award from Purdue, the Sigma Xi President and Visitor's Award for Excellence in Research, as well as numerous other fellowships and scholarships. He is currently the chief editor of the Frontiers in Robotics & AI, in the area of space robotics, and an associate editor for the Dynamic Games and Applications journal. In the past, he has served as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, the IEEE Control Systems Magazine, and the Journal of Dynamical and Control Systems. He is a Fellow of the AIAA, IEEE, and AAS.

    tsiotras@gatech.edu

    404.894.9526

    Office Location:
    Knight 415C

    AE Page

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
  • Autonomy
  • Additional Research:

    controls; robotics; artificial intelligence; flying robots; spacecraft


    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role