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Last updated: November 2008
- Date of birth: 28 July, 1985
- Place of birth: Dortmund, Germany
- Citizenship: Egyptian
- Visa status: F-1 student visa
Computer Vision, Graphics, Stochastic Processes, and Machine Learning.
My research can be broadly categorized as using statistical and
information-theoretic methods to solve problems in computer vision, graphics, and
dynamical systems. Problems I have worked on include, speech interfaces for robots,
street sign identification, object recognition, alignment of curves, joint alignment and clustering of images,
and image-based rendering.
- M.S. / Ph.D., Computer Science; expected May 2010
University of Massachusetts (UMass), Amherst, MA (Sept. 2005 - present)
- M.S. awarded on September 1, 2008
- Cumulative GPA: 3.90/4.0
- B.S., Computer Science and Mathematics
University of Massachusetts (UMass), Amherst, MA (Sept. 2002 - Sept. 2005)
- Cumulative GPA: 3.54/4.0, Magna Cum Laude
- Commonwealth College Honors with Computer Science Departmental Honors
- Deans List, College of Natural Science and Mathematics
Statistics I ('04) and II ('05), Statistical Inference I ('05)
and II ('06), Bayesian Data Analysis ('08), Robotics ('03),
Combinatorics and Graph Theory ('04), Machine Learning ('05), Information Theory
('05), Advanced Algorithms ('06), Information Retrieval ('06),
Research Methods ('08), Computational Photography ('08), and Distributed OS ('09)
- Research Assistant, Computer Vision Laboratory, UMass (Jun 2004 - present)
Advisors: Allen Hanson and Erik Learned-Miller. Projects include:
- Plankton Classification: An ongoing collaborative effort between UMass, Bigelow Labs for
Ocean Sciences and Louisiana State University on classifying low resolution images of plankton.
Research issues include novel segmentation algorithms, methods for automatically
learning informative image patches, and frameworks that combine the information in
image patches and [global] features computed over the entire image.
- Event-related potential signal alignment and classification: An ongoing collaborative
effort between the Computer Science and Psychology departments on classifying and aligning
ERP signals. The joint alignment process allows
us to recover the underlying ERP signals and consequently better account for
latency variations.
- Sign Recognition: Developed a sign identification module
for a sign detection/recognition system that was intended to be used by the visually
impaired.
- Research Assistant, Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics, UMass (Dec 2002 - May 2004)
Advisor: Andrew Fagg. Projects included:
- Speech Interfaces for Robots: Developed a system that parsed voice commands
and stored them in the robots local memory and allowed robot "responses" to be output
through a speaker. This work was the basis for a system that allows verbal communication
with the robot.
- Color Recognition: Developed a probabilistic object recognition system
based on color. Using the speech interface, this allowed objects of interest
to be specified to the robot via voice commands that contained the color of the object.
- Mini-Ubots: Built 9 mini robots for a multi-robot coordination and control
project.
- Guest Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, UMass Amherst (April 2006)
Course: Computer Vision. Taught three lectures covering Support Vector
Machines, Principal Components Analysis and Independent Components Analysis
and their applications to plankton classification
and face detection/recognition. Prepared lectures and homework assignments.
- Teaching Assistant, Department of Mathematics, UMass Amherst
(Sep 2003 - May 2004)
Course: Calculus. One of two TA's for a lecture of 290 students.
Held office hours and exam review sessions, graded quizzes, and proctored exams.
- Volunteer Tutor, Department of Mathematics, UMass Amherst (Sep 2003 - May 2005)
Helped students seeking assistance in Math
courses and exams. Assisted students taking Calculus and Differential Equations
courses as well as preparing for the GRE (Quantitative section) and the Nursing major
math proficiency test.
- Part-time Intern, IAVO Research, Amherst MA (Summer 2005)
Implemented the SIFT interest point operator algorithm and developed software for computing
the relative camera orientation between two aerial images (using SIFT matches).
- Resident Assistant, Washington Hall, Residence Life (Sep 2003 - May 2004)
Supervised a floor of 30 residents in a building of 550 students. Created
a safe and healthy environment, organized social events and resolved conflict.
- (May 2005) Bay State Graduate Fellowship (2 yrs) from UMass Computer Science Dept
(link)
- (May 2005) Honors Deans Award for Honors Thesis
(link)
- (March 2005) Honors Research Grant from UMass, $1000
(link)
- (November 2004) Profile published in UMass honors brochure (link)
- (November 2003) Resident Assistant of the Month (out of 250 RA's)
- (January 2003) ALANAI (minority) Honors Society
- (May 2002) AP Scholar with Distinction, five 5's and one 4
(link)
- (April 2002) Certificate of Distinction and Medal from the University of Waterloo
For obtaining the highest grade in my school and ranking in the top 25% of the [11,000] contestants in the Descartes Math Contest.
- (Summer 2001) Summer School Scholarship, seven weeks, Bath, England
One awarded each year (by my high school) to the most well rounded student in sports, academics
and student government involvement. Attended three week leadership training.
- IEEE Member since January 2005
- Reviewer for
- Insight Journal
- IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
- IEEE European Conference on Computer Vision
- IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Systems
- International Conference on Computer Vision Theory
and Applications
- Student volunteer for
- IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2005, 2006)
- C, C++, Java, MATLAB, Perl, MIT Scheme, LaTeX, HTML
- Linux / Mac OS X / Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP
- Strong interpersonal, communication and leadership skills
- Fluent spoken/written English and Arabic, and Intermediate French
- Sports, mainly squash, tennis and soccer, listening to music, and
reading
- Member of the Mount Holyoke College and Amherst College squash open nights
- Member of the UMass Squash and Tennis Clubs (Sep 2005 - present)
- Participated in soccer, volleyball, and basketball college
intramurals (Sep 2002 - present)
- Winner of Northampton Squash Open (April 2006) and UMass Squash Open (March 2006)
- Member of the UMass Crew Team (Sept 2002 - Jan 2003)
- Soccer intramural team placed second in overall competition (Sep 2002 - Jan 2003)
(click here)
- Professor Allen R. Hanson
Director, Computer Vision Lab
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Phone: (413) 545 - 3442
Email: hanson[at]cs.umass.edu
- Assistant Professor Erik G. Learned-Miller
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Phone: (413) 545 - 2993
Email: elm[at]cs.umass.edu
- Assistant Professor Rui Wang
Director, Computer Graphics Research Group
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Phone: (413) 545 - 3147
Email: ruiwang[at]cs.umass.edu
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