Center for Vision Research

Seminar Series 2009-2010

click here to see the complete CVR events calendar

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CVR News

New vision researchers joining the Brown faculty in

2009-2010:

Matt Harrison is a new faculty member in the Applied

Math Department.  His research looks at statistical

methods in Neuroscience, pattern theory, information

theory and perceptual organization.

James Hays, a Ph.D. student in the Computer

Science department Carnegie Mellon University, will

be coming to Brown in January 2010, as an Assistant

Professor in the Computer Science department.  His

research looks at Computer graphics and computer

vision, including image completion, texture analysis

and synthesis, animation, place recognition, and

object recognition.

Thomas Serre will be coming to the new CLiPS

(Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences)

department in January 2010 as an Assistant

Professor, after serving as a postdoctoral associate at

the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  His research

looks at computational models of biological and

machine vision.

Erik Sudderth  has joined the Computer Science

department  as an Assistant Professor,  after serving

as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of

California at Berkeley. His research looks at statistical

machine learning and computer vision.

Michael J. Tarr, who has served as Co-Director of the

Center for Vision Research for the past two years, is

leaving Brown to become Co-Director of the Center for

the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon

University. Thanks to Mike for his many contributions

to vision research at Brown and best wishes for his

new position at CMU.

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CVR Faculty News

David M. Berson

The American Association for the Advancement of

Science (AAAS) has elected five Brown University

professors — David M. Berson, Mark D. Bertness,

John P. Donoghue, Susan A. Gerbi, and Jimmy Xu —

as fellows for their significant contributions to the life

and physical sciences.

Carlos Aizenman

Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, received an NSF

Career Award for his project entitled "Cellular

determinants of visual system function and

development".  (March 2008)

Michael J. Black

Brown computer scientists Michael Black and

Alexandru Balan  have  developed a computer

program that can "guess" the shape of a person's

body under their clothing.   Their method uses a

statistical model of  human body shapes learned from

a large number of three dimensional  body scans and

then combines this with measurements made from

images  or video.  The key idea that, as a person

moves, their clothes become  tighter or looser in

different places.  By combining information from  many

body poses the program is able to develop an

accurate guess about  the underlying shape.  The

result has the effect of "X-ray vision" while not violating

people's privacy with invasive sensing  technology. 

The technology could be useful in in fashion, film, 

forensics, sports medicine, and video gaming.

(October 2008)

Odest Chadwicke (Chad) Jenkins

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, received a

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and

Engineers (PECASE) for outstanding contributions to

his field. Chad received his award during a White

House ceremony (November 2007).

Our most recent CVR lecture was:

Dr. Hany Farid from Darmouth College held on October 27, 2009

Coming in February 2010:

Mike May

"There's Alway's a Way"

Michael May was blinded in a chemical accident at age three, and

lived 42 years of his life without sight.  In 1999, at age 45, May was

given the possibility to see again through a revolutionary stem-cell

transplant surgery.  He is one of only a handful of people in history to

regain vision from complete blindness.

'Crashing Through' from Blindness to Sight

Read the NPR interview with Robert Kurson, author of the acclaimed

book called "Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and

the Man Who Dared to See", Mike May's incredible life story.