Information about http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~pless/plessCV.pdf
Robert Pless …
Tags: computational frameworks, computer science university, cornell university, d computer, department of computer science, ft detrick md, graduate research assistant, motion constraints, pless, problem domains, research intern, school representative, st louis mo, statistical models, undergraduate council, university appointments, university positions, video analysis, wustl edu, yiannis aloimonos,Pages: 9
Language: english
Created: Mon Feb 12 13:36:45 2007
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Robert Pless (314) 935-7546, pless@wustl.edu
Associate Professor http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~pless
Department of Computer Science and Engineering box 1045, One Brookings Ave.
Washington University St. Louis, MO, 63130
Education
December 2000 Ph.D. Computer Science University of Maryland
Advisor: Yiannis Aloimonos
May 1994 B.S. Computer Science Cornell University
Appointments
04/06 present Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Washington University
9/00 04/06 Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Washington University
2/02 present Assistant Director, Center for Security Technology, Washington University
9/94 8/00 Graduate Research Assistant, University of Maryland
5/93 8/93 Research Intern, USAMRIID, Ft. Detrick, MD
Department and University Positions
9/02 present Director, Graduate Admissions, Computer Science and Engineering
9/03 present Engineering school representative to the Undergraduate Council
Major Research Activities
My research focus is building data driven representations for video analysis. I have recently extended
the geometric, statistical and computational frameworks behind these representations to focus them
on several problem domains:
· Structure from motion constraints for omni-directional and catadioptic vision,
· Robust, real time surveillance algorithms using non-parametric, spatio-temporal statistical
models of image variation.
· Specialized manifold learning algorithms for imagery, with a special focus on analysis of cine-
MRI sequences.
Awards
· NSF Early Faculty CAREER Award, 2006
· Emerson Electric Excellence in Teaching Award, 2006
Funding
NSF CAREER $500,000 "CAREER: What Can be Learned by a Stationary Ob-
server", PI. 3/3006 - 2/2011
NSF CISE-IIS $300,000 "Non-Parametric Models of Actions and Behaviors in
Video", PI. 11/2004 - 11/2007
$1,691,921 "Applications of Laser Doppler Vibrometry", co-PI. 4/2004-
9/2007
SAIC $500,000 "Fast Semantic Content Processing", co-PI (John Lock-
wood, PI). 7/2005-12/2005
Boeing Inc. $450,000 "Measurement of optical distortion in aircraft windscreens",
Phantomworks co-PI (Bill Smart, PI). 1/2004 - 12/2006
Washington Univ. $30,000 "Video Anomaly Detection and Localization", PI. 12/2003 -
Bear Cub 12/2005
NSF REU $178,000 "Research Experience for Undergraduates", PI. 5/2002 -
4/2004
Journal Publications
[1] Guoliang Xing, Chenyang Lu, Ying Zhang, Qingfeng Huang, and Robert Pless. Minimum power
configuration for wireless communication in sensor networks. ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks,
page to appear, 2007.
[2] Guoliang Xing, Chenyang Lu, Robert Pless, and Qingfeng Huang. Impact of sensing coverage on
greedy geographic routing algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Special
Issue on Localized Communication and Topology Protocols for Ad Hoc Networks, 17(4):348360,
2006.
[3] Robert Pless. Detecting roads in stabilized video with the spatio-temporal structure tensor. Geoinfor-
matica, 10(1):3956, 2006.
[4] Guoliang Xing, Xiaorui Wang, Yuanfang Zhang, Chenyang Lu, Robert Pless, and Christopher Gill.
Integrated coverage and connectivity configuration for energy conservation in sensor networks. ACM
Transactions on Sensor Networks, 1(1):3672, 2005.
[5] Robert Pless. Spatio-temporal background models for outdoor surveillance. Journal on Applied Signal
Processing, 14:22812291, 2005.
[6] Robert Pless. Camera cluster in motion: Motion estimation for generalized camera designs. IEEE
Robotics and Automation Magazine, 11(4):3944, 2004.
[7] Samir Khuller, Randeep Bhatia, and Robert Pless. On local search and placement of meters in net-
works. SIAM Journal on Computing, 32(2):470487, 2003.
[8] Robert Pless, Tomas Brodsky, and Yiannis Aloimonos. Detecting independent motion: The statistics
of temporal continuity. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22(8):6873,
2000.
[9] Randeep Bhatia, Samir Khuller, Yoram Sussman, and Robert Pless. The full degree spanning tree
problem. Networks, 36(4):203209, 2000.
[10] Samir Khuller, Robert Pless, and Yoram Sussman. Fault tolerant k-center problems. Theoretical
Computer Science, 242:237245, 2000.
[11] Cornelia Fermuller and Robert Pless. The ouchi illusion as an artifact of biased flow estimation. Vision
Research, 40(1):7795, 2000.
[12] Cornelia Ferm¨ ller, Robert Pless, and Yiannis Aloimonos. Families of stationary patterns producing
u
illusory movement: Insights into the visual system. Proc. Royal Society, London B, 264:795806,
1997.
[13] Ward L Johnson, Stephen J Norton, Felix Bendec, and Robert Pless. Ultrasonic spectroscopy of metal-
lic spheres using electromagnetic-acoustic transduction. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
91(5):26372642, 1992.
Book Chapters and Editorships
[1] Robert Pless. Imaging through time: The advantages of sitting still. In Kostas Daniilidis, Reinhard
Klette, and Alex Leonardis, editors, Imaging Beyong the Pinhole Camera. Kluwer, 2006.
[2] Robert Pless, Jose Santos-Victor, and Yasushi Yagi, editors. Proc. IEEE Workshop on Omnidirectional
Vision and Camera Networks, Madison Wisconsin, 2003. IEEE Computer Society.
Refereed Conference and Workshop Publications
[1] Nathan Jacobs and Robert Pless. Shape background modeling: The shape of things that came. In
Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Motion and Video Computing, page to appear, 2007.
[2] Qilong Zhang, Richard Souvenir, and Robert Pless. On manifold structure of cardiac mri data: Ap-
plication to segmentation. In Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
(CVPR), pages 10921098, 2006.
[3] Richard Souvenir, Qilong Zhang, and Robert Pless. Image manifold interpolation using free-form
deformations. In Proc. International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), pages 14371440, 2006.
[4] Qilong Zhang and Robert Pless. Segmenting multiple familiar objects under mutual occlusion. In
Proc. International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), pages 197200, 2006.
[5] Michael Dixon, Nathan Jacobs, and Robert Pless. Finding minimal parameterizations of cylindrical
image manifolds. In CVPRW '06: Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Computer Vision and
Pattern Recognition Workshop on Perceptual Organization in Computer Vision (POCV), page 192,
Washington, DC, USA, 2006. IEEE Computer Society.
[6] Nathan Jacobs and Robert Pless. Real-time constant memory visual summaries for surveillance. In
VSSN '06: Proceedings of the 4th ACM international workshop on Video surveillance and sensor
networks, pages 155160, New York, NY, USA, 2006. ACM Press.
[7] Richard Souvenir and Robert Pless. Manifold clustering. In Proc. International Conference on Com-
puter Vision (ICCV), pages 648653, 2005.
[8] Guoliang Xing, Chenyang Lu, Ying Zhang, Qingfeng Huang, and Robert Pless. Minimum power
configuration in wireless sensor networks. In The Sixth ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad
Hoc Networking and Computing (MobiHoc), pages 390401, Urbana-Champaign, IL, 2005.
[9] Qilong Zhang and Robert Pless. Segmenting cardiopulmonary images using manifold learning with
level sets. In IEEE Workshop on Computer Vision for Biomedical Image Applications (LNCS 3765),
pages 479488, 2005.
[10] Qilong Zhang, Richard Souvenir, and Robert Pless. Segmentation informed by manifold learning. In
International Workshop on Energy Minimization Methods in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
EMMCVPR (LNCS 3757), pages 398413, 2005.
[11] Richard Souvenir and Robert Pless. Isomap and non-parametric models of image deformation. In
Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Motion and Video Computing, pages 195200, 2005.
[12] John Wright and Robert Pless. Analysis of persistent motion patterns using the 3d structure tensor. In
Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Motion and Video Computing, pages 1419, 2005.
[13] Robert Pless and David Jurgens. Road extraction from motion cues in aerial video. In Proceedings of
the ACM Conference on Geographic Information Systems, pages 3138, 2004.
[14] Guoliang Xing, Chenyang Lu, Robert Pless, and Qingfeng Huang. On greedy geographic routing
algorithms in sensing-covered networks. In MobiHoc '04: Proceedings of the 5th ACM international
symposium on Mobile ad hoc networking and computing, pages 3142. ACM Press, 2004.
[15] Robert Pless. Differential structure in non-linear image embedding functions. In Proceedings of the
IEEE Workshop on Articulated and non-rigid Motion, pages 1017, 2004.
[16] Qilong Zhang and Robert Pless. Extrinsic calibration of a camera and laser range finder. In Proceedings
of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pages 23012306,
2004.
[17] Qilong Zhang and Robert Pless. Fusing video and sparse depth data in structure from motion. In
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), pages 34033406,
2004.
[18] Qilong Zhang and Robert Pless. Constraints for heterogeneous sensor auto-calibration. In IEEE Work-
shop on Realtime 3D Sensors and Their Use, pages 3843, 2004.
[19] Guoliang Xing, Chenyang Lu, Robert Pless, and Joseph A. O'Sullivan. Co-grid: an efficient cov-
erage maintenance protocol for distributed sensor networks. In IPSN'04: Proceedings of the third
international symposium on Information processing in sensor networks, pages 414423. ACM Press,
2004.
[20] Xiaorui Wang, Guoliang Xing, Yuanfang Zhang, Chenyang Lu, Robert Pless, and Christopher Gill.
Integrated coverage and connectivity configuration in wireless sensor networks. In SenSys '03: Pro-
ceedings of the 1st international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pages 2839.
ACM Press, 2003.
[21] Robert Pless. Using many cameras as one. In Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern
Recognition (CVPR), pages II: 587593, 2003.
[22] Robert Pless. Using isomap to explore video sequences. In Proc. International Conference on Com-
puter Vision (ICCV), pages 14331440, 2003.
[23] Robert Pless, John Larson, Scott Siebers, and Ben Westover. Evaluation of local models of dynamic
backgrounds. In Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages
7378, 2003.
[24] Lei Wang, Cindy Grimm, and Robert Pless. A 3d pattern for pose estimation for object capture. In
Vision Interface, pages 395401, 2003.
[25] Mark Schroering, Cindy Grimm, and Robert Pless. A new input device for 3d sketching. In Vision
Interface, pages 311318, 2003.
[26] Robert Pless and Ian Simon. Embedding images in non-flat spaces. In Conference on Imaging Science
Systems and Technology, pages 182188, 2002.
[27] Robert Pless and Ian Simon. Using thousands of images of an object. In Proceedings of the 6th Joint
Conference on Information Science, (CVPRIP), pages 684687, 2002.
[28] Robert Pless. Two view discrete and differential constraints for generalized imaging systems. In Proc.
of the IEEE Workshop on Omnidirectional Vision, pages 5359, 2002.
[29] Patrick Baker, Cornelia Fermuller, Yiannis Aloimonos, and Robert Pless. A spherical eye from mul-
tiple camera (makes better models of the world. In Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and
Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages 576583, 2001.
[30] Patrick Baker, Robert Pless, Cornelia Fermuller, and Yiannis Aloimonos. New eyes for shape and mo-
tion estimation. In BMVC '00: Proceedings of the First IEEE International Workshop on Biologically
Motivated Computer Vision, pages 118128. Springer-Verlag, 2000.
[31] Patrick Baker, Robert Pless, Cornelia Fermuller, and Yiannis Aloimonos. Camera networks for build-
ing shape models from video. In Workshop on 3D Structure from Multiple Images of Large-scale
Environments (SMILE), 2000.
[32] Cornelia Ferm¨ ller and Robert Pless. Statistical biases in optic flow. In Proc. IEEE Conference on
u
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages 15611566, 1999.
[33] Robert Pless, Tomas Brodsky, and Yiannis Aloimonos. Independent motion: The importance of his-
tory. In Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pages 2092
2097, 1999.
Minimally or non-Refereed Presentations
[1] Richard Souvenir, John Wright, and Robert Pless. Spatio-temporal detection and isolation: Results on
the pets2005 datasets. In Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Performance Evaluation in Tracking
and Surveillance, 2005.
[2] John Larson and Robert Pless. Bayesian stereo: 3d vision designed for sensor fusion. In Intelligent
Robots and Computer Vision XXII: Algorithms, Techniques, and Active Vision, volume 5608, pages
198206, 2004.
[3] Sean Songbai Ji, Philip V. Bayly, Panagiotis G. Massouros, Robert B. Pless, and Guy M. Genin. Opti-
mal evaluation of strain fields using magnetic resonance imaging. In ASME Mechanics and Materials
Conference, June 2003.
[4] Robert Pless, Scott Siebers, and Ben Westover. Better background models for visual surveillance. In
Optical Society of America: Optical Sensing for Homeland Security, 2003.
[5] Robert Pless and Cornelia Ferm¨ ller. Explaining the ouchi illusion. In Optical Society of America,
u
1999.
Patents
"SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING ANOMALIES IN A VIDEO IMAGING SEQUENCE",
patent pending, docket number 600051610176
Student Advising -- Doctoral Students
Richard Souvenir Graduated 2006, DSc Computer Science. Thesis Title: "Image Manifold Clus-
tering"
Currently Assistant Professor, UNC-Charlotte
Qilong Zhang Expected Graduation, 2007. Thesis Title: "Segmenting Biomedical Image Se-
quences"
Nathan Jacobs Expected Graduation, 200?. Prospective Thesis Title: "Statistics of Natural
Viewpoints"
Michael Dixon Expected Graduation, 200?. Prospective Thesis Title: "Geometric and Statistical
Constraints on Recognition Problems"
Manfred Georg Expected Graduation, 200?. Prospective Thesis Title: "Manifold Structure of
High-Dimensional Time Series". Co-advised with Sergey Gorinsky.
Zachary Freudenburg Expected Graduation, 200?. Prospective Thesis Title: "Distributed, Streaming
Image Clustering". Co-advised with Bijoy Ghosh.
Student Advising -- Masters Students
Kory Postma Graduated, 2005. Project Title: "Computing all nearest neighbors for high di-
mensional point sets". Currently at Applied Physics Laboratory, MD.
Jacob Perkins Graduated, 2005. Thesis Title: "WUGLE: An abstraction of logical expressions
with applications to automatic generation of online pedagogical tools for discrete
mathematics."
John Larson Graduated, 2003. Thesis Title: "A Probabilistic Framework for Stereo". Cur-
rently at Monster Commerce.
Songbai Ji Graduated, 2003. Thesis Title: "Strain Field Analysis of MRI Imagery". Cur-
rently a Post-Doc at University of Pennsylvania.
Roman Garnett Graduated, 2004. Thesis Title: "Approximate Expectation Maximization for
streaming data processing". Currently at the National Security Agency.
David Jurgens Graduated 2004, MS Computer Science. Thesis Title: "Automated functional
attribution in video using spatio-temporal filter responses". Currently a Ph.D.
student at UCLA.
Students Thesis Committee Service (not as primary advisor)
Nick Tustison Graduated 2004. DSc. Biomedical Engineering, Advisor: Amir Amini
Brandon Westover Graduated 2004, DSc. Physics. "Image Representation and Pattern Recognition
in Brains and Machines", Advisor: Joseph O'Sullivan
Paolo Favaro "Shape From Defocus in Computer Vision", July 2003, DSc. Electrical Engi-
neering, Advisor: Stefano Soatto
Hailin Jin "Variational Methods for Shape Reconstruction in Computer Vision", August
2003, DSc. Electrical Engineering, Advisor: Stefano Soatto
Mark Schroering Graduated 2003, MS. "3D Input Sketching Device", Advisor: Cindy Grimm
Dan Dooly Graduated 2001, DSc., Computer Science, Advisor: Sally Goldman
Invited Talks
Johns Hopkins University, Center for Imaging Science, "Learning Image Manifolds != Manifold
Learning", May 2, 2006
Washington University, Mathematics Department Colloquium, "Passive Vision, the Joy of Sitting
Still", April 17, 2006
Washington University, Mathematics Department Colloquium, "Parameterizing Natural Video
through Manifold Learning", December 8, 2005
Carnegie-Mellon, VASC seminar series, "Learning Image Manifolds != Manifold Learning", De-
cember 5, 2005
Naval Research Laboratories, "Passive Vision", November 14, 2005
Dartmouth University, Computer Science Department Colloquium "Persistent Surveillance",
March, 2005
UC Santa Cruz, Computer Science Department "Data driven methods for surveillance and non-
rigid motion analysis", November 24, 2004
UC Berkeley, Computer Vision Laboratory, "Data driven methods for surveillance and non-rigid
motion analysis", November 23, 2004
University of Pennsylvania, GRASP laboratory, "Video representations for surveillance and de-
formable motion analysis", October 25, 2004
CICATA-IPN Queretaro, Mexico, "Real time methods for video surveillance", August 31, 2004
Schloss Dagstuhl, Wadern Germany, as part of the "Imaging Beyond the Pinhole Camera" work-
shop, June 15, 2004
Workshop Chair
IEEE International Workshop on Omnidirectional Vision and Camera Networks, with CVPR in
Madison, Wisconsin, 2003.
Program Committees
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2004,2005,2006,2007
International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) 2006
International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) 2004
European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) 2004,2006
Workshop on Omnidirectional Vision and Camera Networks (Omnivis) 2004,2005
IEEE Workshop on Advanced 3D Imaging for Safety and Security (A3DISS 2005)
Second International Workshop on Real Time 3D Sensors and Their Use, 2005
AAAI 2004
ACM Workshop on Geographic Information Systems, ACM-GIS, 2005
International Conference on Image Processing, (ICIP) 2004
Reviewer
Journal of the Optical Society of America,
Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence,
Computer Vision and Image Understanding,
Image and Vision Computing,
International Journal of Computer Vision,
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing
CVPR, ICCV, ICPR, ECCV, ICIP
Outreach and Education
Wednesday Club, St. Louis, MO, "Keeping your computer secure, an extended analogy", January
12, 2005
Development and advising projects in "Interactive Technology Installation", a joint class with
Computer Science Department and the School of Art, 2003, 2004.
Development of web based interactive problem sets for Discrete Mathematics Instruction (used in
CS201, Fall 2002, 2003). Available at http://wugle.sourceforge.net.
International Outreach
Washington University International Program Outreach. Meeting with 12 officials from the
Uzbekhistan National Security Service and Human Rights office. December 13, 2004.
Collaborators
Yiannis Aloimonos, Univ. of Maryland;
Patrick Baker, Univ. of Maryland;
Phil Bayly, Washington University;
Randeep Bhattia, AT&T;
Tomas Brodsky, Active Eye Corporation;
Cornelia Fermuller, Univ. of Maryland;
Guy Genin, Washington University;
Chris Gill, Washington University;
Samir Khuller, Univ. of Maryland;
Chenyang Lu, Washington University;
Jan Neumann, Siemens Corporation;
Joseph O'Sullivan, Washington University;
Ian Simon, Washington University;
Richard Souvenir, Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte
Bradley Stuart, General Dynamics Robotic Systems