Speaker: Dr. Salman Asif, Rice University

Title: Computational sensing via low-dimensional models

Abstract:
Information processing and sensing systems face two broad challenges as we design the next generation of intelligent and interconnected devices: On one extreme, these systems will collect an enormous amount of data from a multitude of sources and require low-complexity, versatile algorithms that can make sense of all the data. On the other extreme, certain physical or system constraints on sensing devices, such as cost, energy, time, or size will limit us to imperfect or incomplete observations.

In this talk, I will present some of my research on information processing and computational imaging systems that enable us to reliably capture and extract information of interest in the very big or the very limited data regimes. A unifying theme underlying these problems is that, despite the apparent size of the observed data, the desired information often has a simple, low-dimensional structure. I will discuss computational algorithms that can learn and exploit latent signal structures for fast and efficient information recovery.

I will then present some of our recent work on computational imaging systems in which we co-design the hardware and software to enable new capabilities under different physical constraints. Examples include (1) coded mask-based thin, lensless cameras, (2) coded illumination and multiplexing for ptychography, and (3) compressive, low-cost infrared cameras.

Speaker Bio:
Salman Asif is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. Dr. Asif received his B.Sc. degree in 2004 from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, and an M.S.E.E degree in 2008 and a Ph.D. degree in 2013 from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. He worked as a research intern at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Summer of 2009, and at Samsung Standards Research Laboratory in Richardson, Texas, in the Summer of 2010. Prior to joining Rice University, he worked as a Senior Research Engineer at Samsung Research America, Dallas. His research interests include compressive sensing, computational and medical imaging, and machine learning.