Imaging and Computing Seminar

Petros Boufounos
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory (MERL), Cambridge, MA

Title:
Making sense of sensing

Abstract:
The advent of Compressive Sensing (CS) has prompted a significant re-evaluation of our approach to signal acquisition and sensing. CS-inspired advances in computational signal acquisition enable us to achieve notable gains in sensing performance. The main components of the revisited approach are three: acquisition system models, signal models and cheap computation. After a brief introduction on the principles of computational signal acquisition, we will discuss acquisition system models and how they can accommodate quantization, saturation and unknown non-linear distortions. We will also present the components of a streaming CS framework and its application in high-speed video acquisition. The talk will conclude with some thoughts on the current challenges and the road ahead.

Bio:
Petros Boufounos completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at MIT. He received the S.B. degree in Economics in 2000, the S.B. and M.Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) in 2002, and the Sc.D. degree in EECS in 2006. Since January 2009 he is with Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL) in Cambridge, MA and a complimentary visiting scholar at Rice University.
Between September 2006 and December 2008, Dr. Boufounos was with the Digital Signal Processing Group at Rice University doing research in the area of Compressive Sensing. Before that he was a postdoctoral associate in the MIT Digital Signal Processing Group. His primary research focus is Computational Signal Acquisition. He is broadly interested in signal processing, data representations and machine learning applied to signal processing. He is also looking into how computational sensing interacts with other fields that use sensing extensively, such as robotics and mechatronics. Dr. Boufounos has received the Ernst A. Guillemin Master Thesis Award for his work on DNA sequencing and the Harold E. Hazen Award for Teaching Excellence, both from the MIT EECS department. He has also been an MIT Presidential Fellow. Dr. Boufounos is a member of the IEEE, Sigma Xi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Phi Beta Kappa.