People

SHI Labs @ UO

The name SHI stands for Synergetic & Holistic Intelligence in my initial thoughts. It can also be interpreted as Surpass Human Intelligence as pointed out by one of my early mentors: it is indeed a pragmatic goal for many research problems in AI, especially in Computer Vision. 

The culture we are building at SHI Labs: An environment conducive to innovative/independent research. We are doing basic research motivated by important applications. We are interested in applications in Machine Learning and Multimedia (computer vision, natural language, speech/audio). But most important, we hope our application-motivated basic research will lead to the development of theories, methodologies, algorithms that are useful for a wide spectrum of important and interesting problems. To attack the research problems, we need a variety of technical tools, some of which we learn along the way. One tool which is extremely useful for many of our research problems is Deep Learning, mainly Deep Neural Networks (DNN). 


Update 5/25/2023: In the pursuit of intelligence, SHI now stands for Service, Humanity, Innovation. 

The SHI Labs focuses on progress and service, and developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

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Visiting Students:

Prospective students, learn more ...

IFP Group @ UIUC

The IFP Group was founded by Professor Thomas S. Huang (1936 - 2020) in the late 80s, started as Image Formation and Processing Group at Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Over the years, the IFP Group has pursued research and innovation beyond images, including Image and Video Coding, Multimodal Human Computer Interaction, Multimedia Annotation and Search, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, Big Data, Deep Learning and High Performance Computing. 

I have been fortunate to be part of this legendary group for my PhD studies, and later to co-lead the group and continue to learn from Prof. Huang in the last few years. I continue to advise some of the current PhD students after the passing of Prof. Huang in April, 2020. I am forever grateful to Prof. Huang for his mentoring, support and friendship. 

I am also always thankful for the great support from  many colleagues, friends and collaborators on IFP matters over the recent years. The thank you list includes but not limited to Prof. Bruce Hajek, Prof. Wen-mei Hwu, Prof. Zhi-Pei Liang, Prof. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, Prof. T. Kesavadas, Prof. Robert Brunner, Prof. Jeffrey S. Moore, Prof. Michael L. Oezle, Dr. Jinjun Xiong, Dr. Jeff Ludwig, Dr. Tod Courtney, Ken Terao, Prof. Heng Ji,  Prof. Naira Hovakimyan, Dr. Patty Jones, Catherine Somers, Dawn Goeddel, Paritosh Garg, Christine Walls, Marsha Dunlap, Sandy Helregel etc. Thank you!

Remembering Tom and Margaret [Website, Video(Youtube), Video(Bilibili), New CVPR Thomas S. Huang Memorial Prize]

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The Postdoc and Friend:

Note: only students that I officially advise or supervise at UIUC are listed here.

IBM T. J. Watson Research Center @ Yorktown Heights, NY

As a researcher, engineer, and team lead, I worked closely with many great IBMers from both IBM T. J. Watson Research Center at Yorktown Heights, NY, and MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab in Cambridge, MA. Together we have won some prestigious and tough competitions, published fun research in top conferences, and built efficient and useful tools and systems. I also work closely with IBM AI Horizon Networks.

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