Imaging Science Graduate Program

Program Coordinator’s Comments

Anthony Vodacek

General Comments

As research and scholarship across RIT becomes more prominent, there are transitions in administrative policies and procedures that are impacting how the graduate program operates. The policies and procedures that have been in place within the Center are often used as a template for Institute policies and procedures. Some, but not all, of the communication is becoming centralized under the Dean of Graduate Studies. As with any change, the Center is attempting to be proactive rather than reactive relative to changes in policy and resource allocations. The Dean of Graduate Studies has been successful as an advocate for the graduate students and their unique quality of life needs separate from the general undergraduate population. These include increased access to the Student Life Center and a health care option.

The Center has always garnered funding from a variety of industrial partners and government agencies. One important example this year was the development and granting of a BAE Systems Fellowship for an M.S. student. BAE is providing a generous stipend, tuition, travel expenses, summer employment at a BAE Systems laboratory, and the prospect of a permanent job after graduation. This type of fellowship allows a graduate student to focus on industry directed research and transition from classroom work to the laboratory earlier than the traditional Center funded graduate assistant who has teaching assistant duties in their first year. The fellowship was widely advertised and an award made, with that student now enrolled in the M.S. program.

Graduate Program Faculty

The Center for Imaging Science Graduate Faculty continues to grow. There are now 50 members of the CIS Graduate Faculty. The Center has 21 tenure track Faculty with a primary appointment or shared appointment in the Center, 16 Graduate Program Faculty with their primary appointment in other RIT Departments and Colleges, seven Affiliate Faculty with positions in industry or at government laboratories, five Research Professors (at various ranks), and one CIS Fellow. Outside of the tenure track Faculty from the Center, these Graduate Program Faculty are associated with 14 different Centers, Departments, Programs, or Laboratories internal or external to RIT.

Curriculum Development

The primary activity on the curriculum front over the past year has been the ongoing definition of a concentration track in optics. The impetus for the new track came from the addition of several Graduate Program Faculty members with specific interest in optics, both geometrical optics and physical optics.

Graduate Student Body

Continuing Students

In 2008-2009 there were 93 continuing graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in Imaging Science. These students are come from at least eight countries. There were 30 resident M.S. students, 15 online M.S. students, and 48Imaging Science Ph.D. students.

Incoming Class Profile (Fall 2009)

There were 28new students admitted into the Imaging Science graduate program for the 2009-2010 academic year. The admitted incoming class was 15 Ph.D. students, 9 M.S. students, including both full and part time, and 4 online M.S. students. Sixteen of the incoming students are fully funding with tuition and stipend in their first year. The remainder are partially funded or funded by their employers. Industry or government funded graduate students are from the US Air Force, Canadian National Forces, and United Technologies. The new international graduate student body is from Canada, China, India, Iran, Thailand, Romania, and Japan.

Student Publications and Presentations

Publication and presentation is emphasized in any graduate research program and our students take advantage of the many opportunities to present their work. Imaging Science graduate students published journal articles, conference papers, and attended a wide variety of conferences, gaining valuable communications and networking experiences. A number of Imaging Science graduate students presented at the highly successful RIT Graduate Student Symposium sponsored by the Dean of Graduate Studies during the summer of 2009. The following is a partial list of publications and conference proceedings authored or co-authored by our graduate students in the 2008-2009 year.

Selected Journal Articles with Student Authors (student author underlined)

  • Foster, M.S., Schott, J.R., Messinger, D.W. Spin-Image Target Detection Algorithm Applied to Low Density 3D Point Clouds, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 2, 023539 (2008)
  • Bartlett, B.D.; Schott, J.R., Atmospheric compensation in the presence of clouds: an adaptive empirical line method (AELM) approach, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, 3, 033507 (2009)
  • Casey, J.T., Kerekes, J.P. Misregistration Impacts on Hyperspectral Target Detection, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing. 3, 033513 (2008)
  • Schlamm, A., Messinger, D.W., Basener, B., Geometric estimation of the inherent dimensionality of single and multi-material clusters in hyperspectral imagery, Journal of Applied Remote Sensing. 3, 033527 (2009)

Selected Conference Papers with Graduate Student Authors (student author underlined)

  • Faulring, J.W., Casterline, M.V., Salvaggio, C., Kremens, R.L., Salvaggio, P.S., Deployment of an Autonomous Sensor Network for Remote Sensing Applications, International Society for Computers and Their Applications, ISCA First International Conference on Sensor Networks and Applications (SNA-2009), San Francisco, California, United States, November. (2009)
  • Daniel, B.J., Bolcar, M.R., Schott, J.R., Fienup, J.R. Phase Retrieval in Sparse Aperture Systems with Phase Diversity: A Trade Space Study, Proceedings of the SPIE, SPIE, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications II, 6958, 69580K, Orlando, Florida, United States, March (2008)
  • Vodacek, A., Li, Y., Garrett, A.J. Remote sensing data assimilation in environmental models, Proceedings of AIPR '08, IEEE, Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition Workshop, 2008, Washington, District of Columbia, United States, October (2008)
  • Walli, K.C., Nilosek, D.R., Schott, J.R., Salvaggio, C. Airborne synthetic scene generation (AeroSynth), Proceedings of the ASPRS, ASPRS/MAPPS 2009 Fall Conference, Digital Mapping - From Elevation to Information, Digital Elevation Data Fusion Innovations, San Antonio, Texas, United States, November (2009)
  • Bartlett, B.D., Devaraj, C., Gartley, M.G., Salvaggio, C., Schott, J.R. Spectro-polarimetric BRDF determination of objects using in-scene calibration materials for polarimetric imagers, Proceedings of SPIE, SPIE Optics and Photonics, Polarization Science and Remote Sensing IV, Calibration, Compensation, and Optimization, 7461, San Diego, California, United States, pp. 74610T1-74610T11, August (2009)
  • Montanaro, M., Salvaggio, C., Brown, S.D., Messinger, D.W., Garrett, A.J., Bollinger, J.S. Radiometric modeling of mechanical draft cooling towers to assist in the extraction of their absolute temperature from remote thermal imagery, Proceedings of the SPIE, SPIE Defense and Security, Thermosense XXXI, Infrared Sensors and Systems, 7299, 8, Orlando, Florida, United States, April (2009)
  • Arsenovic, M.V., Salvaggio, C., Garrett, A.J., Bartlett, B.D., Faulring, J.W., Kremens, R.L., Salvaggio, P.S. Use of remote sensing data to enhance the performance of a hydrodynamic simulation of a partially frozen power plant cooling lake, Proceedings of the SPIE, SPIE Defense and Security, Thermosense XXXI, Infrared Sensors and Systems, 7299, 10, Orlando, Florida, United States, April (2009)
  • Higbee, S., Messinger, D.W., Tra, Y., Voelkel, J., Chilton, L. A Bayesian Approach to Identification of Gaseous Effluents in Passive LWIR Imagery, Proceedings of SPIE, Defense and Security Symposium, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XV, 7334, Orlando, Florida, United States, April (2009)
  • Zelinski, M.E., Schott, J.R. Segmented aperture space telescope modeling used for remote sensing and image utility analysis, Proceedings of SPIE, SPIE, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications III, 7330, 733009, Orlando, Florida, United States, April (2009)
  • Schlamm, A., Messinger, D.W., Basener, B., Effect of manmade pixels on the inherent dimension of natural material distributions, Proceedings of SPIE, Defense and Security Symposium, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XV, 7334, Orlando, Florida, United States (2009)
  • Kwong, J., Messinger, D.W., Middleton, W.D. Hyperspectral Clustering and Unmixing for Studying the Ecology of State Formation and Complex Societies, Proceedings of SPIE, SPIE Optics and Photonics, Imaging Spectrometry XIV, 7457, San Diego, California, United States (2009)
  • Kerekes, J.P.; Presnar, M.D.; Fourspring, K.D.; Ninkov, Z., Sensor Modeling and Demonstration of a Multi-Object Spectrometer for Performance Driven Sensing, SPIE, Proceedings of Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XV, 7334, DOI: 10.1117/12.819265 (2009)

Graduates

The 2008-2009 academic year saw the granting of 10 Ph.D. degrees and 18 M.S. degrees. In May 2009, the following students graduated with a Ph.D. in Imaging Science.

  • AnatolyBourov, A Systematic Approach to Determining the Limits of Nanolithography at Extreme NA, Advisor: Bruce Smith
  • Brian Daniel, A Systems Study of Sparse Aperture Sensors in Remote Sensing Applications with Explicit Phase Retrieval,Adviser: John R. Schott
  • Lai Di, Independent Component Analysis (ICA) Applied to Ultrasound Image Processing and Characterization, Adviser: Naval Rao
  • Rodney Heckaman, Brilliance, Contrast, Colorfulness, and the Perceived Volume of Device Color Gamut, Adviser: Mark Fairchild
  • ScottKlempner, Statistical Modeling of Radiometric Error Propagation in Support of Hyperspectral Imaging Inversion and Optimized Ground Sensor Network Design, Adviser: John R. Schott
  • AndrewMichael, Imaging Schizophrenia: Data Fusion Approaches to Characterize and Classify, Adviser: Stefi Baum
  • MahnazMohammadi, Developing an Imaging Bi-Spectrometer for Fluorescent Materials, Adviser: Roy Berns
  • Matthew Monanaro, Radiometric Modeling of Mechanical Draft Cooling Towers to Assist in the Extraction of Their Absolute Temperature From Remote Thermal Imagery, Adviser: Carl Salvaggio
  • Susan Munn, 3D Head Motion, Point of Regard and Encoded Gaze Fixations in Real Scenes: Next-Generation Portable Video-Based Monocular Eye Tracking, Adviser: JeffPelz
  • MarcusStefanou, Spectral Image Utility for Target Detection Applications, Adviser: John Kerekes

In May 2009, the following students graduated with an M.S. in Imaging Science.

  • Sherif Azary, Adviser: Roger Gaborski
  • JosefBishoff, Target Detection Using Oblique Hyperspectral Imagery: A Domain Trade Study, Adviser: David Messinger
  • Dan Byrnes,Scanning Tunneling Optical Resonance Microscopy: Development of a Novel Characterization Technique, Adviser: Ryne Raffaelle
  • Linpeng Chen, Interpixel Capacitive Coupling, Adviser: Stefi Baum
  • Alexander Cherekos, Project: Gas Detection Using Projective K-Means Method, Adviser: Carl Salvaggio
  • Marc Cousoulis
  • Ranxi Huang, Semi-automated Techniques for the Retrieval of Dermatological Condition in Color Skin Image, Adviser: John Kerekes
  • Sang Yun Moon,Project: A 3-D Volume Resolution Phantom for MRI, Adviser: Joseph Hornak
  • Francis Padula, Historic Thermal Calibration of Landsat 5 TM Through an Improved Physics Based Approach, Adviser: John Schott
  • KristenPowers, Adviser: Carl Salvaggio
  • George Privon, Modeling the Infrared Emission from Cygnus A, Adviser: Stefi Baum
  • Anthony Rizzuto, A Low-Signal-to-Noise-Ratio Sensor Framework Incorporating Improved Nighttime Capabilities in DIRSIG, Adviser: Emmett Ientilucci
  • Cynthia Scigaj Dobbs, Project: Modeling and Simulation of Hyperspectral Imaging Instrument, Adviser: Carl Salvaggio
  • Stephanie Shubert, Project: Effect of Anisotropy on the High-frequency Ultrasound Backscatter from a Simulated Nerve Fiber, Adviser: Maria Helguera
  • Matthew Turk, A Homography-Based Multi-Camera Person-Tracking Algorithm, Adviser: Eli Saber
  • Jason Walp, Adviser: Mitchell Rosen
  • Yang Xue, Uniform Color Spaces Based On CIECAM02 and IPT Color Difference Equations, Adviser: Roy Berns
  • Michael Zelinski, A Segmented Aperture Space Telescope Modeling Tool and Its Application to Remote Sensing as Understood Through Image Quality and Image Utility, Adviser: John Schott

The following are the post-graduation plans for some of the students who graduated in May 2009.

  • Anatoly Bourov, Shanghai Semiconductor Company
  • Brian Daniel, Naval Research Labs
  • Rodney Heckaman, CIS Staff, Color Science
  • Scott Klempner, USAF
  • Andrew Michael, The Mind Research Network
  • Mahnaz Mohammadi, DuPont
  • Matthew Montanaro, NASA Goddard
  • Marcus Stefanou, USAF
  • Sherif Azary, Xerox
  • Josef Bishoff, Candadian National Forces
  • Daniel Byrnes, Veeco Instruments
  • Linpeng Cheny, Omnivision Tech
  • Marc Cousoulis, Lockheed Martin
  • Sang Yun Moon, Rainbow Research Optics
  • Francis Padula, Integrity Applications
  • George Privon, PhD student at the University of Virginia
  • Anthony Rizzuto, USAF
  • Cynthia Scigaj Dobbs, Aerospace Corporation
  • Matthew Turk, Canadian National Forces
  • Jason Walp, Infoprint
  • Michael Zelinski, Lawrence Livermore Lab