MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation Systems for Education and Research in Image Processing and Understanding

The College Of New Jersey, Ewing NJ

Investigators

Abstract

The School of Engineering at The College of New Jersey is committed to building a solid foundation for education and research through the establishment of state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. This project consists of the addition of an Image Processing & Understanding Laboratory at the College, which will enable the teaching and research of image processing, as well as faculty research in the areas of image understanding and computer vision. The proposed laboratory infrastructure consists of multiprocessor computer workstations, storage server and backup, image acquisition and reproduction equipment, and computer-hosted Digital Signal Processing boards; all connected over a high speed network with wireless capabilities. All the supporting software and uninterruptible power supplies complete this equipment infrastructure. Intellectual Merit: The acquisition of the proposed equipment will allow the PI to establish a research program capable of addressing issues related to algorithm development, and optimal implementation of such algorithms, for image processing and computer vision. Specific thrust areas to be targeted by the research will initially focus on the optimized implementation of color textured image segmentation algorithms via the usage of Multispectral Random Field feature sets in multiprocessing, networked, and non-networked compute environments. Due to the information rich nature of Random Field features, image processing and computer vision problems addressed by the usage of these features are of interest to industry and defense. In addition, the laboratory will be used to research the solution to issues in the areas of medical and biotechnological image processing and robotics. An example of the latter is the different topological system configurations for the remote processing of imagery obtained by a robot or a network of robots. Broader Impacts: Incorporation of state-of-the-art image processing and understanding facilities into undergraduate curricula and Digital Image Processing courses will allow students to gain deeper insight into a host of image processing procedures and algorithms by obtaining a solid understanding and feedback that is both gratifying and motivational. Integration of theory and design is one of the cornerstones of the well-balanced engineering education received by students at the College. The quality of student senior design projects will be greatly enhanced through access to an Image Processing & Understanding Laboratory for evaluating, prototyping, and testing the implementation of novel concepts related to the field and germane to their projects; and there will be ample opportunities for involvement of undergraduate students in research. Through the PI's involvement with different minority initiatives, many outreach activities involving the laboratory are envisioned. Due to the visual nature of image processing, this body of knowledge lends itself, in a simplified way, to serve as an attractor of underrepresented minorities and K-12 students to the study of science, technology, and engineering. Through established relationships, collaboration between the PI and researchers at the University of South Florida is also envisioned.