Biography

Dr. Ioannis A. Kakadiaris, professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston, is the founder of the Computational Biomedicine Lab, formerly the Visual Computing Lab. Dr. Kakadiaris is the recipient of a number of awards, including the NSF Early Career Development Award, Schlumberger Technical Foundation Award, UH Computer Science Research Excellence Award, UH Enron Teaching Excellence Award, and the James Muller Vulnerable Plague Young Investigator Price. His research has been featured on National Public Radio, KPRC NBC News, KTRH ABC News, and KHOU CBS News. His other research interests include biomedical image analysis, modeling and simulation, computational biomedicine, biometrics, computer vision, and pattern recognition. Dr. Kakadiaris earned his bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Athens in Greece, his master's degree in computer science from Northeastern University and his Ph. D. at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Education
• Appointments
• Teaching
• Awards and Honors

Education

• Ptychion (B.S.) (1989) Physics from the University of Athens, Greece
• M.Sc. (1991) Computer Science from the Northeastern University, Boston, MA
• PhD (1997) Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

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Appointments

• 2008 Director, Methodist Hospital Research Institute-UH-Weill Cornell Medical College
• Institute for Biomedical Imaging Sciences (IBIS)
• 2007 Chairman of the Steering Committee, IBIS
• 2006 – present Professor, Computer Science, ECE, and Biomedical Engineering, U. of Houston (UH)
• 2006 – present Adjunct Professor, School of Health Information Sciences, University of Texas, Health Sciences Center
• 2005 – present Director and Founder, Computational Biomedicine Lab, UH
• 2005 – present Member, Southwest Center for Public Safety Technology Center
• 2003 – 2006 Associate Professor, Departments of Computer Science and ECE, UH
• 2003 – 2006 Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Health Informatics, University of Texas, Health Information Sciences
• 2003 – present Member, Gulf Coast Consortia
• 2002 – present Member, The W.M. Keck Center for Computational and Structural Biology
• 2002 – present Director, Division of Bioimaging and Biocomputation, Institute for Digital Informatics and Analysis, UH
• 2000 – 2002 Interim Director, Virtual Environments Research Institute (VERI), UH
• 2000 – 2002 Thrust Leader, Bioimaging and Biocomputation, Virtual Environments Research Institute, UH
• 2000 – 2002 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
• 1999 – 2003 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Health Informatics, University of Texas, Health Information Sciences
• 1999 – present Member, The Texas Learning and Computation Center, UH
• 1998 – 2000 Coordinator of External Relations, VERI, UH
• 1997 – 2005 Director and Founder, Visual Computing Lab, UH
• 1997 – 2003 Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, UH
• 1996 – 1997 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
• 1991 – 1996 Research Fellow, Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania
• 1990 – 1991 Research Assistant, Biological Knowledge Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Northeastern University
• 1990 Teaching Assistant, Department of Computer Science, Northeastern University

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Teaching and Student Learning

Ph.D. Thesis Advisor of:
• Eleni Sgouritsa (January 2008 - present) Expected Graduation: December 2011
• Gerardo Mendizabal Ruiz (January 2008 - present) Expected Graduation: December 2011
• Michael Fang (January 2008 - present) Expected Graduation: December 2011
• Weilong Yang (September 2007 - present) Expected Graduation: May 2011
• Hakan Haberkar (June 2007 - present) Expected Graduation: May 2011
• Deepak Roy Chittajallu (May 2007 - present) Expected Graduation: May 2010
• Uday Kurkure (May 2002 - present) Department: UH CS Expected Graduation: May 2008 Ph.D. Thesis: Computational Methods for Analysis of Non-Invasive Cardiac Imaging Data Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris (UH CS), R. Metcalfe (UH ME), C. Ordonez (UH CS), I. Pavlidis (UH CS) and S. Shah (UH CS)
• George Toderici (May 2003 - December 2007) Department: UH CS Ph.D. Thesis: 3D-aided 2D Face Recognition Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris (UH CS), S. Cuvelier (College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University), Z. Deng (UH CS), C. Eick (UH CS), H.Q. Le (UH ECE), I. Pavlidis (UH CS) Current Position: Google, Inc.
• Alberto Santamaria-Pang (January 2003 - December 2007) Department: UH CS Ph.D. Thesis: Morphological Reconstruction of Neurons from Optical Imaging Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris (UH CS), Costa M. Colbert (UH BB), Christoph Eick (UH CS), Yuriy Fofanov (UH CS), Peter Saggau (BCM, Neuroscience), and G. Zouridakis (UH CS) Current Position: Postdoc, CBL, UH.
• Sean O’Malley (May 2003 - May 2007) Department: UH CS Ph.D. Thesis: Computational Methods for Contrast-Enhanced Intravascular Ultrasound Sequence Analysis Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris (UH CS), S.G. Carlier (Cardiovascular Research Foundation), M. Garbey (UH CS), S. Shah (UH CS), R. Vilalta (UH CS) Current Position: Google, Inc.
• Musodiq Bello (January 2003 - December 2007) Department: UH CS Ph.D. Thesis: Statistical Modeling for Segmentation of Gene Expression Data in Mouse Brain Images Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, F. Fofanov (UH CS), J. Warren (RICE CS), R. Vilalta (UH CS), and G. Zouridakis (UH CS) Current Position: GE Research
• Alok N. Bandekar (May 2002 - December 2006) Department: UH CS Ph.D. Thesis: A Unified Knowledge-based Segmentation Framework for Medical Images Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris (UH CS), N. Karayiannis (UH ECE), I. Pavlidis (UH CS), R. Vilalta (UH CS), and G. Zouridakis (UH CS) Current Position: Visigen, Inc.
• Amol Pednekar (January 1999 - December 2003) Ph.D. Thesis: Cardiac Image Analysis: Morphology, Function, and Dynamics Committee: C. Eick (UH CS), K. Grigoriadis (UH MECE), T. Gustavson (Chalmers), I.A. Kakadiaris, R. Muthupillai (Philips Medical), and G. Zouridakis (UH CS) Current Position: Clinical Scientist-South Zone, MR Marketing Department, Philips Medical Systems, Bothell, WA
• Carlos Barron (October 1998 - December 2003) Ph.D. Thesis: Human Motion Tracking Using a Monocular Camera Committee: J. Aggarwal (UT-Austin), B. Chapman (UH CS), R. Glowinski (UH MATH), I.A. Kakadiaris, and J. Subhlok (UH CS) Current Position: Professor, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM), Mexico City, Mexico

Ph.D. Thesis Co-Advisor of:
• Chris Harding (January 1998 - May 2001) Department: UH Geosciences Ph.D. Thesis: Multi-sensory investigation of geoscientific data: adding touch and sound to 3D visualization and modeling Committee: J.C. Butler (UH GEO), J.F. Casey (UH GEO), I.A. Kakadiaris, R.B. Loftin (UH CS), and K.J. Marfurt (UH GEO). Current Position: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

M.Sc. Thesis Advisor of:
• Raja Yalamanchilli (January 2007 - present)
• Deepak Roy Chittajallu (September 2004 - May 2007) M.Sc. Thesis: Computational Tools for Computer-Aided Breast Reconstructive Surgery Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, K. Ravi-Chandar(UT Austin AE), Z. Deng (UH CS) Current Position: Ph.D. Student, University of Houston
• Mohammad Murtuza (September 2004 - August 2006) M.Sc. Thesis: Three-Dimensional Biometrics: Using data from the nose and/or the ear Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, S. Shah(UH CS), K. Grigoriadis (UH MECE) Current Position: Associate Scientist, PROS Revenue Management
• Steve Urban (June 2004 - August 2005) M.Sc. Thesis: Automatic Reconstruction of Dendrite Morphologies from Optical Sections of Living Fluorescently Labeled Neurons Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, R. Vilalta (UH CS), C. Colbert (UH BIOL) Current Position: Associate Scientist, PROS Revenue Management
• Joseph Liang (June 2004 - August 2005) M.Sc. Thesis: Eye Detection and Face Recognition: Comparison of Algorithms Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, J. Subhlok(UH CS), P. Markenscoff (UH ECE)
• Nikhil Vajramushti (January 2003 - May 2004) M.Sc. Thesis: Efficient 3D Object Retrieval Using Depth Images Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, I. Pavlidis (UH CS), M. Papadakis (UH MATH)
• Georgios Passalis (January 2003 - May 2004) M.Sc. Thesis: Three-dimensional Face Recognition Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, I. Pavlidis (UH CS), P. Markenscoff (UH ECE) Current Position: Ph.D. Student, Univ. of Athens
• Kristoffer Andersson (September 2001 - August 2002) M.Sc. Thesis: Interpolation of Volumetric Data for Volume Visualization Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, D.J. Kouri (UH CHEM), and J. Subhlok (UH CS)
• Eric Shafer (January 2001-December 2001) M.Sc. Thesis: A development Toolkit for OpenCV Using Microsoft DirectShow Committee: B. Chapman (UH CS), I.A. Kakadiaris, and E. Papadakis (UH MATH)
• Wolfram Herbert Volpi (September 2000 - May 2001) M.Sc. Thesis: Comparison of Interpolation Methods for Volume Rendering Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, E. Papadakis (UH MATH), and J. Subhlok (UH CS)
• Kaushik Nagabhushan (September 1999 - May 2000) M.Sc. Thesis: Object Tracking in Compressed Video Sequences Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, D. Sivakumar (UH CS), and J. Subhlok (UH CS)
• Shengchun Duan (January 1999-December 1999) M.Sc. Thesis: Implementation of a Motion Retargetting System Committee: K. Grigoriadis (UH MECE), I.A. Kakadiaris, and D. Sivakumar (UH CS)
• Xiangcai Zhu (January 1999-December 1999) M.Sc. Thesis: Visualization of DPPC Membrane Modules Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, R.B. Loftin (UH CS), and A.D.J. Haymet (UH CHEM)
• Jaekyong Park-Jeong (September 2000-May 2001) M.Sc. Thesis: Creating Animations for Chemical Engineering Teaching Modules Committee: I.A. Kakadiaris, M. Nikolaou (UH CHEM), and J. Subhlok (UH CS)

Honors Thesis Advisor of:
• Dat Chu (July 2007 - present)
• Vanessa Zavaletta (June 2000 - May 2002) B.Sc. Thesis: Fuzzy Connectedness Segmentation: Performance Evaluation Committee: B. Chapman (UH CS), I.A. Kakadiaris, and E. Papadakis (UH MATH) Current Position: PhD Student at the Biomedical Engineering program at Mayo Clinic.

International Internship Advisor of:
• Olga Carolina Avila Montes (BioEngr. Dept., Antioquia School of Engineering, Colombia) (2007)
• Sefa Demirtas (July 2005 - September 2005) Current Position: Ph.D. Student, MIT
• Barry Walsh (July 2004 - June 2005)

Research Experience for Undergraduates Advisor of:
• Jason Browning (2007)
• Yuliya Borisova (2007)
• Celia Ayala (2006)
• Lam Tran (2006)
• Michael deLisi (2005) Current Position: Ph.D. Student, Bioengineering Department
• Yunliang Lu (2005)
• John Seblak (2005)
• Prathibha Nagarajan (2004) Current Position: National Instruments

Research Experience for High School Students Advisor of:
• Ngbede Ogah (Houston Science Club) (2007)
• Abby Corrington (Houston Science Club) (2006)
• Tatiana Fofanov (Academy of Science and Technology, College Park High School) (2006)

Student Awards
• Mr. Sean O’Malley was selected as Student Paper Contest Finalist at the ICASSP 2007 for the paper ”Image-based frame gating of IVUS pullbacks: a surrogate for ECG”.
• Mr. George Toderici won the Sigma Xi Graduate Student Poster Award, UH (2006)
• Mr. Uday Kurkure won the UH Computer Science Scholarship Award, UH (2006)
• Mr. Sean O’Malley won the Sigma Xi Graduate Student Poster Award, UH (2006)
• Mr. Sean O’Malley won the UH Computer Science Best Software Award (2005)
• Mr. Uday Kurkure won the Sigma Xi Graduate Student Poster Award, UH (2005)
• Mr. Musodiq Bello won the Sigma Xi Graduate Student Poster Award, UH (2004)
• Mr. Sean O’Malley won an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2004)
• Mr. Musodiq Bello won the UHCS NuView Scholarship (2004)
• Mr. Musodiq Bello won W. M. Keck Predoctoral Fellowships in Computational and Structural Biology (2003, 2004)
• Mr. Amol Pednekar won the Sigma Xi Graduate Student Research Achievement Award, UH (2003)
• Dr. Christian Uehara won W. M. Keck Predoctoral Fellowships in Computational and Structural Biology (2002-2004)
• Mr. Carlos Barron won the Sigma Xi Graduate Student Research Achievement Award, UH(2002)
• Mrs. Vanessa Zavaletta won a 2002 Senior Honors Thesis Award, Honor College, UH (2002)
• Mrs. Vanessa Zavaletta won a UH NSM Alumni Poster Award, UH (2002)
• Mr. Amol Pednekar won the Sigma Xi Poster Award, University of Houston, April, 2002.
• Mr. Amol Pednekar won the UH NSM Alumni Poster Award, UH (2002)
• Mr. Carlos Barron won the Exxon/Mobil Foundation Best PhD Student Award, UH Department of Computer Science (2001)
• Mr. Chris Harding won the Best Student Oral Presentation Award at the Soc. of Exploration Geophysists (SEG) / Calgary International Exposition and 70th Annual Meeting, Calgary, Canada (2000)

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Awards and Honors

• Eckhard Pfeiffer Distinguished Professor, Dept. Computer Science, U. of Houston , 2006
• Best Poster Award (1st Place), International Greek Biotechnology Forum
• Best Poster Award (1st Place), 2nd Hellenic Congress of Atherosclerosis
• Research Excellence Award, Department of Computer Science, University of Houston, 2003.
• UH Teaching Excellence Award, University of Houston, 2003.
• AEHA James E. Muller Vulnerable Plaque New Investigator Prize for Clinical Research, 2003.
• President, University of Houston Chapter of Sigma Xi (2002-2003)
• Keynote Speaker
  • October 17, 2007: International Conference VipIMAGE - I ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Computational Vision and Medical Image Processing, Porto, Portugal
  • November 16, 2006: 5th Annual International Cardiology Congress, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • February 9, 2006: 23rd Annual Houston Conference on Biomedical Engineering Research, Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology
  • October 8, 2004: 14th Annual Keck Center Research Conference, Houston, TX
  • November 29, 2002: XI International Conference on Computing
  • November 21, 2002: AMDO'02 - IAPR Second International Workshop on Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects
  • February 2, 2001: International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision, Prague, Czech Republic, 2001.
• IEEE Distinguished Visitor, 2002-2004.
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2000.
• Schlumberger Technical Foundation Award, Houston, TX, 1998-1999.
• Gerondelis Foundation Fellowship, Boston, MA, 1991-1992.
• Bodosakis Foundation Fellowship, Athens Greece, 1989-1991.
• Highest honors for top graduating student at the Department of Physics, University of Athens, Greece, 1989.

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