ECE Seminar Series

The seminar series explores cutting-edge research in all areas of ECE, facing the grand challenges of our time. It focuses on a wide range of topics in ECE, including microelectronics, photonics and unconventional computing (both quantum and non-quantum) in the post-Moore era, and the theory and applications of machine learning and AI. The series will feature some of the most promising and established researchers in the field, and provide a unique opportunity for participants to learn about the latest developments and engage in discussions with invited experts and ECE graduate students. Additionally, it will promote diversity by featuring a diverse range of speakers and perspectives, ensuring the broad accessibility of the latest ideas and breakthroughs.

Series Committee Members – Faculty: B.S. Manjunath (Chair), Kerem Çamsarı, Haewon Jeong, Jason Marden, John Schuller and Graduate Student Association: Ozgur Guldogan, Monsij Biswal

Upcoming ECE Distinguished Lectures at the ECE Seminar Series (2024-25)

Amit K. Roy-Chowdhury, Professor & UC Presidential Chair of ECE, UC Riverside

"From Perception to Planning Through Robust Scene Understanding"

Roy-Chowdhury's Talk – January 10 (Fri) @ 2:00pm | Engineering Science Building (ESB), Room 1001

Amit Roy-Chowdhury received his PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) in 2002 and joined the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in 2004 where he is a Professor and UC Presidential Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cooperating Faculty in Computer Science and Engineering, and Co-Director of the UC Riverside AI Research and Education Institute. He leads the Video Computing Group at UCR, working on foundational principles of computer vision, image processing, and machine learning, with applications in cyber-physical, autonomous and intelligent systems... (more)

Roy-Chowdhury's Abstract

Past ECE Distinguished Lectures at the ECE Seminar Series (2024-25)

Niels Volkmann, Professor, ECE, University of California, Santa Barbara

"From Pixels to Life: Decoding Cellular Worlds with Cryogenic Electron Microscopy"

Volkmann's Talk – December 6 (Fri) @ 2:00pm | Engineering Science Building (ESB), Room 1001

Niels Volkmann was educated at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg with Ada Yonath, who won the Nobel Prize in 2009. Dr. Volkmann completed training as a postdoctoral fellow at Brandeis University with David DeRosier, one of the founding fathers of three-dimensional image reconstruction techniques.

Dr. Volkmann's research focuses on the development and application of innovative new computational, artificial intelligence, and data science tools to bridge information between the atomic and cellular scales, covering more than six orders of magnitude from Ångstroms to tens of microns. (more...)

Volkmann's Abstract

Nikhil Shukla, Associate Professor, ECE, University of Virginia

"Analog vs. Digital Computing: Revisiting the Old to Innovate the New"

Shuklas's Talk – November 22 (Fri) @ 2:00pm | Engineering Science Building (ESB), Room 1001

Nikhil Shukla is currently an Assoc. Prof. at UVA in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. He also serves as the UVA deputy site director of the MIST (Multifunctional Integrated System Technology) center, an industry-university cooperative research center. He received his PhD from the U. of Notre Dame in 2017. His research interests lie in the general area of the physics of computing, and he is presently interested in exploring opportunities for efficient computation through device-circuit-and computing model co-design. He has authored/co-authored over 85 journal and conference papers. He is a member of IEEE Nanotechnology Council Committee on Quantum, Neuromorphic and Unconventional Computing. He has served as a session chair as well as a technical program committee member for various conferences in the computing and VLSI area such as DAC (Design Automation Conference), ISVLSI (IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI), CICC (Custom Integrated Circuits Conference).

Shukla's Abstract

Dr. Raghuveer Rao, Chief, Intelligent Perception Branch, DEVCOM ARL

"The Army Research Laboratory: Some Current Interests and Opportunities"

Rao's Talk – November 15 (Fri) @ 2:00pm | Engineering Science Building (ESB), Room 1001

Raghuveer Rao is the Chief of the Intelligent Perception Branch at the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, Maryland, where he oversees R&D in multimodal computer vision and applications, mainly to autonomous systems and scene understanding. Prior to joining ARL, Dr. Rao was a professor of electrical engineering and imaging science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has held visiting appointments with the Indian Institute of Science, the US Air Force Research Laboratory, the US Naval Surface Warfare Center, and Princeton University. He has made multiple research contributions to signal & image processing, communication, and computer vision, and serves as an ABET program evaluator for electrical engineering. Dr. Rao is a life fellow of IEEE and an elected fellow of SPIE.

Rao's Abstract

Ravi Ramamoorthi, Ronald L. Graham Professor of Computer Science, UCSD

"Sampling and Signal-Processing for High-Dimensional Visual Appearance in Computer Graphics and Vision"

Ramamoorthi's Talk – October 25 (Fri) @ 2:00pm | Engineering Science Building (ESB), Room 1001

Ravi Ramamoorthi is the Ronald L. Graham Professor of Computer Science at UCSD and founding director of the UC San Diego Center for Visual Computing. He earlier held tenured faculty positions at UC Berkeley and Columbia University, in all of which he played a key leadership role in building multi-faculty research groups recognized as leaders in computer vision and graphics. He has authored more than 200 refereed publications in computer graphics and vision, including 100+ ACM SIGGRAPH/TOG papers.

Ramamoorthi's Abstract

Past ECE Seminar Series Distinguished Lectures & Talks (2023-24)

ECE Distinguished Lectures at the ECE Seminar Series