Alfred Hero - Research Activities


The Hero group is currently (Oct. 2010) focussing on the following broad research themes:
1. High dimensional data analysis and dimensionality reduction including manifold learning and sparsity regularization in inverse problems.

2. Structural graphical models for dynamic spatio-temporal processes including those arising in genetic, proteomic, and metabolic regulation networks.

3. Distributed signal processing algorithms for adaptive sensing, localization, tracking, anomaly detection and imaging in sensor and data networks.

4. Computational geometric methods for clustering, semi-supervised classification, pattern matching, multimodality image registration, and database indexing and retrieval.

These areas arise in the context of several sponsored projects in the Hero lab including the following:

1. Biomedical diagnostics and predictive health. We are developing methods for high throughput analysis of biomarker data. One project, funded by DARPA, aims to predict health and disease propagation (epidemics) over a close knit human population based on a combination of genetic, metabolic, and social network data. Another project is developing image registration methods that are capable of compensating for patient motion and multimodality distortions. Another project is developing visualiztion techniques to help pathologists better analyze flow cytometry data. In all of these areas are developing approaches based on high dimensional data analysis, adaptive sampling (when to take an measurement or assay and where to take it from), large scale statistical inference, and multimodality data/information integration.

2. Sparsity constrained imaging. In one project, funded by ARO, we are using sparsity regularization to develop image reconstruction for magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) - an emerging imaging modality that is capabable of attometer (1 millionth of a nanometer) spatial resolution. With collaborators at IBM and Univ of Washington, we are developing signal and image processing for forming molecular images in the presence of uncertainty due to noise and instrument model mismatch. In another project, funded by AFOSR, we are developing methods for hyperspectral imaging that simultaneously segment and unmix endmember components in the image.

3. Network monitoring and data analysis. This is a project to develop distributed models and methods for analysis of high dimensional spatio-temporal network data. One focus, funded by NSF, is on Internet data analysis, including flows (TCP, UDP, etc), application level (email, http), and transport (end-to-end delays, packet losses) to reconstruct topology and virtual topology of the network. Another focus, funded by AFRL, is on sensor networks, including ad hoc wireless networks and radar networks, where we have developed methods of distributed activity detection, target tracking, and event classification.

4. Database indexing and retrieval. In this ARO funded project, the objective is to develop methods based on sparsity and dimensionality reduction for searching large multimedia databases of images and videos. This involves the development of scalable methods of feature selection, similarity matching, and spatio-temporal modeling that can improve precision and recall performance. See webpage (.html) for a short bibliography on this topic. Current areas of focus are event detection and correlation in videos, 3D shape retrieval, and multimodality retrieval using information geometric dimensionality reduction.

Publications

A chronological listing of all my publications (most downloadable): .html

These research publications are divided into the following areas (this has not been updated. For most recent publications see the chronological listing).

  • sensor management
  • statistical inference and learning ,
  • magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM)
  • bioinformatics,
  • communications and networking,
  • image processing,
  • tomographic imaging,
  • signal modeling,
  • timing estimation,
  • intelligent vehicular systems .
  • array processing
  • Click on topic title to access research summaries and links to recent papers. For some transparencies of recent presentations and seminars click here . For my bibtex citation file click here .bib . For my .sty file click here .sty .

    Lab Resources


  • Students in the Hero laboratory have access to several state of the art computers and printer. All computers have matlab with all the toolboxes that are provided by the COE in addition to mathematica and maple. These computers are:
  • tbayes: the main web server and host for reproducible research web pages.
  • palestrina:
  • arcadelt:
  • poulenc:
  • ravel:
  • messiaen:
  • byrd:
  • charpentier:
  • debussy:

    Software Resources


  • Intrinsic Dimension and Entropy Estimation in Manifold Learning webpage .
  • Multi-sensor landmine data visualization tool webpage

    Past and Present Postdoctoral Students


  • Francesca Bassi (2011-)
  • Koby Todros (2010-)
  • Roni Mittelman (2010-)
  • Xu Chen (2010-) (.html).
  • Ami Wiesel (2007-2009), Assistant Professor, Hebrew University, ami at cs.huji.ac.il
  • Eran Bashan (2008) CEO Hygiea Inc, bashan at umich.edu
  • Nicolas Dobigeon (2007), Assistant Professor ENSEEIHT (Toulouse)
  • Mark Kliger (2006-2007), CTO Medasense Biometrics, Ltd, mkliger at medasense.com
  • Neal Patwari (2005-2006), Assistant Professor University of Utah, npatwari at ece.utah.edu
  • Raviv Raich (2004-2007), Assistant Professor Oregon State University, raich at eecs.oregonstate.edu
  • Pei-Jung Chung (2004), Associate Professor National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, peijung_chung at yahoo.com
  • Cyrille Hory (2003-2004), Research Staff INRETS, Paris France hory at inrets.fr.
  • Christophe Vignat (2000-2001), Professor Univ. of Paris XI, Paris France. Christophe.VIGNAT at lss.supelec.fr.
  • Stephane Chretien, (1995-1998), Professor University of Besancon, Besancon, France, chretien at descartes.univ-fcomte.fr
  • Olivier Michel, (1993-1994), Professor INP, Grenoble, France olivier.michel at gipsa-lab.grenoble-inp.fr

    Students Doing Research Under my Supervision


  • Sung Jin Hwang (EECS G) ssjh at umich.edu
  • Kumar Sricharan (EECS G) kksreddy at umich.edu
  • Yilun Chen (EECS G) alwyn.chen at gmail.com
  • Arnau Tibau Puig (EECS G) arnau.tibau at gmail.com
  • Greg Newstadt (EECS G) newstage37 at gmail.com
  • Tzu-Zu Liu (EECS G) joyliu at eecs.umich.edu
  • Se-Un Park (EECS G) seunpark at eecs.umich.edu
  • Joel LeBlanc (EECS G) jwleblan at umich.edu
  • Zhaoshi Meng (EECS G) 1986mzs at gmail.com
  • Paul Shearer (Math AIM G) shearer.pr at gmail.com

    Former PhD Students


  • Yongsheng Huang (huangys at umich.edu). Research Staff at Amazon. Thesis (Bioinformatics) Integrative Statistical Learning and Applications in Predicting Features of Diseases and Health (.pdf) , Bioinformatics Program, Jan 2011.
  • Patrick Harrington (plhjr at umich.edu). Research Staff at Detroit Edison Co. Thesis (Bioinformatics) Inverse problems in high dimensional stochastic systems under uncertainty, (.pdf) , Bioinformatics Program, Aug. 2010.
  • Kevin Carter (kmcarter at umich.edu). Member of Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Thesis (EECS) Dimensionality Reduction on Statistical Manifolds, (.pdf) , Dept. of EECS, Dec. 2008.
  • Arvind Rao (ukarvind at umich.edu). Lane Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. Thesis (EECS/Bioinformatics) Prospective identification of long-range transcriptional regulatory regions via integrative genomics, (.pdf) . Bioinformatics Program and Dept. of EECS, July 2008.
  • Eran Bashan (bashan at umich.edu). CEO Hygiea Inc. Thesis (EECS) Efficient resource allocation schemes for search, (.pdf) , Dept. EECS, May 2008.
  • Jay Marble (jay.a.marble at us.army.mil). Research Staff US Army NVESD, Fort Belvoir VA. Thesis (EECS) Advances in surface penetrating technologies for imaging, detection, and classification, (.pdf) . Dept. EECS, Dec. 2007.
  • Raghuram Rangarajan (rangaraj at umich.edu). Research Staff at Cisco, San Jose CA. Thesis (EECS) Resource constrained adaptive sensing, (.pdf) , Dept. EECS, Aug 2006.
  • Derek Justice (djusticed at mmm.com). Research Staff at SAS Institute Inc, Raleigh NC. Thesis (EECS) "Inference methods for message endpoint localization in networks," (.pdf) , Dept. EECS, Aug. 2006.
  • Dongxiao Zhu (dongxiaozhu at gmail.com). Assistant Professor at University of New Orleans, LA. Thesis (EECS) "Reconstructing Signaling Pathways from High Throughput Data" (.pdf) , Dept. EECS, May 2006.
  • Doron Blatt (dblatt at DRWHoldings.com). Head of Algorithmic Trading at DRW Trading Group, Chicago. Thesis (EECS) "Performance Evaluation and Optimization for Inference Systems: Model Uncertainty, Distributed Implementation, and Active Sensing," (.pdf) . Dept. EECS, May 2006.
  • Mike Ting (mting at umich.edu). Staff Engineer at Seagate Technology Minneapolis MN. Thesis (EECS) "Signal Processing for Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy," (.pdf) , Dept. EECS, May 2006.
  • Neal Patwari (npatwari at ece.utah.edu). Assistant Professor at Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Thesis (EECS) Location estimation in sensor networks (.pdf) , Dept. EECS, Sept. 2005.
  • Jose Costa (jcosta at caltech.edu). Quantitative Analyst at DRW Trading Group. Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) Random graphs for structure discovery in high dimensional data , Dept. EECS, Aug. 2005.
  • Chris Kreucher (christopher.kreucher at gd-ais.com). Senior Systems Engineer at Integrity Applications Incorporated in Ann Arbor, MI. Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) An information-based approach to sensor resource allocation , Dept. EECS, Feb. 2005.
  • Clyde Shih (mfshih at gmail.com). Research Scientist at KLA-Tencor Corp, San Jose, CA. Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) Unicast Internet Tomography , Dept. EECS, Jan. 2005.
  • Huzefa Neemuchwala (hneemuch at umich.edu). at Fujifilm, San Jose CA. Thesis (Biomedical Engineering) (.pdf) Entropic graphs for image registration , Dept. Biomedical Engineering, Jan. 2005.
  • Tom Kragh (thomas.kragh at baesystems.com). Principal Research Engineer BAE Systems Inc (kragh at eecs.umich.edu), Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) : Tradeoffs and limitations in statistically based image reconstruction problems , Dept. EECS, Sept. 2002.
  • Jia Li (li4 at oakland.edu). Associate Professor at Oakland University, MI. PhD Thesis (Biomedical Engineering) (.pdf) : Three dimensional shape modeling: segmentation, reconstruction and registration , Dept. BME, Jan. 2002,
  • Mahesh Godavarti (mgodavarti at ditechnetworks.com). Senior Director of Research & Development at Ditech Networks (mgodavarti at ditechnetworks.com). Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) : Antenna arrays in wireless communications, , Dept. EECS, July 2001.
  • Riten (Robby) Gupta Research Staff TRW Inc, Los Angeles (Riten.Gupta at trw.com). Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) : Quantization Strategies for Low-Power Communications, , Dept. EECS, May 2001.
  • Hyungsoo Kim, Research Engineer at Samsung Electronics, Korea (hns.kim at samsung.com, dearhs at hotmail.com). Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) : Adaptive target detection in radar imaging, , Dept. EECS, Jan. 2001.
  • Bing Ma , Research Scientist Dept. Radiology, University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (bingm at umich.edu). Thesis (EECS) (.pdf) : `Parametric and non-parametric approaches for multisensor data fusion Dept. EECS, Jan. 2001.
  • Robinson Piramuthu (G), Sr. Research Engineer at FlashFoto, Inc. Thesis (EECS) Robust fusion of MRI and ECT data, and acceleration of EM algorithm using proximal point approach , Dept. of EECS, May 2000.
  • Anne Sauve , Research Scientist, Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory. PhD Thesis System modeling, sampling, interprolation and iterative reconstruction for the 3D Compton camera, Dept. of EECS, Jan. 2000.
  • Steven Titus, Accelerant Networks (stitus at accelerant.net). Thesis (EECS) Improved penalized likelihood image reconstruction of anatomically correlated emission computed tomography data , Dept. EECS, Oct. 1996.
  • Ilan Sharfer, Research Engineer at Smart Link Inc., Israel (ilans at slink.co.il). PhD Thesis Recursive algorithms for digital communications using the discrete wavelet transform , Dept. EECS, Oct. 1996
  • Mohammad Usman, Fellow Scientist at Masimo Corporation, Irvine CA (usman92691 at gmail.com). Thesis (EECS) Biased and unbiased Cramer-Rao bounds: computational issues and applications , Dept. EECS, Aug. 1994.
  • Ron Delap, AFIT, Dayton OH (DelapRA at M105X4.LAAFB.AF.MIL). PhD Thesis ADEPT: Task Specific Adaptive Beamforming , Dept. EECS, May 1994.
  • Nick Antoniadis, HITEC, Athens Greece (nadon at atrion.hitec.ariadne-t.gr). Thesis (EECS) Time Delay Estimation for Inhomogeneous Poisson Processes in the Presence of Gaussian Noise , Dept. EECS, Oct. 1992.
  • Bulent Baygun, Head of Interest Rate Strategy US, BNP-Paribas Bank, New York NY (bbaygun at bpa_su70.sbi.com). Thesis (EECS) Optimal Strategies and Tradeoffs for Joint Detection and Estimation , Dept. EECS, Oct. 1992.
  • Nick Petrick, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (petrick at engin.umich.edu). Thesis (EECS) Optimal Arrival Time Estimators for Electromagnetic Radiation Detectors , Dept. EECS, July 1992.
  • John Gorman, Chief Scientist SET Corporation (jgorman at SETcorp.com).Thesis (EECS) Error Bounds in Constrained Estimation , Dept. EECS, June 1991.
  • Ling Shao, Global NM R&D Engineering Director at Philips Healthcare, CA. Thesis (Bioengineering Program) Mutual Information Optimization and Evaluation of Single Photon Computed Tomography , Bioengineering Program, Oct. 1989.
  • Joong K. Kim, Professor at Sung Kyun Kwan University, Korea (jkkim at yurim.skku.ac.kr). Thesis (EECS) Time Delay Estimation with Nuisance Parameters: Performance Approximation and Coarse Acquisition , Dept. EECS, Oct. 1989.

    Former MS Students who have done research in my group


  • Christine Kim (EECS G) poppins at umich.edu
  • Kyle Herrity Applications Engineer at Freescale Semiconductor (EECS G) kherrity at umich.edu
  • Xing Zhou (EECS G). Engineer at Lockheed Martin, LA. zhouxing at umich.edu
  • Nitin Nayer (EECS G) nnayar at umich.edu
  • Yuezhou Jing (Statistics G)
  • Sakina Zabuawala (EECS G) sakina at umich.edu
  • Megan Flynn (EECS G) flynnm at umich.edu
  • Sebastien Cerbourg (Financial Engineering G) Sebastien.Cerbourg at free.fr
  • Arpit Almal (EECS G) aalmal at umich.edu
  • Kashif Israr Siddiqui (EECS G) VoIP independent consultant (kashif at eecs.umich.edu)
  • Chunyu (Frank) Yip (EECS G) chunyuy at umich.edu
  • Krish Subramanian (EECS G) ksubramz at umich.edu
  • Baptiste Poupard . Single Stock Volatility Trader, Head of Asia Flow at Societe Generale, Hong Kong (baptiste.poupard at polytechnique.org).
  • Matthieu Colet . Consultant at MUREX, Paris France.
  • Ram Kakarala, Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. (RAMAKRISHNA at ntu.edu.sg).
  • Adrian Yap, Hughes, Germantown MD ayap at hns.com.
  • Agissilaos Ziotopoulos (aziot at engin.umich.edu)

    Former BS Students who have done research in my group


  • Laurent Guillaume (Stagiare) laurent.guillaume at supelec.fr
  • Adam Pocholsky (UG-UROP) apachols at umich.edu
  • Liyan Huang (UG-UROP) liyanh at engin.umich.edu
  • Smita Krishnaswamy (UG-UROP) smita at engin.umich.edu
  • Alina Chu (UG-UROP) achu at engin.umich.edu
  • Hafez Hadinejad (TH-Darmstadt) hafez at ient.rwth-aachen.de
  • Richard Cheung (UM) rcheung at engin.umich.edu
  • Christophe Guillouet (ECN) Christophe.Guillouet at supaero.fr

    Other students who have done research in my group


  • Jindan Yu University of Michigan (jindany at med.umich.edu), PhD Thesis (.pdf) : Transcript profiling of the cone-only Nrl-knockout retina using custom cDNA-microarrays: identification of novel targets of Nrl and of signaling pathways involved photoreceptor function , Dept. BME, Jan. 2004,
  • Jeffrey O'Neill, PhD Dept EECS, Univ of Michigan.
  • Anne-Emanuelle Badel , PhD at Ecole Normale Superieure Lyon, France
  • Yong Zhang, PhD in BME at Univ of Michigan. Presently at KLA-TENCOR.

    Past and Present Research Collaborators


  • Dan Bliss, MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
  • Frank Bogun, Dept Cardiology, Univ of Michigan.
  • Paul Carson, Dept Radiology, Univ of Michigan.
  • David Castanon, Dept ECE Boston University.
  • Neal Clinthorne, Dept Radiology Univ of Michigan.
  • Nicolas Dobigeon, Univ of Toulouse, France.
  • Pierre Duhamel, CNRS, France.
  • Douglas Engel, Dept Cell and Developmental Biology, Univ of Michigan.
  • Yonina Eldar, Technion, Israel.
  • William Finn, Dept of Pathology, Univ of Michigan.
  • Gilles Fleury, Ecole Superieure d'Electricite, Gif-s-Yvette, France.
  • Jeffrey Fessler, Dept EECS Univ of Michigan.
  • Alejandro Frangi, Pompeu Fabra Univ, Barcelona.
  • Rajiva Goyal, Internal Medicine F D M Plc, formerly at University Hospital at Univ Michigan.
  • Geoffrey Ginsburg, Center for Genomic Medicine, Duke University.
  • Jay Hess, Dept. Dept Pathology, Univ of Michigan.
  • Franz Hlawatch, Technical Univ of Vienna.
  • Sridhar Lakshmanan, Dept ECE, Univ. of Michigan - Dearborn.
  • Tom Marzetta, Lucent Bell Laboratories -Murray Hill.
  • Chuck Meyer, Dept Radiology, Univ of Michigan.
  • Olivier Michel, INPG, Grenoble, France. Formerly at Ecole Normale Superieure Lyon, France.
  • Randy Moses, Dept ECE Ohio State University.
  • Mila Nikolova, Dept Mathematics, Ecole Normal Superieure, Cachan France.
  • Bala Rajaratnam, Dept Statistics, Stanford Univ.
  • W. Les Rogers, Nuclear Medicine Univ of Michigan.
  • Dan Rugar, IBM Almaden.
  • Silvio Savarese, Dept EECS, Univ of Michigan.
  • Harry Schmitt, Raytheon Inc.
  • Clay Scott, Dept EECS, Univ of Michigan.
  • John Sidles, Dept BME, Univ of Washington.
  • Wayne Stark, EECS Univ of Michigan.
  • David States, Dept Human Genetics, Univ of Michigan.
  • Anand Swaroop, National Institutes of Health.
  • Jean-Yves Tourneret, Univ of Toulouse, France.
  • Christophe Vignat, Univ. of Paris XI, France.
  • Bill Williams, EECS Univ of Michigan.
  • Alan Willsky LIDS, MIT.

    Links of Interest

  • Yi's LP web page (.html) - provided by R. Saigal

    Work in Progress

    Click here for papers in preparation or submitted (Restricted Access - for information send me email at hero@eecs.umich.edu)

  • Draft of "Highlights of SSAP" , IEEE SP Magazine, 1998.

    Visitor count: [an error occurred while processing this directive] accesses since July 2, 1996.
    Contact Information:

    Prof. Alfred O. Hero III ,
    Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    The University of Michigan
    1301 Beal Avenue
    Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122
    Tel. (313) 763-0564
    FAX: (313) 763-8041
    WWW: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~hero/hero.html
    email: