Shree K. Nayar

T. C. CHANG PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

621 CEPSR
Mail Code: 0401

Tel(212) 853-8458
Fax(212) 939-7172

Shree K. Nayar is the T. C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. He heads the Columbia Vision Laboratory (CAVE), which develops advanced computer vision systems. His research is focused on three areas - the creation of novel cameras that provide new forms of visual information, the design of physics-based models for vision and graphics, and the development of algorithms for understanding scenes from images. His work is motivated by applications in the fields of digital imaging, computer vision, computer graphics, robotics, and human-computer interfaces.

Research Interests

Computational cameras and the physics of computer vision. Emphasis on the creation of cameras that provide new forms of visual information, the design of physics-based models for the interaction of light with materials, and the development of algorithms, for the recognition of objects from images. Applications include digital photography, machine vision, scientific imaging, computer graphics, robotics, and human-computer interactions.

Nayar received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, an MS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University, and a PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. For his research and teaching he has received several honors including the David Marr Prize (1990 and 1995), the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (1992), the National Young Investigator Award (1993), the NTT Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award (1994), the Keck Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching (1995), the Columbia Great Teacher Award (2006), the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Achievement Award (2009), the Helmholtz Prize (2019), and the IEEE PAMI Distinguished Researcher Award (2019). For his contributions to computer vision and computational imaging, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, and the National Academy of Inventors in 2014.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

  • Computer Vision Laboratory, Computer Science, Columbia University, 1991- Present
  • The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1986-1990

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • T. C. Chang Professor, Computer Science, Columbia University, July 2002 – Present
  • Department Chair, Computer Science, Columbia University, July 2009 – June 2012
  • Professor, Computer Science, Columbia University, December 1996 – June 2002
  • Acting Chair, Computer Science, Columbia University, July 2000 – December 2000
  • Associate Professor, Computer Science, Columbia University, January 1995 – December 1996
  • Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Columbia University, January 1991 – December 1994
  • Research Assistant, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, July 1986 – December 1990
  • Visiting Research Scientist, Hitachi, Ltd. Yokohama, Japan, Summer 1989
  • Research Engineer, Taylor Instruments Ltd. New Delhi, India, July 1984 – November 1984

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • National Academy of Inventors
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • National Academy of Engineering

HONORS & AWARDS

  • IEEE PAMI Distinguished Researcher Award, ICCV, Seoul, 2019.
  • Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award. Columbia Engineering Alumni Association, New York, 2015.
  • Election to the National Academy of Inventors, Tampa, FL, 2014.
  • Honor for Seminal Contributions to Digital Imaging , Sony Corporation, Tokyo, 2014.
  • Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, MA, 2011.
  • Carnegie Mellon Alumni Achievement Award, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009.
  • Election to National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC, 2008.
  • Great Teacher Award, Columbia University, New York, 2006.
  • T. C. Chang Endowed Chair, Columbia University, New York, 2003.
  • Engineering Teaching Excellence Award, W. M. Keck Foundation, Los Angeles, 1995.
  • NTT Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award, NTT Basic Research Laboratory, Japan, 1994.
  • Fellow of the Packard Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Los Altos, 1992.
  • National Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C. 1991.

PUBLICATION AND INVENTION AWARDS

  • Helmholtz Prize, Test of Time Paper Award, ICCV, Seoul, 2019.
  • Best Paper Award, ACM Multimedia Conference, Nice, France, 2019.
  • Best Paper Award, ACM Symposium on UIST, Quebec City, Canada, 2017.
  • Top 10 Inventions of 2016, Popular Science Magazine, 2016.
  • Best Paper Award, ICCP, Houston, TX, 2015.
  • Top Stories of 2015, Discover Magazine, 2015.
  • Best Paper Award , ICCP, Boston, MA, 2010.
  • Best Paper Award, IEEE CVPR, Washington, DC, 2004.
  • Best Paper Honorable Mention Award, IEEE CVPR, Hilton Head, 2000.
  • David Marr Prize, IEEE ICCV, Boston, 1995.
  • Siemens Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE CVPR, Seattle, 1994.
  • 20th Pattern Recognition Award, Pattern Recognition Society, Jerusalem, Israel, 1994.
  • Best Industry Related Paper Award, ICPR, Jerusalem, 1994.
  • David Marr Prize, IEEE ICCV, Osaka, Japan, 1990.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • “Audiovisual Zooming: What You See Is What You Hear,” A. A. Nair, A. Reiter, C. Zheng, S. K. Nayar, ACM Conference on Multimedia, France, 2019.
  • "Trapping Light for Time of Flight," R. Xu, M. Gupta and S.K. Nayar, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 1-8, Jun. 2018.
  • "What Are Optimal Coding Functions for Time-of-Flight Imaging?," M. Gupta, A. Velten, S.K. Nayar and E. Breitbach, ACM Trans. on Graphics, Vol. 37, No. 2, Mar. 2018.
  • “Towards Flexible Sheet Cameras: Deformable Lens Arrays with Intrinsic Optical Adaptation,” D. Sims, S.K. Nayar, and Y. Yue, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography (ICCP 2016), Evanston, IL, May 2016.
  • ”Towards Self-Powered Cameras,” S.K. Nayar, Daniel C. Sims, and Mikhail Fridberg, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography (ICCP 2015), 1-10, Houston, April 2015.
  • "When Does Computational Imaging Improve Performance?," O. Cossairt, M. Gupta, and S.K. Nayar, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (TIP), Vol. 22, No. 2, 2013.
  • “Computational Cameras: Convergence of Optics and Processing,” C. Zhou and S.K. Nayar, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (TIP), Vol. 20, No. 12, 3322-3340, December 2011.
  • “Flexible Depth of Field Photography,” S. Kuthirummal, H. Nagahara, C. Zhou, and S. K. Nayar, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), Vol. 99, March 2010.
  • “Generalized Assorted Pixel Camera: Postcapture Control of Resolution, Dynamic Range, and Spectrum,” F. Yasuma, T. Mitsunaga, D. Iso, and S. K. Nayar, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (TIP), Vol. 19, No. 8, August 2010.
  • “Diffusion Coded Photography for Extended Depth of Field,"
  • O. Cossairt, C. Zhou, and S. K. Nayar, Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH, July 2010.
  • “Face Swapping: Automatically Replacing Faces in Photographs,” D. Bitouk, N. Kumar, S. Dhillon, P.N. Belhumeur, and S. K. Nayar, Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH, August 2008.
  • “Vision and Rain,” K. Garg and S. K. Nayar, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision(IJCV), Vol. 75, No. 1, 3-27, October 2007.
  • “Corneal Imaging System: Environment from Eyes,” K. Nishino and S.K. Nayar, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), (70) No. 1, 23-40, October 2006.
  • “Computational Cameras: Redefining the Image,” S.K. Nayar, IEEE Computer Magazine, Special Issue on Computational Photography, 62-70, August 2006.
  • “Fast Separation of Direct and Global Components of a Scene,” S.K. Nayar, G.K. Krishnan, M.D. Grossberg, and R. Raskar, Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH, August 2006.
  • “Motion Based Motion Deblurring,” M. Ben-Ezra and S.K. Nayar, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), (26) No. 6, 689-698, June 2004.
  • "The World in an Eye," K. Nishino and S.K. Nayar, Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Vol. I, pp. 444-451, Jun. 2004.
  • “Contrast Restoration of Weather Degraded Images,” S.G. Narasimhan and S.K. Nayar, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), (25) No. 6, 713-724, June 2003.
  • “Vision Through the Atmosphere,” S.G. Narasimhan and S.K. Nayar, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), No. 3, 233-254, July-August 2002.
  • “Catadioptric Stereo Using Planar Mirrors,” J. Gluckman and S.K. Nayar, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), (44) No. 1, 65-79, August 2001.
  • “A Theory of Single-Viewpoint Catadioptric Image Formation,” S. Baker and S.K. Nayar, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), (35) No. 2, 1-22, November 1999.
  • “Vision in Bad Weather,” S.K. Nayar and S.G. Narasimhan, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV’99), 820-827, Corfu, September 1999.
  • “Radiometric Self Calibration,” T. Mitsunaga and S. K. Nayar, Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR’99), I:374-380, Fort Collins, 1999.
  • "Catadioptric Omnidirectional Camera," S.K. Nayar, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 482-488, Jun. 1997.
  • “Visual Appearance of Matte Surfaces,” S. K. Nayar and M. Oren, Science, 1153-1156, Vol. 267, No. 5201, February 1995.
  • “Visual Learning and Recognition of 3-D Objects from Appearance,” H. Murase and S.K. Nayar, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), (14) No. 1, 5-24, January 1995.
  • “Shape from Focus,” S.K. Nayar and Y. Nakagawa, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), (16) No. 8, 824-831, August 1994.
  • "Generalization of Lambert's Reflectance Model," M. Oren and S.K. Nayar, Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH, pp. 239-246, Jul. 1994.
  • “Shape from Interreflections,” S.K. Nayar, K. Ikeuchi and T. Kanade, IEEE International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), (6) No. 3, 173-195, August 1991.