Computing is at the core of most sciences, and its applications affect virtually all areas of everyday life. Research in computer science is a continuous exploration for more efficient mathematical processes that require less space, and which accommodate and give rise to future systems. The research profile of the department includes sponsorship of CAISS, the Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software, and maintenance of the hardware known as Wildebeest, which is a 132-node Beowulf Cluster. Students do not occupy themselves with mere rehearsals of research methods, but move in the realm of true, hands-on research.
Departmental Research areas are listed here; click on any name for a detailed description of research interest & accomplishments. Some of the most recent research subjects of the members can be accessed here. For a complete list of faculty Research Interests click here>>
Algorithms
- Computational Geometry: Peter Brass
- Data Structure: Peter Brass
- Cryptography: Nelly Fazio, William Skeith
- Information Assurance: Kaliappa Ravindran, Nelly Fazio
- Systems Security: Izidor Gertner, Nelly Fazio
- Automatic Target Recognition: Izidor Gertner
- Computer Networks: Kaliappa Ravindran
- Database Systems: Akira Kawaguchi, Jianting Zhang
- Performance Measurement: Akira Kawaguchi
- Applied Cryptography: Nelly Fazio,
- Foundations of Cryptography: Nelly Fazio, William Skeith
- Group-Theoretic Cryptography: Nelly Fazio
- Discrete Geometry: Peter Brass
- Computer Graphics: George Wolberg, Michael Grossberg
- Computer Vision: Jie Wei, Zhigang Zhu, Michael Grossberg, George Wolberg
- Image Processing: Jie Wei, George Wolberg, Zhigang Zhu, Michael Grossberg
- Medical Computer: Jie Wei
- Multimodal Computing: Izidor Gertner, Jie Wei, Zhigang Zhu
- Pattern Recognition: Jie Wei, Michael Grossberg
- Programming Language Semantics: Douglas Troeger
- Functional Programming: Douglas Troeger
- Computer Algebra: Douglas Troeger
- Numerical Computation: Irina Gladkova
- Cyberinfrastructure: Jianting Zhang
- Computer Science Education: Douglas Troeger
- Organizational and Managerial Issues in Computing: Akira Kawaguchi
- Computational Group Theory: Douglas Troeger
- Parallel and Distributed Computation: Devendra Kumar, Kaliappa Ravindran
- Human Computer Interaction: Zhigang Zhu
Research Interests
Peter Brass
My research interests are topics connected with geometry and algorithms. Over the years I have visited many research topics. Currently I am active in computational geometry, data structures, sensor and ad-hoc networks, and robot motion strategies. I have written two books and about eighty research papers, belong to the editorial board of the Journal of Computational Geometry, and am one of the PIs of the ARO's Network Science CTA, in the Communication Networks ARC.
Nelly Fazio
I do research in cryptography and information security, with a focus on digital content protection. My recent research contributions relate to advanced cryptographic key management, broadcast encryption, tracing technologies, and authenticated communication in dynamic federated environments. I also work on the security issues of decentralized environments such as mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and sensor networks. Other topics of interest include Identity-Based Cryptography and Zero-Knowledge.
Izidor Gertner
My research interests are in the areas of Automatic Target Recognition, Time-Frequency Analysis, Hardware/Software co-design of real-time algorithms, Evolutionary Algorithms, Semantic Web. My research activities are supported by MDA, ONR, AFRL.
Irina Gladkova
My research interests are concerned with the general problem, important in radar and signal processing, of constructing waveforms capable of resolving targets in the presence of noise, multi-path, and Doppler effects. Current studies are in the area of waveform design for multiple access spread spectrum communications, multi-user radar systems, and other applications where combinations of doog ambiguity properties, low mutual interference and noise suppression are crucial. I am also currently involved in a numerical study of a various aspects of integro-differential systems that arise in nonlinear optics, in particular, in problems of propagation of electromagnetic waves in active dense two and three level media.
Michael Grossberg
My research subject is computer vision and more broadly sensing visual information. Visual information is central to a growing number of applications from monitoring the earth's environment from satellites, to uncovering the structure of the brain with MRI. My focus is to use physically accurate models of the sensing process to better interpret and manipulate visual information. For example, by modeling the sensor it should be possible to develop better compression methods. Besides simply modeling sensors, I am investigating improved sensing strategies and sensor design, including using active illumination such as projectors. Visual sensing can also be greatly in enhanced with multi-modal data through sensor fusion. I am pursuing projects along these themes with applications to remote sensing, medical imaging, computational vision, computer graphics and the human computer interface.
Akira Kawaguchi
A main focus of my research is to improve access to information on the World Wide Web, by developing methods for enhancing the automatic search process and presenting more useful search results to the user. I am currently extending and refining a developed meta-search engine as a research tool in the design and development of improved methods of capturing, filtering, organizing, and presenting search results. My other research interests center around the area of database and transaction processing systems.
Devendra Kumar
My main research interest is in Distributed Computing, including synchronization algorithms, petri nets, distributed simulation, termination detection, distributed graph algorithms, and correctness proofs. I am also interested in Computer Science Education, including semiformal program specification and verification, effective ways of communicating computer science concepts.
Kaliappa Ravindran
I currently pursue multi-pronged research activities in the areas of distributed & parallel systems, multi-service networks, multimedia information systems, and internet-based communication architectures. My major works have been in the directions of "dataflow"-style programming models for distributed embedded systems, concurrency control mechanisms for distributed collaborative settings, application-level programmability of core system functionalities, end-system mechanisms for QOS-adaptive communications over "best-effort" Internet, verifiable design of distributed protocols & programs, and predicate-monitoring based systems & network management.
William Skeith
My research interests are primarily in cryptography: in particular, private information retrieval and computing on encrypted data. I'm especially interested in the algebraic aspects of private computation and in communication complexity lower bounds for such protocols.
Douglas Troeger
My present work has as its main goal the understanding of methods by which algebraic manipulations of indefinite objects can be automated. If successful, this work will point the way to achieving a new level of abstraction in symbolic computation. Towards this end, I am building stream- and continuation- based software tools for addressing a variety of problems concerning parametrized families of finitely presented groups, and a system for manipulating indefinites. This work is supported by an NSF grant, under the auspices of the Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software of City College, and is joint with Gilbert Baumslag, and Professors Sean Cleary and William Sit of the Department of Mathematics.
Jie Wei
My research interests are signal processing, image processing, computer vision, multimodal computing, AI/ML and their applications in civil, biological, medical, and military applications. In civil engineering, sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab and US Dept. Of Transportation, multiple data modalities such as laser measurements, optical images, and LiDAR scans are combined to inspect and monitor bridges, highways, and dams using AI/ML and topological data analysis methods. In biological and medical computing, funded by NIH and NSF, multimodal medical data such as MRI, CT, ultrasound, and optical surface images are employed to detect tumors, trace respiratory movements during radiation therapy, and help communications between patients and doctors using deep learning and large language models. Funded and in close collaboration with Air Force research lab, Electro-Optical and Infra-Red (EO/IR) data, together with LiDAR and satellite imagery, are exploited and fused using AI/ML approaches to enable efficient and effective damage assessment of crucial interest to humanitarian assistance and disaster response endeavors and battlefield evaluations.
George Wolberg
My research interests lie in the areas of image processing, computer graphics, and computer vision. Some of my recent research work has addressed the following problems: 3D photography for importing high resolution 3D models of existing large-scale urban scenes, automatic image registration (alignment) of digital images, 3D registration of laser range scans, monotonic cubic spline interpolation, a general framework for morphing among multiple input images, image morphing from scattered feature constraints, scattered data interpolation using multilevel B-splines, and restoration of images scanned in the the presence of vibrations. I am one of the early pioneers in the area of image morphing, a powerful visual effects tool in film and television depicting the fluid transformation of one digital image into another. This work is documented in my book "Digital Image Warping", the first comprehensive book on warping and morphing.
Jianting Zhang
My research focuses on the management of geospatial and scientific data. In particular, my recent research interests include indexing and query processing of large-scale spatial data; Geographical Information System (GIS) applications; visual analytics of geo-referenced environmental data and cyber infrastructure development in support of scientific research.
Zhigang Zhu
My research interests include 3D computer vision, human-computer interaction (HCI), augmented reality, video representations, and various applications in education, environment, robotics, surveillance and transportation. My research activities include: an integrated visual navigation approach with panoramic, omnidirectional and stereo vision sensors; new 3D layered representations for image-based rendering and robot navigation; novel algorithms and systems of stereo mosaics for airborne video surveillance; view planning with heterogeneous visual sensors for distributed and cooperative robots, multimodal (EO/IR/acoustic) moving target detection/identification, and online virtualized classroom using image-based modeling/rendering, human tracking, and multi-modal information extraction for advanced e-learning. More details can be found at the City College Visual Computing Laboratory directed by Professor Zhigang Zhu.
Last Updated: 02/10/2025 12:09