Dr. YingLi Tian is a CUNY Distinguished Professor in Department of Electrical Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY) and Department of Computer Science at the Graduate Center, the City University of New York. She received her PhD from the Department of Electronic Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1996. Her research is focused on computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, assistive technology, medical imaging analysis, and remote sensing. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conferences in these areas (Google Scholar), and holds 29 issued patents. Her research has been supported by NSF, NIH, ONR, DHS, FHWA, ARO, CUNY, CCNY, as well as industry sponsors.

She is a pioneer in automatic facial expression analysis, human activity understanding, and assistive technology. Dr. Tian’s research on automatic facial expression analysis and database development, while she worked at Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, has made significant impact in the research community and received “FG2019 Test of Time Award.” Before joined CCNY, Dr. Tian was a research staff member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and led the video analytics team. She received the IBM Outstanding Innovation Achievement Award in 2007 and the IBM Invention Achievement Awards every year from 2002 to 2007. Since Dr. Tian joined CCNY in Fall 2008, she has been focusing on assistive technology by applying computer vision and machine learning technologies to help people with special needs including the blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard-of-hearing, and the elderly. She serves as associate editors for IEEE Trans. on Multimedia (TMM), Computer Vision and Image Understanding (CVIU), and Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation (JVCI). She is a Fellow of IEEE.

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996
• M.S., Thermophysical Engineering, Tianjin University, China, 1990
• B.S., Precision Instrument and Opto-Electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, China, 1987

• EE 21000 Switching Systems
• EE 47100 Introduction to Digital Image Processing
• EE I2200 Image Processing

Computer vision, multi-sensor fusion, human-computer interaction, remote sensing, and pattern recognition.

C. Yi, Y. Tian, and A. Arditi, "Portable Camera-based Assistive Text and Product Label Reading from Hand-held Objects for Blind Persons," IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, accepted, 2013. 10.1109/TMECH.2013.2261083

X. Yang and Y. Tian. Texture Representations Using Subspace Embeddings. Pattern Recognition Letters (PRL), 34(10):1130-1137, 2013.

X. Yang and Y. Tian, Effective 3D Action Recognition Using Eigenjoints, Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation (JVCIR), Special Issue on Visual Understanding and Applications with RGBD Cameras, Accepted, 2013.

F. Hasanuzzaman, X. Yang, and Y. Tian, Monitoring Activity of Taking Medicine by Incorporating RFID and Video Analysis, Network Modeling Analysis in Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, July 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 61-70. DOI: 10.1007/s13721-013-0025-y.

S. Wang, X. Yang, and Y. Tian, Detecting Signage and Doors for Blind Navigation and Wayfinding, Network Modeling Analysis in Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, July 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 81-93.

C. Yi, R. Flores, R. Chincha, and Y. Tian, Finding Objects for Assisting Blind People, Network Modeling Analysis in Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, July 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 71-79. DOI: 10.1007/s13721-013-0026-x

A. Arditi and Y. Tian, "User Interface Preferences in the Design of a Camera-Based Navigation and Wayfinding Aid," Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, Vol. 107, Number 2, pp118-129, March-April, 2013.

S. Chen, Y. Tian, Q. Liu, and D. Metaxas, Recognizing Expressions from Face and Body Gesture by Temporal Normalized Motion and Appearance Features, Image and Vision Computing, Volume 31 Issue 2, February, Pages 175-185, 2013, DOI: 10.1016/j.imavis.2012.06.014

Y. Tian, L. Cao, Z. Liu, and Z. Zhang, Action Detection by Fusing Hierarchically Filtered Motion With Spatiotemporal Interest Point Features, In book Human Behavior Recognition Technologies: Intelligent Applications for Monitoring and Security, by IGI Global, Hans Guesgen and Stephen Marsland (Eds.), ISBN 978-1-4666-3682-8 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-3683-5 (ebook), 2013.

Y. Tian, X. Yang, C. Yi, and A. Arditi, "Toward a Computer Vision-based Wayfinding Aid for Blind Persons to Access Unfamiliar Indoor Environments," Machine Vision and Applications, Issue 24, No. 3, April 2013, pp. 521-535. DOI: 10.1007/s00138-012-0431-7. NIHMSID # 371367

C. Yi and Y. Tian, Text Extraction from Scene Images by Character Appearance and Structure Modeling, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, Vol. 117, No. 2, pp. 182-194, 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.cviu.2012.11.002, NIHMS #424449

C. Zhang and Y. Tian, "RGB-D Camera-based Daily Living Activity Recognition," Journal of Computer Vision and Image Processing, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 2012.

C. Yi and Y. Tian, "Localizing Text in Scene Images by Boundary Clustering, Stroke Segmentation, and String Fragment Classification,"IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 21, No. 9,pp4256-4268, 2012. PMID:22614647

S. Wang, C. Yi, and Y. Tian, "Signage Detection and Recognition for Blind Persons to Access Unfamiliar Environments," Journal of Computer Vision and Image Processing, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012.

Y. Tian and S. Chen, Understanding Effects of Image Resolution for Facial Expression Analysis, Journal of Computer Vision and Image Processing, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2012.

S. Chen and Y. Tian, Describing Visual Scene through EigenMaps, Journal of Computer Vision and Image Processing, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2012.

C. Yi and Y. Tian, Assistive Text Reading from Complex Background for Blind Persons, In book Camera-Based Document Analysis and Recognition, the 4th International Workshop on (CBDAR'11), Revised Selected Papers, Masakazu Iwamura and Faisal Shafait (Eds), Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, Vol. 7139, pp15-28, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, ISSN 0302-9743, 2012.

F. Hasanuzzaman, X. Yang, and Y. Tian, Robust and Effective Component-based Banknote Recognition for the Blind, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics--Part C: Applications and Reviews, Jan. 2012. PMCID: PMC3363999

Y. Tian, A. Senior, and M. Lu, Robust and Efficient Foreground Analysis in Complex Surveillance Videos, Machine Vision and Applications, Volume 23, Issue 5, Page 967-983, 2012.

H. Gunes, C. Shan, S. Chen, and Y. Tian, Bodily Expression for Automatic Affect Recognition, In Advances in Emotion Recognition, A. Konar, A. Chakraborty (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Y. Tian, L. Cao, Z. Liu, and Z. Zhang, Hierarchical Filtered Motion for Action Recognition in Crowded Videos, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics--Part C: Applications and Reviews, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp313-323, 2012.

S. Yuan, Y. Tian, and A. Arditi, Clothing Matching for Visually Impaired Persons, Technology and Disability, Vol. 23, 2011. PMCID: PMC3328861

C. Yi and Y. Tian, Text String Detection from Natural Scenes by Structure-based Partition and Grouping, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 20, Issue 9, 2011, PMID: 21411405, PMCID: PMC3337634.

Y. Tian, R. Feris, H. Liu, A. Hampapur, and M. Sun, Robust Detection of Abandoned and Removed Objects in Complex Surveillance Videos, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics--Part C: Applications and Reviews, Vol. 41, Issue 5, 2011.

R. Feris, A. Hampapur, Y. Zhai, R. Bobbitt, L. Brown, D. Vaquero, Y-L. Tian. H. Liu and M-T. Sun, Case Study: IBM Smart Surveillance System, in book of Intelligent Video Surveillance: Systems and Technology, by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. 2009.

Y. Tian, R. Feris, L. Brown, D. Vaquero, Y. Zhai and A. Hampapur, Multi-Scale Person Detection and Motion Analysis for Video Surveillance, in book of Machine Learning for Human Motion Analysis: Theory and Practice, by Idea Group Inc. 2009.

Y. Zhai, Y-L. Tian, R. Feris, L. Brown, R. Bobbitt, A. Hampapur, and S. Velipasalar, Composite Event Detection in Multi-Camera and Multi-Sensor Surveillance Networks, in book of Multi-Camera Networks: Concepts and Applications, by Elsevier. 2009.

Systems (FACS), Second Edition, Edited by Paul Ekman and Erika L. Rosenberg, Elsevier Science Publishers, Oxford University Press,2005.

A. Senior, A. Hampapur, L. Brown, Y. Tian, C. Shu and S. Pankanti, Distributed Active Multi-camera Networks,Ambient Intelligence ed. P.Remagnino. G.L. Foresti and T.Ellis. Kluwer Publishing 2004.

Y. Tian, T. Kanade and J. F. Cohn, Facial Expression Analysis, In book Handbook of Face Recognition, Edited by Stan Li and A.K. Jain, Springer-Verlag January, 2004.

Y. Tian, Automatic Facial Expression Analysis, Robotics and Machine Perception, SPIE International Technical Group Newsletter, 2004.

K. Schmidt, J. F. Cohn and Y. Tian, Signal characteristics of spontaneous facial expressions: Automatic movement in solitary and social smiles, Biological Psychology, 65, 49-66, 2003.

S. Pankanti, A. Senior, L. Brown, A. Hampapur, Y. Tian, and R. Bolle, Security, Privacy, and Health,IEEE Pervasive Computing Work in Progress, Volume 2 No. 1, January-March 2003. p. 96

Y. Tian, T. Kanade and J. F. Cohn, Recognizing Action Units for Facial Expression Analysis, In book Multi-modal interface for human machine communication, Machine perception and artificial intelligence series. 2002

Y. Tian, T. Kanade and J. F. Cohn, Recognizing Action Units for Facial Expression Analysis, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 23, No. 2, February, 2001

K. Schmidt, V. Monaco, B. Peters, J. VanSwearingen, Y. Tian, and J. F. Cohn, Relation between automatic tracking of lip-corner motion and facial surface EMG of the zygomaticus major muscle during spontaneous smiles, Society for Psychophysiological Research, San Diego, October, 2000.

Y. Tian, H. Tsui, S. Yeung and S. Ma, Shape from Shading for Multiple Light Sources, Journal of Optical Society of America A, pp36-52, Vol. 16, No. 1, Jan. 1999.

Y. Tian and S. Ma, Shape Recovery by Neural Network in Unknown Light Environment, ACTA Optical Sinica, Vol. 25, No. 2, March, 1999.

Y. Tian and S. Ma, 3D Shape Recovery by Genetic Algorithm, Journal of Image and Graphics (in Chinese), Vol. 4(A), 1999.

Y. Tian and S. Ma, Extended Spherical light based Shape from Shading, ACTA Optical Sinica, Vol. 18, No. 10, Oct., 1998.

Y. Xu, C. Xu, Y. Tian and S. Ma, 3D Face Image Acquisition and Reconstruction System, Journal of Image and Graphics (in Chinese), Vol.3, No.2, 1998.

Y. Tian and H. Tsui, Shape Recovery from a Color Image for Non-Lambertian Surface, Journal of Optical Society of America A, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp397--404, Feb. 1997.