Degree(s):

• Ph. D., Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 2007
• M.A., Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 2004
• M.S., Electrical Sciences and Computer Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2001
• B.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, 1999

Research Interests:

• Computer vision
• Video/image processing
• Wireless smart camera networks (Wi-SCaNs)
• Distributed smart camera systems
• Mobile camera applications
• Multi-camera multi-object tracking
• Video event detection
• Object recognition
• Image understanding and multimedia
• Pattern recognition
• Detection and estimation
• Statistical learning
• Signal processing

Current Research:

Dr. Velipasalar’s primary areas of research are embedded computer vision, mobile camera applications and wireless embedded smart cameras, which combine sensing, processing and communication on a single embedded platform. Dr. Velipasalar has been working on designing resource-efficient algorithms that are suitable for embedded platforms, fall detection, step counting and activity classification with wearable cameras, traffic light detection and alert signal detection with vehicle-mounted cameras, distributed target detection and tracking across overlapping and non-overlapping cameras, and resource allocation strategies and detection of events of interest on embedded smart cameras. Potential uses include military surveillance, public transportation, health care and elder care, traffic systems, and industrial and retail applications.

Lab website: www.vision.syr.edu

Courses Taught:

• Image and Video Processing
• Multi-camera Systems
• Introduction to Embedded System Design
• Electrical Engineering Fundamentals

Honors/Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award, 2011
• 2014 Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award
• Graduate School All University Doctoral Prize, received by Dr. Velipasalar’s former Ph.D. student Akhan Almagambetov, 2014.
• Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) of NY Best ITS Student Essay Award, received by Dr. Velipasalar’s former Ph.D. student Akhan Almagambetov, based on their research on vehicle taillight tracking and alert signal detection, May 2013.
• The college-wide award for “Applicability of Research to Business and Industry”, Nunan Lecture and Research Day, April 2013.
• Third place paper award at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras for the paper titled “Energy-efficient Feedback Tracking on Embedded Smart Cameras by Hardware-level Optimization”, 2011
• EPSCoR First Award, 2009
• UNL Layman Award as Co-PI, 2009
• Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo (ICME) for the paper titled “Design and Verification of Communication Protocols for
• Peer-to-Peer Multimedia Systems,” 2006
• IBM Patent Application Award, 2005
• Travel Grant, Office of Graduate Affairs, Princeton University, 2005
• Graduate Fellowship, Princeton University, 2002
• Graduate Fellowship, Brown University, 1999
• NETAS Scholarship given on highly selective basis to successful engineering students, 1999
• Sabanci Scholarship for outstanding success at the university entrance examination, 1994
• The award from Is Bank to the top 70 students, out of about 1 million, in the university entrance examination, 1994

Selected Publications:

(Please visit http://ecs.syr.edu/faculty/velipasalar/ for a complete list)

Books Edited

Christophe Bobda and Senem Velipasalar, “Distributed Embedded Smart Cameras: Architectures, Design and Applications,” Springer, 273 pages, ISBN: 978-1-4614-7704-4 (Print) 978-1-4614-7705-1 (Online), 2014.

http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4614-7705-1

http://www.amazon.com/Distributed-Embedded-Smart-Cameras-Architectures/dp/1461477042

Book Chapters

Senem Velipasalar and Mauricio Casares, “Resource-efficient Foreground Detection with Embedded Smart Cameras” in “Background Modeling and Foreground Detection for Video Surveillance,” Editors: Thierry Bouwmans, Fatih Porikli, Benjamin Hferlin, Antoine Vacavant, Chapman and Hall/CRC, July 25, 2014.

Deli Qiao, M. Cenk Gursoy, and Senem Velipasalar, “Green Wireless Communications under Quality of Service Constraints” in “Green Communications: Theoretical Fundamentals, Algorithms and Applications,” Editors: Jinsong Wu, Sundeep Rangan, Honggang Zhang, CRC Press, pp. 321-352, February 2012.

Zhai, R. Feris, L. Brown, R. Bobbitt, A. Hampapur, S. Pankanti, Q. Fan, A. Yanagawa, Y.-L. Tian and S. Velipasalar, “Composite Event Detection in Multi-Camera and Multi-Sensor Surveillance Networks” in “Multi-Camera Networks: Concepts and Applications,” Editors: Hamid Aghajan, Andrea Cavallaro, Elsevier, pp. 457-482, 2009.

Dimitrova, J. Zimmerman, A. Janevski, L. Agnihotri, N. Haas, D. Li, R. Bolle, S. Velipasalar, T. McGee, and L. Nikolovska, “Media Augmentation and Personalization through Multimedia Processing and Information Extraction” in “Personalized Digital Television. Targeting programs to individual users,” Editors: L. Ardissono, A. Kobsa and M. Maybury, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 203-234, 2004. http://www.wkap.nl/prod/b/1-4020-2163-1/

http://www.di.unito.it/~liliana/TV-BOOK/

Journal Papers (Refereed) – Accepted/Appeared

Ye, G. Ozcan, M.C. Gursoy, S. Velipasalar, “Multimedia Transmission over Cognitive Radio Channels under Sensing Uncertainty,” to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 2015.

Almagambetov, S. Velipasalar and A. Baitassova, “Mobile Standards-based Traffic Light Detection in Assistive Devices for Individuals with Color-Vision Deficiency,” IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 16, issue 3, pp. 1305-1320, June 2015.

Almagambetov and S. Velipasalar, “Robust and Computationally Lightweight Autonomous Tracking of Vehicle Taillights and Signal Detection by Embedded Smart Cameras,” IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, vol.62, issue 6, pp. 3732-3741, June 2015.

Li, M. C Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “On the Throughput of Hybrid-ARQ under Statistical Queuing Constraints,” IEEE Trans. on Vehicular Technology, vol. 64, issue 6. pp. 2725-2732, June 2015.

Ozcan, A. K. Mahabalagiri, M. Casares and S. Velipasalar, “Automatic Fall Detection and Activity Classification by a Wearable Embedded Smart Camera,” IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 125-136, June 2013.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy and S. Velipasalar, “Achievable Throughput Regions of Fading Broadcast and Interference Channels under QoS Constraints,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 69, issue 9, pp. 3730-3740, Sept. 2013.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy and S. Velipasalar, “Effective Capacity of Two-Hop Wireless Communication Systems,” IEEE Trans. on Information Theory, vol. 59, issue 2, pp. 873-885, Febr. 2013.

Wang, S. Velipasalar and M. C. Gursoy, “Distributed Wide-area Multi-object Tracking with Non-overlapping Camera Views,” Springer Int’l Journal on Multimedia Tools and Applications, 31 pages, Nov. 2012 (DOI 10.1007/s11042-012-1267-x).

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy and S. Velipasalar, “Energy Efficiency in Multiaccess Fading Channels under QoS Constraints,” EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2012:136, April 2012.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, S. Velipasalar, “Transmission Strategies in Multiple-Access Fading Channels with Statistical QoS Constraints,” IEEE Trans. on Information Theory, vol. 58, issue 3, pp. 1578-1593, March 2012.

Casares and S. Velipasalar, “Adaptive Methodologies for Energy-efficient Object Detection and Tracking with Battery-powered Embedded Smart Cameras,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 21, issue 10, pp. 1438-1452, October 2011.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, S. Velipasalar, “Secure Wireless Communication and Optimal Power Control under Statistical Queueing Constraints,” IEEE Trans. on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 628-639, Sept. 2011.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Energy Efficiency in the Low-SNR Regime under Queueing Constraints and Channel Uncertainty,” IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 2006-2017, July 2011.

Sharma, D. Bullock, S. Velipasalar, M. Casares, J. Schmitz, N. Burnett, “Improving Safety and Mobility at High-Speed Intersections with Innovations in Sensor Technology,” Transportation Research Record, TRR 2259, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, pp.253-263, 2011.

Wang, S. Velipasalar and M. Casares, “Cooperative Object Tracking and Composite Event Detection with Wireless Embedded Smart Cameras,” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 19, issue 10, pp. 2614-2633, Oct. 2010.

Casares, S. Velipasalar, A. Pinto, “Light-weight Salient Foreground Detection for Embedded Smart Cameras,” Computer Vision and Image Understanding, vol. 114, issue 11, pp. 1223-1237, 2010.

Velipasalar, L. M. Brown and A. Hampapur, “Detection of User-defined, Semantically High-level, Composite Events, and Retrieval of Event Queries,” Multimedia Tools and Applications, Springer, vol. 50, issue 1, pp. 249-278, 2010.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar “A Noncooperative Power Control Game in Multi-Access Fading Channels with QoS Constraints,” Physical Communication (Elsevier), vol. 3, issue 2, pp. 97-104, June 2010.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “The Impact of QoS Constraints on the Energy Efficiency of Fixed-Rate Wireless Transmissions,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 5957–5969, Dec. 2009.

C. Gursoy, D. Qiao, and S. Velipasalar, “Analysis of Energy Efficiency in Fading Channels under QoS constraints,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 4252-4263, Aug. 2009.

Conference Papers (Refereed) – Accepted/Appeared

Ozcan and S. Velipasalar, “Robust and Reliable Step Counting by Mobile Phone Cameras,” to appear in the Proc. Of the Int’l Conf. on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Sept. 2015.

Cornacchia and S. Velipasalar, “Scale Estimation with Difference of Ordered Residuals,” to appear in the Proc. of the 2015 IEEE Intl Conf. on Image Processing (ICIP), Sept. 2015.

Ye, G. Ozcan, M. C. Gursoy, S. Velipasalar, “Image Transmission over Cognitive Radio Systems with Channel and Sensing Uncertainty,” to appear in the Proc. of the IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), Dec. 2015.

Li, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Throughput and Mode Selection in Two-way MIMO Systems under Queuing Constraints,” Proc. of the 2015 IEEE Intl Conf. on Communications (ICC).

Ye, G. Ozcan, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Image and Video Transmission in Cognitive Radio Systems under Sensing Uncertainty,” Proc. of the 2015 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), March 2015.

Li, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “On the Throughput of ARQ over Multiple-Access Relay Fading Channels with Queueing Constraints,” Proc. of the 2015 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), March 2015.

Ye, G. Ozcan, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Uncoded Image Transmission in Cognitive Radio Systems,” Proc. of the IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), 2014.

Scalzo and S. Velipasalar, “Agglomerative Clustering for Feature Point Grouping,” Proc. Of the 2014 IEEE Intl Conf. on Image Processing (ICIP).

Scalzo and S. Velipasalar, “Autonomous Multi-Scale Object Detection with Hough Forests,” Proc. of the 2014 IEEE Intl Conf. on Image Processing (ICIP).

Yonga, Alfredo G. C. Junior, M. Mefenza, L. Saldanha, C. Bobda, S. Velipasalar, “Self-Coordinated Target Assignment and Camera Handoff in Distributed Network of Embedded Smart Cameras,” Proc. of the ACM/IEEE Int’l Conf. on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Nov. 2014.

Zheng, K. Ozcan, S. Velipasalar, H. Shen, Q. Qiu, “Energy Efficient Tracking by Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling on Android Smart Phones, Proc. of the ACM/IEEE Int’l Conf. on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Nov. 2014.

K. Mahabalagiri, K. Ozcan and S. Velipasalar, “Camera Motion Detection for Mobile Smart Cameras Using Segmented Edge-Based Optical Flow,” Proc. of the IEEE Int’l Conf. on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), Aug. 2014.

Zheng, C. Ye and S. Velipasalar, “Energy Efficient Image Transmission using Wireless Embedded Smart Cameras,” Proc. of the IEEE Intl Conf. on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), Aug. 2014.

Li, G. Ozcan, M. C. Gursoy, S. Velipasalar, “Energy Efficiency of Hybrid-ARQ Systems under QoS Constraints,” Proc. of the 48th Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Princeton University, 2014.

Bandara, L. Hirshfield, S. Velipasalar, “Insights into User Personality and Learning Style through Cross Subject fNIRS Classification,” Proc. of HCI International 2014.

Sommer, L. Hirshfield, S. Velipasalar, “Our Emotions as Seen Through a Webcam,” Proc. Of HCI International 2014.

Ozcan, A. K. Mahabalagiri and S. Velipasalar, “Fall Detection and Activity Classification using a Wearable Smart Camera,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conf. on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), pp. 1-6, July 2013.

Ye, Y. Zheng, S. Velipasalar and M. C. Gursoy, “Energy-Aware and Robust Task (Re)Assignment in Embedded Smart Camera Networks,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conf. on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), pp. 123-128, August 2013.

Li, S. Velipasalar and M. C. Gursoy, “An Improved Evolutionary Algorithm for Fundamental Matrix Estimation,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conf. on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), pp. 226-231, August 2013.

Mahabalagiri, K. Ozcan and S. Velipasalar, “A Robust Edge-Based Optical Flow Method for Elderly Activity Classification with Wearable Smart Cameras,” Proc. of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2013.

Zheng, A. Mahabalagiri and S. Velipasalar, “Detection of Moving People with Mobile

Cameras by Fast Motion Segmentation,” Proc. of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2013.

Li, D. Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “On the Throughput of Two-Way Relay

Systems under Queueing Constraints,” Proc. of the IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom), Atlanta, Dec. 2013.

Almagambetov, M. Casares and S. Velipasalar, “Autonomous Tracking of Vehicle Rear Lights and Detection of Brakes and Turn Signals,” Proc. of the IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Security and Defense Applications (CISDA), pp. 1-7, July 2012.

Gawde, K. Joshi and S. Velipasalar, “Lightweight and Robust Shadow Removal for Foreground Detection,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conf. on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), pp. 264-269, Sept. 2012.

Casares, A. Almagambetov and S. Velipasalar, “A Robust Algorithm for the Detection of Vehicle Turn Signals and Brake Lights,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conf. on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS), Sept. 2012.

Almagambetov, M. Casares, S. Velipasalar, “Autonomous Tracking of Vehicle Taillights from a Mobile Platform using an Embedded Smart Camera,” Proc. of the ACM/IEEE Int’l Conf. on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Oct. 30- Nov. 2, 2012.

Mauricio Casares, Koray Ozcan, Akhan Almagambetov and Senem Velipasalar, “Automatic Fall Detection by a Wearable Embedded Smart Camera,” Proc. of the ACM/IEEE Int’l Conf. on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), Oct. 30- Nov. 2, 2012.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Energy Efficiency in Multiaccess Fading Channels under QoS Constraints,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), June 2012.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “The Impact of Half-Duplex Relaying on the Effective Capacity of Two-Hop Communication Systems,” Prof. of the Annual Conference on Information Sciences and Systems (CISS), Princeton University, March 2012.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Throughput Regions for Fading Interference Channels under Statistical QoS Constraints,” accepted to the IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom), 2012.

Sharma, M. Casares, S. Velipasalar, D. Bullock, “Wide Area Detection for Reducing Dilemma Zone Incursions at Isolated High Speed Intersections: Opportunities and Challenges,” Proc. of the 18th World Congress on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2011.

Casares, P. Santinelli, S. Velipasalar, R. Cucchiara, A. Prati, “Energy-efficient Feedback Tracking on Embedded Smart Cameras by Hardware-level Optimization”, Proc. of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras, August 2011 (received the 3rd place paper award).

He, Y. Wang, S. Velipasalar, M. C. Gursoy, “Human Detection using Mobile Embedded Smart Cameras”, Proc. of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras, August 2011.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Effective Capacity Region and Optimal Power Control for Fading Broadcast Channels,” Proc. of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), Aug. 2011.

Wang, S. Velipasalar and M. C. Gursoy, “Wide-area Multi-object Tracking with Non-overlapping Camera Views”, Proc. of the IEEE Int’l Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), July 2011.

Casares, P. Santinelli, S. Velipasalar, A. Prati and R. Cucchiara, “Energy-efficient Foreground Object Detection on Embedded Smart Cameras by Hardware-level Operations,” Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (CVPRW), June 2011.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Channel Coding over Multiple Coherence Blocks with Queueing Constraints,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), June 2011.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “On the Effective Capacity of Two-Hop Communication Systems,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), June 2011.

Pinto, Z. Zhang, X. Dong, S. Velipasalar, M. C. Vuran, and M. C. Gursoy, “Analysis of the Accuracy-Latency-Energy Tradeoff for Wireless Embedded Camera Networks”, Proc. of the 2011 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), March 2011.

Sharma, D. Bullock, S. Velipasalar, M. Casares, J. Schmitz, N. Burnett, “Improving Safety and Mobility at High-Speed Intersection with Innovations in Sensor Technology,” Proc. of the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Jan. 2011.

Wang, L. He and S. Velipasalar, “Real-time Distributed Tracking with Non-Overlapping Cameras,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), September 2010.

Casares and S. Velipasalar, “Resource-Efficient Salient Foreground Detection for Embedded Smart Cameras by Tracking Feedback,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-Based Surveillance (AVSS), 2010.

Casares and S. Velipasalar, “An Adaptive Method for Energy-Efficiency in Battery-Powered Embedded Smart Cameras,” Proc. of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC), September 2010.

Qiao, M. C. Gursoy, and S. Velipasalar, “Secure Broadcasting over Fading Channels with Statistical QoS Constraints”, Proc. of the IEEE Global Communications Conference (Globecom), pp. 1-5, December 2010.