In the past year, CeRVers received various recognitions and awards in teaching, research and leadership. Professor Klette has been awarded the Quancheng friendship award of Jinan (China), appointed as a Guest Professor at Wuhan University (China), and became an International Helmholtz Fellow (Germany). Dr Minh Nguyen has been accoladed as a Fellow of the HEA (Higer Education Academy). CeRV members authored two books, co-authored journal articles and conference papers (accepted or already published) at international events. Our CeRV students Noor Saleem and Hsiang-Jen Chien have received a best student paper award at a conference in Sweden, and their paper at IVCNZ 2017 has been selected for keynote presentation. Professor Lai and his student Jing Ma received the paper award from the conference M2VIP 2017(IEEE 24-th International Conference on Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice). The year 2017 has been a fruitful one for the Center for Robotics & Vision.
Guest Professor of Wuhan University China
Posted on December 01
Professor Reinhard Klette (FRSNZ), director of CeRV research center, has been appointed as a Guest Professor of Wuhan University (China), on application by the International School of Software (ISS) of this university. Vice-President International, Professor Fei LI, of Wuhan University remarked that Professor Klette’s involvement will benefit the relevant disciplines and subjects at Wuhan University, enhance the international collaboration and academic communications between Wuhan University and overseas universities, and promote the international impact of Wuhan University in the world. After the ceremony, Professor Klette addressed his speech entitled “Deep Learning Acceleration of Progress in Computer Vision” for over 70 staff and students of Wuhan University.
Welcome Our Visitors from SDAS China
Posted on November 28
Headed by Professor Mengde Liu, the Vice-president of Shandong Academy of Sciences (SDAS), Shandong China, a group of five delegates of SDAS visited the CeRV research center. The visitors have been warmly welcome by Auckland University of Technology at various levels, with an initial welcome by DVC Research, Professor John Raine. The visitors listened to the latest research results and developments at CeRV, heard about research awards and recognitions of CeRV in the fruitful year 2017, and informed about work at SDAS. The visitors met also with other AUT research groups and with the Boxfish company at Auckland. Surely, the group will bring the friendship and the best wishes of CeRV and of AUT in general, back to China.
The Winner of Quancheng Friendship Award
Posted on September 21
The Jinan Municipal People’s Government of Shangdong Province, China decided to confer the 2017 Quancheng Friendship Award to Prof. Reinhard Klette. The government’s award is to recognize foreign experts for their contributions and dedication to Jinan’s social development and economic construction. Professor Klette received this award for his continued friendly exchange and cooperation with institutions in Jinan. The award ceremony was held on 5 September 2017 at Jinan, a city of about 8 million people, in attendance of the mayor of this capital city of Shandong Province China.
The Multidisciplinary Computational Anatomy Project with Japan, 2017
Posted on September 18
Dr Minh Nguyen, in collaboration with his colleagues including Dr Harvey Ho (the University of Auckland), recently received an external grant for the research proposal entitled “A New Design of Augmented Reality for Anatomical Presentation and Education”. The research grant supports a visit of Dr Nguyen at Osaka University, Japan, to be taken between October 2017 to August 2018, for research in multidisciplinary computational anatomy. Dr Nguyen is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy of UK (FHEA), his expertise is in augmented reality and teaching & learning in higher education.
CeRV Retreat 2017 at Waiheke, Auckland
Posted on September 18
The CeRVers finished their 3 days fruitful retreat on 17 September 2017 at Palm Beach Lodge on Waiheke island, just 40 minutes away from the ferry terminal at Half Moon Bay, Auckland. Accompanied by scenic views, 11 presentations and demonstrations were performed at a picturesque place above Palm Beach. Clifftop, historic, and vineyard landscapes at early spring were also very much suitable for joint walks, with blooming flowers around everywhere.
The Best Student Paper Award at CAIP 2017
Posted on September 06
The paper entitled Improved Stixel Estimation Based on Transitivity Analysis in Disparity Space, co-authored by N. Saleem, H. Chien, M. Rezaei, and R. Klette received the “Best Student Paper Award” at CAIP 2017 in Sweden. It was an oral presentation at this conference, congratulation! The conference committee selected in total three papers for awards; the Best Student Paper Award was sponsored by Springer publishing house, London, UK. There had been 144 submissions to this conference, 72 had been accepted and 32 of those were chosen for oral presentation. There were 120 registered participants from 31 countries at CAIP 2017; CAIP 2019 will be at Salerno in Italy.
A New Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Posted on August 28
Dr Minh Nguyen has been made a “Fellow of the Higher Education Academy” (FHEA) as one part of the Ako Aronui* programme. This is a significant recognition of attainment against the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education. The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is a British professional institution promoting excellence in higher education. It is jointly owned by Universities UK, GuildHE and publicly funded. The HEA advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as a method of professional recognition for university teachers. The HEA is responsible for the UK Professional Standards Framework for higher education practitioners.
The Helmholtz International Fellow Award 2017
Posted on July 21
On 20 July 2017, the news from Berlin Germany reveals that the Helmholtz Association has honored five outstanding international scientists with the Helmholtz International Fellow Award. Prof. Reinhard Klette, as one of them from AUT CeRV center, New Zealand has received this highly commended award, nominated by DLR, German Aerospace Center, for his special distinction in the areas of research relevant to the Helmholtz Association. The prize money and further invitation will be offered.
The Springer Monograph in Intelligent Surveillance
Posted on July 04
Associate Professor Wei Qi Yan has his book: Introduction to Intelligent Surveillance (2nd edition) published with Springer International. The book was organized according to the pipeline of surveillance systems: surveillance data capturing, data encryption and transmission, object detection and recognition, biometrics, visual event computing, surveillance alarm making, deep learning and supercomputing, and so forth. The book is the first monograph in this field. The book can be used for undergraduate or postgraduate education.
A Student in Joint Programme with CJLU Will Receive His AUT Masters Degree
Posted on July 04
Our student Keji Zheng from the School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences will receive his MCIS degree from AUT for his contributions to the project entitled “Video Dynamics Detection using Deep Learning”. Keji was one of the first cohort of BCIS graduates of the joint programme between AUT and CJLU (China Jiliang University, Hangzhou China). After he received his bachelor degree at AUT in 2015, Keji followed his supervisors Dr Wei Qi Yan and Dr Parma Nand to Auckland, and continued his postgraduate studies in Computer Science at the main campus. Keji was also the recipient of the best poster award at the Summer Camp 2014 jointly organized by CJLU and AUT.
Invited Talks at Dalian University of Technology and Harbin Institute of Technology
Posted on July 04
Dr. Gisela Klette, honorary member of CeRV, and Professor Reinhard Klette presented each several invited talks at Dalian University of Technology (DLUT), and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China, also including the two opening talks at a multidisciplinary conference at DLUT on 26 and 27 June, 2017. The computer vision groups at DLUT and at HIT, chaired by Professors Zhixun Su and Wangmeng Zuo, are publishing at top-ranked conferences (e.g. CVPR) and in top-ranked journals (e.g. in IEEE Transactions PAMI). Future collaboration is planned between CeRV and those two groups.
Keynote Speech at ISICS 2018
Posted on July 04
Professor Reinhard Klette, director of CeRV, has been invited to deliver a keynote speech at the International Symposium on Intelligent Computing Systems (ISICS) which will be held in Merida, Mexico on March 21 – 23, 2018; see www.isics-symposium.org/invited-speakers. ISICS is organized by the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas (CIMAT), Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, and Universidad Politécnica de Yucatán. The ISICS proceedings will be published by Springer.
Further Steps in Collaboration with Wuhan University
Posted on May 02
Dr. Loulin Huang and Professor Reinhard Klette from CeRV both visited Wuhan University (WHU) in April 2017 for discussing further steps in joint work towards autonomous vehicles and joint educational activities. Professor Jinsheng Xiao, School of Electric Information of WHU, was the inviting host. Several meetings were aimed at specifying the joint experimental basis and subject areas of joint research. Professor Klette also provided two lectures and had a meeting with Professor Xiaohui Cui, Dean of International School of Software of WHU, as a follow-up to the MOU signed between AUT and WHU in December 2016.
New Book on Driver-Assistance in Modern Vehicles
Posted on March 07
Dr. Mahdi Rezaei (Qazvin Islamic Azad University, Iran, and honorary member of CeRV, AUT) and Professor Klette published with Springer, Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in March 2017 a book entitled “Computer Vision for Driver Assistance”. The book is especially focusing on analysing traffic environment and driver behaviour by using computer vision, and on correlating findings for analysing the need of warnings for the driver. For example, if an activity occurs near the vehicle which might potentially lead to a danger for the vehicle, and driver monitoring detects that the driver is not paying attention to this activity, then the driver needs to be guided to this imminent danger. The book is written in a way that it can also be used as an introduction into basic and advanced concepts of computer vision and learning, as used for solving the addressed vehicle-driver-environment monitoring tasks.
Boosting Incorporations with WHU and CSC China
Posted on March 05
CeRV has started up the co-operations with WHU and CSC China prior to the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Mr Qin Gu, the first CSC scholarship recipient of AUT is conducting his research with CeRV till November 2017, CeRV graduates Dr Dongwei Liu and Dr Junli Tao have completed their degree theses under the sponsorship of CSC China. Two CeRV students: Mr Noor Haitham Saleem and Mr Hsiang-Jen Chien have accomplished their internship work with Wuhan University China. CeRV is boosting a new round of incorporations with China.
Twofold Congratulations for CeRV PhD Graduands
Posted on February 16
How to reconstruct the 3D road scene while driving along in a car? When computer vision meets with art, what will happen? After two stunning PhD theses in new vehicle technologies and digital aesthetics accepted at the end of 2016 by the University of Auckland (UOA) after rigorous examinations, CeRV had two new graduands: Mr Haokun Geng and Mr Dongwei Liu (CSC-sponsored) supervised by Professor Klette (AUT). CeRV would like to dispatch dual packets of congrats generously to the two outstanding computer scientists.
General Chair of CST2017 Guilin China
Posted on February 08
Professor Reinhard Klette has been invited to be the General Chair of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Science and Technology (CST 2017) which will be held from May 26th to 28th in Guilin, China. The first issue of this new conference series (CST 2016, Shenzhen, China) attracted more than 300 submissions, only 142 of those had been accepted for presentation. Professor Klette is also invited to present a keynote at CST 2017 entitled “Towards Autonomous Driving: Vision-based Driver Assistant Systems”.
IEEE Fellow’s Talk at CeRV
Posted on January 27
Professor Zexiang Xiong from the Texas A&M University USA was invited to visit CeRV research center and delivered his talk in Adaptive Boosting (AB) based image denoising on the eve of the lunar new year of the Rooster. The awarded work using rank-1 based fixed-point analysis has shown its convergence iteratively, the weighted nuclear norm could assist in generating various images with noise removal. The beauty of mathematical presentation makes the academic address exciting.
Invited Talks 2017 at SJTU China
Posted on January 23
Professor Reinhard Klette had been invited by the Computer Science Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) for talks about his project on vision-based driver assistance (towards autonomous vehicles) and his 2014 book on “Concise Computer Vision”, published by Springer London. He visited SJTU in early January 2017. His meetings with AP Dr. Xu Zhao, head of the Computer Vision Lab at SJTU, and graduate students of his lab aimed at collaboration in the area of computer vision towards autonomous vehicles. Techniques for object detection and tracking appear to be of particular mutual interest.
