Saurabh Prasad, an expert in signal and image processing and analysis, has joined the faculty of the Cullen College’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Prasad earned his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University in 2008 and then served as a research assistant professor with that institution until earlier this year. He joined the Cullen College in January as a research assistant professor and will take a tenure-track assistant professor post this fall.
Prasad will conduct his research out of the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, a National Science Foundation-funded center led by Ramesh Shrestha, professor of civil and environmental engineering.
His work will focus on advancing state-of-the-art algorithms to analyze remotely sensed imagery and data, such as those acquired via airborne and spaceborne platforms.
There is a wide range of applications for such image and signal processing, said Prasad.
“My research group will have capabilities to take remotely sensed data and perform robust characterization and identification of objects of interest in the scene,” he said. “The gamut of applications that would benefit from such research is wide — from target recognition and anomaly detection for national security to earth science research, such as characterizing vegetation stress in response to a natural disaster, monitoring biodiversity, mapping the spread of invasive vegetation species etc. Modern day sensors have come a long way in their ability to capture information, but these advances pose unique challenges for optimal analytics — and therein lies an opportunity for exciting new research.”