Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Receives Prestigious NSF Award 
For release: May 12, 2008
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey, 901-678-2843

Dr. Mohammed Yeasin, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Memphis’ Herff College of Engineering, received a $494,919 National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Award for his research in “Co-Analysis of Signal and Sense for Understanding Non-verbal Communications and Their Applications.” The Career Award is the most prestigious award junior faculty members can receive from the NSF. The grant will be used to advance his research and educational programs.

Yeasin joined the U of M faculty in 2005. He leads the Computer Vision, Pattern and Image Analysis Laboratory and works in the areas of computer vision, data mining, bio-informatics/computational biology, pattern recognition, and human computer interfaces.

Yeasin has made significant contributions in the research and development of real-time computer vision solutions for academic research and commercial applications. He has been involved with several technological innovations, including face detection, classifying gender, age group, ethnicity, emotions, recognition of human activities in video, and speech-gesture enabled sophisticated human-computer interfaces. Some of his research on facial image analysis and hand gesture recognition is used in developing several commercial products by Videomining Inc.

The Faculty Early Career Award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This award is the fourth that faculty in the Herff College have received in the past 10 years.

The Herff College of Engineering at the University of Memphis offers undergraduate programs in biomedical, civil, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering, and in computer, electronics, and  manufacturing engineering technology. Graduate programs are offered in biomedical (in partnership with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center), computer, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering, and in engineering technology.

For more information about Dr. Yeasin’s research, go online to www.cvpia.org or contact him at myeasin@memphis.edu