Faculty and Student Teams Program

R&D In the Areas of Biomedical Imaging, Industrial Inspection, and National Security

Requesting applications from science or engineering faculty members at institutions serving students underrepresented in science, engineering, mathematics and technology to work on the following project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Project Description

The Image Science and Machine Vision Group performs applied computer vision R&D in the areas of biomedical imaging, industrial inspection, and national security. A cross-cutting technology under development by the group is in the area of content-based image retrieval (CBIR). In industrial applications CBIR has been applied to the management of large image repositories for the resolution of yield issues in semiconductor wafer manufacturing. In geographic information systems applications, CBIR has been applied to the indexing and sorting of vast quantities of earth imagery to assist analysts in the discovery of man-made structures. In the biomedical field these technologies are being applied to aid in the diagnoses of blinding eye disease and to organize and reuse small animal imagery from x-ray and SPECT imaging modes. In this project the faculty and student candidates will support the investigation and evaluation of new methods for generalizing CBIR methods across these various applications. Along with a comprehensive literature review on CBIR feature analysis and indexing methods, the candidates will participate in research and development related to image analysis, such as regions segmentation, feature analysis, and the development of methods for characterizing the performance of CBIR systems. For the period of this project, the candidates will work with one of two extensive databases that reflect current research in the group: (1) a database of diagnosed human retina imagery generated from color and red-free fundus cameras along with associated fluorescein angiography sequences; and (2) a database of small animal imagery consisting of CT and SPECT data representing mouse models used for rapid phenotyping and disease studies.

Laboratory Contact: Ken Tobin, tobinkwjr@ornl.gov

Applicants Responsibilities and Relationship to Project

Applicants will receive support under the Department of Energy Faculty Student Team Research Program (FaST) to work collaboratively with the project research team at the Laboratory for up to 10 weeks during the summer of 2008. The exact appointment period in the time frame of June to August will be scheduled by mutual agreement between the host divisions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the successful applicant. Faculty will be expected to identify students from their campuses to participate in the FaST program. The faculty member will provide some mentorship to students during the summer research activities. The faculty and students must participate as a group and serve their appointments concurrently. It is expected that the faculty member and the students become an integral part of the research team working on this project and that opportunities for continued collaboration may be identified.

Qualifications of Ideal Candidate

The candidates should have a background in electrical and/or computer engineering and experience in applied computer vision science, methods, and technology. Specifically, this should include a working knowledge of image processing, feature analysis, and pattern recognition. Aspects of the research that the candidate will investigate and support include image processing, feature analysis and description, and content-based image retrieval methods. The candidates should have programming experience with Visual C++, Visual Basic, and MATLAB. Experience and knowledge with database technologies such as MySQL, SQL Server, ORACLE, or MS Access will be helpful but is not essential.

Support and Financial Commitments

The successful candidate will receive a stipend based on the academic salary, travel expenses to and from the Laboratory, and a housing allowance. Students recommended by the faculty member for participation in the program will receive a stipend of $400/week for each week at the Laboratory, plus a housing allowance, and reimbursement for transportation expenses to and from the ORNL. Funds are provided for this program from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation, from ORNL, and from other sources.

See Financial Information.