Vijayakumar Bhagavatula
Director, CMU-Africa
U.A. & Helen Whitaker Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Vijayakumar Bhagavatula received his B.Tech. and M.Tech. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Since 1982, he has been a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carnegie Mellon where he is now the U.A. & Helen Whitaker Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also served as the Associate Dean for Graduate and Faculty Affairs for the College of Engineering from July 2010 to March 2017. Professor Kumar served as the Associate Department Head of the ECE Department from 1994 to 1996, as the Acting Head of the ECE Department from 2004 to 2005, as the Interim Dean of the College of Engineering from August to December of 2012 and as the Interim Vice Provost for Research (VPR) in 2017. In January 2018, he joined CMU-Africa as its Director.
Kumar’s research interests include computer vision and pattern recognition algorithms and applications and coding and signal processing for data storage systems. His publications include the book Correlation Pattern Recognition, twenty-two book chapters, more than 410 conference papers and 210 journal papers. He is also the co-inventor of 12 patents. He served as a topical editor for Applied Optics and as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. Kumar has served on many conference program committees and was a co-chair of the 2008-2010 SPIE conferences on Biometric Technology for Human Identification, a co-program chair of the 2012 IEEE Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems(BTAS) conference and a Program Committee co-chair for the 2015 International Conference on Biometrics(ICB). Kumar is a Fellow of IEEE, SPIE, OSA, IAPR (the International Association of Pattern Recognition), AAAS and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). In 2003, Kumar received the Eta Kappa Nu Award for Excellence in Teaching in the ECE Department at Carnegie Mellon and the Carnegie Institute of Technology’s Dowd Fellowship for educational contributions, and he was a co-recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Faculty Research Award in Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering. In 2019, the CMU College of Engineering selected him as the inaugural recipient of the CIT Faculty Outstanding Service Award.
Generating Maps from GPS Data
Education
1980 Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
1977 Master of Technology, Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
1975 Bachelor of Technology, Electrical Engineering, Indian institute of Technology, Kanpur
Affiliations
Media mentions
CMU Engineering
CMU-Africa mobilizes to continue classes during COVID-19
When the Government of Rwanda implemented a nationwide lockdown because of coronavirus, CMU-Africa transitioned to remote learning in less than a week
CMU Engineering
CMU-Africa celebrates new location
CMU-Africa celebrates the opening of its new location within Kigali Innovation City, where students can interact directly with surrounding industries to experiment, to innovate, and to build solutions that will impact the continent.
CMU Engineering
Six things you should know about AI from experts in the field
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering share what they have learned about artificial intelligence while working in the field.
CMU Engineering
President of Rwanda meets with CMU students
On Thursday May 30, a delegation of Project Rwanda students and alumni from Carnegie Mellon’s Africa, Qatar, and Pittsburgh campuses were hosted by H.E. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda at his office, Urugwiro Village, in Kigali, Rwanda.
CMU Engineering
Congratulations Carnegie Mellon University Africa Class of 2019
Carnegie Mellon University Africa is proud to announce that 51 students graduated today, June 2, 2019, in Kigali, Rwanda.
College of Engineering names 2019 faculty award winners
The College of Engineering has announced the winners of the 2019 faculty awards. They include: Alan McGaughey, Paulina Jaramillo, Jana Kainerstorfer, Reeja Jayan, Carmel Majidi, Jonathan Malen, and Vijayakumar Bhagavatula.
Bhagavatula receives numerous appointments
CMU-Africa Director Vijayakumar Bhagavatula has been appointed to the Technical Program Committees of the Globecom 2019: The IEEE Global Communications Conference and the CVPR 2019 Biometrics Workshop. Bhagavatula has also been appointed as an associate editor for the 2019 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference.
Bhagavatula and Kim granted a patent
CMU-Africa Director Vijayakumar Bhagavatula and Yongjune Kim were granted a United States patent for “Reducing errors caused by inter-cell interference in a memory device.”
IEEE Data Storage Technical Committee
Bhagavatula lab granted IEEE Data Storage Best Student Paper award
ECE students from Vijayakumar Bhagavatula’s lab were recently granted the 2016-2017 IEEE Data Storage Best Student Paper award for their paper “Locally Rewritable Codes for Resistive Memories.”
CMU Engineering
3D displays that accommodate the human eye
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have engineered a new technology to enable natural accommodation cues in 3D displays.
Carnegie Mellon University Africa
Meet Our New Director: Prof. Vijayakumar Bhagavatula
Prof. Vijayakumar Bhagavatula assumed office of director on 1st January 2018. Prior to joining CMU-Africa, he has served in various positions at CMU, the latest being the interim vice provost for research.
CMU Engineering
Professorships and fellowships
Congratulations to the CIT faculty members who were recently awarded fellowships and professorships.