Latest News
October 2024: Congrats to Abdiaziz Aden Muse for the Science Atlantic Science Communication Award(CS category) 2024
May 2024: Congratulations to Amr Ghoneim for successfully defending his MSc thesis.
Lab Members & Collaborators
Dr. Jiju Poovvancheri
Associate Professor
Topic(s): 3D Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Remote sensing, Deep Learning
Dr. Yasushi Akiyama
Associate Professor
Topic(s): Information Visualization, Human Computer Interaction, Digital Creative tools, Multimodal Interaction
Prachi Kudeshia
PhD (Applied Science-CS)
Topic(s): Topological deep learning, Shape analysis, Point Cloud Processing
Office: SH435
Contact: prachi.kudeshia@gmail.com
Khushal Das
PhD (ICT, visiting student, University of Calabria, Italy)
Topic(s): Computer Vision, Data Analysis, Deep Learning
Office: SH436
Contact: khushaldasparmar@gmail.com
Susrita Chatterjee
MSc (Applied Science-CS)
Topic(s): Computer Vision, Linear object recognition
Office: SH435
Contact:
Baxter Madore
BSc (CS, Honors Thesis)
Topic(s): Machine Learning
Office:
Contact: baxter@gmx.coma
Abdiaziz Aden Muse
BSc (CS), Summer Intern (NSERC USRA)
Topic(s): 3D Computer vision
Office: SH436
Contact: abdiaziz.muse@smu.ca
Past Thesis Supervisions (SMU)
Sumesh Thakur
MSc (Applied Science-CS, 2019-2021)
Thesis: Graph Attention Networks for Point Cloud Processing
Next Position: Perception Systems Engineer, JCA Technologies, Winnipeg
Vivek Kamra
MSc (Applied Science-CS, 2020-2022)
Thesis: Feature Preserving Decimation of Urban Meshes
Contact: vivek.kamra@smu.ca
Mehfuz Rahman
MSc (Applied Science-CS, 2021-2023)
Thesis: HyperInvoFusion: Depth Aware and Parameter Efficient Involution for Object Detection from RGB-D Images
Next Position: Machine Learning Engineer, ReelData AI, Halifax
Amr Ghoneim
MSc (Applied Science-CS)
Thesis: Occlusion Aware Image Composition: Leveraging Depth Maps
Contact: Amr.Ghoneim@smu.ca
Ayumu Saito
BSc (CS Honors Thesis, 2023-2024)
Thesis: Point-JEPA: A Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture for Self-Supervised Learning on Point Clouds
Next Position: Reel Data AI, Halifax
Nikolaus Kollo
MSc (Applied Science-CS, 2021-2023, Co-supervision with Dr. Akiyama)
Thesis: Enhancing Satellite Trail Detection in Night Sky Imagery with Automatic Salience Thresholding
Current Position: Aeronautical Engineering Officer, Royal Canadian Air Force, Shearwater
Bivash Pandey
BSc (CS Honors thesis, 2021-2022)
Thesis: Exploring Local Delaunay Graphs based Neural Networks for 3D Object Detection
Next Position: Junior Software Developer, Arolytics, Halifax
Muhammad Altaf Agowun
BSc (CS Honors Thesis, 2023-2024)
Thesis: Learning Disentangled Representations of Point Clouds via Alpha Complexes for 3D Shape Classification
Contact: muhammadaltaf.agowun@smu.ca
Research Collaborators (Present/Past)
| Dr. Dong Chen, Associate Professor | Nanjing Forestry University, P.R. China |
| Dr. Amal dev Parakkat, Assistant Professor | Telecom, Paris, IP Paris, France |
| Dr. Stefan Ohrhallinger, Scientist | TU Wein, Austria |
| Dr. Somayeh Arabinaree, Data science Manager | Unilever, Canada |
| Mr. David Colter | Immersive Cinema Inc., Canada |
Funding & Sources
Grants/Fellowships/Other (External & Internal)
- NSBI, Productivity Innovation Vouchers (2022-23, 2024-25)
- John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), CFI 2022-24
- Research Opportunities Fund, Research Nova Scotia, 2022-24
- MITACS Accelerate Cluster Funding, 2020-2024(with Modest Tree, Halifax)
- Discovery grant, NSERC of Canada, 2019-2026
- SMUWorks grant, SMU, 2018-2022
- FGSR grant, SMU, 2018
- Start up grant, Saint Mary’s University 2018
- MITACS Elevate fellowship (with Dreamcraft Attractions, Victoria), 2018
- EYES HIGH fellowship, University of Calgary, 2015-2017
- Institute fellowship, IIT Madras, 2014-2015
- MHRD PhD scholarship, 2011-2014
We are thankful to Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Saint Mary’s University for the funding support, and NVIDIA for the GPU hardware support. A few past work of Dr. Jiju Poovvancheri were funded by MITACS, Dreamcraft Attractions, Victoria and University of Calgary (Eyes-high program). We are also thankful to other funders and supporters, e.g., Modest Tree Media Inc., Compute Canada, NSBI..
Open Positions…
PhD/MSc Theses
We have a funded position (1xPhD) to work on projects in graphics and spatial computing, especially under the theme ‘Interaction and navigation in virtual spaces’. Potential topics include large-scale 3D content generation, e.g., detailed modeling of large-scale outdoor/indoor scenes, 3D mapping and navigation for VR applications, real-time reconstruction and occlusion handling, volumetric video editing, compression and rendering, deep learning based detection and tracking of dynamic objects etc.. Other problems related to shape modeling, analysis and matching are also considered. Details regarding the PhD/MSc application procedure can be found here. Interested candidates may first send me an inquiry e-mail (jiju.poovvancheri@smu.ca) with relevant documents (pdf format) including CV and transcripts.
Bachelor Theses/Summer Internship
Undergraduate students from SMU, who are interested in taking up research projects in either computer graphics, computer vision or deep learning or at the intersection of all the three as part of their BSc Honours programs are welcome to contact me. I always look for highly motivated students with a good academic record for summer positions under NSERC USRA/Research assistantship schemes. Undergraduate students are also encouraged to apply for summer/academic positions at GSC under SMUWorks grant.
Qualification
Expert level knowledge in C++/Python; Strong background in linear algebra, geometry, numerical optimization and data structures and algorithms; Familiarity with the scripting languages (e.g., Python or Lua) which are used by modern deep learning frameworks; Strong motivation and dedication. The eligibility criteria may vary at different levels (PhD, MSc, BSc).
SMU and Halifax
More about the SMU campus and Halifax can be found here.
Past Project Supervision (SMU)
| Name | Topic | Project/Funding | Year | Went to.. |
| Jawadur Rahman | Point Cloud Segmentation | NSERC USRA | 2023 | cont. @SMU |
| Sarosij Bose | Skeleton Extraction for Motion Capture | MITACS GRI | 2022 | – |
| Shaquille Lynch | Point Cloud Feature Extraction | SMUWorks | 2022 | cont. @SMU |
| Praneetha R | RGBD based Object Detection | MITACS | 2022 | – |
| Angus Anthony | Deep Learning for Curve Generation | NSBI PIV & SMUWORKs | 2021 | cont. @SMU |
| Yi Zheng | GAT for Point Cloud Segmentation | MITACS GRI | 2021 | – |
| Swaraj Shrestha | 2D Reconstruction | Research Proj. | 2021 | cont. @SMU |
| Owen Sharpe | Procedural Noise and Sampling | NSERC DG | 2021 | University of Waterloo |
| Martin McLaren | 3D skeletons from Point Clouds | SMUWorks | 2020 | University of Alberta |
| Sheldon Taylor | Procedural Noise Generation | NSERC DG | 2020 | Amazon, Vancouver |
| Bivash Pandey | Shape Matching via a Modified Shape Context | SMUWorks | 2019-2020 | cont. @SMU |
| Seamus MacInnes | Motion Tracking using Depth Cameras | NSERC USRA | 2019, 2020 | Dalhousie University |
| Zesheng Jia | Proximity Graphs for Kinetic Setting | NSERC DG | 2019 | – |
| Ayusha Pradhanga | Geometric Shape Extraction from 2D Point Sets | Deans Award | 2019 | Carleton University, Ottawa |
| Daniel Doucett | Skeleton Extraction from Point Clouds | Research Proj. | 2018-2019 | Perennia, Nova Scotia |
Mentorship (Other Institutes)
- Naved, Masters in CS, University of Victoria (Co-supervision)
- Arthur Firmino, Masters in CS, University of Victoria (Co-supervision)
- Han Zheng, Research Project, University of Victoria (Co-supervision)
- Chao Wang, Summer Intern, University of Calgary, (Co-supervision)
- Anu G Krishnan, M.Tech, NITK & IIT Madras, (Co-supervision)
- Amal Dev Parakkat, M.Tech CS, GEC Idukki & IIT Madras (Co-supervision)
- Sujata Sinha, Summer Intern, IIT Madras, (Co-supervision)