Research

My research interests lie at the intersection of computer vision and computer graphics and are divided into two complementary areas of investigation. The first area constitutes about 80% of my research and involves fundamental computer vision/graphics research focusing on feature extraction, classification, segmentation, 3D reconstruction, and appearance modeling. The application domains are primarily geospatial, where the main challenges are large-scale, noisy, incomplete data, and scalability of algorithms, and in the underwater domain where the main challenge is non-rigid scenes with rapid and continuous illumination changes. The second area constitutes about 20% of my research and involves applied research in VR, AR, and MR, focusing on visualization, interaction, and navigation techniques. The application domains are primarily geospatial; however, I have also worked on a series of case studies, as part of awarded grants, involving children with autism, cultural heritage, underwater archaeology, etc.

Recent results from 3D reconstruction, feature extraction, road network delineation, semantic segmentation, appearance modelling, virtual reality, and large-scale disaster simulations.

Immersive and Creative Technologies lab

I serve as the director of the Immersive and Creative Technologies lab.

The Immersive and Creative Technologies Lab conducts fundamental and applied research in the area lying at the intersection of computer vision and computer graphics.

New knowledge and other research outcomes resulting from the research at the ICT lab are disseminated through teaching, research projects, and collaboration with the industry.

For more information visit the lab's website: https://theICTlab.org

Featured Projects

  • PHOENIX: Generative models and Deep Reinforcement Learning for Geospatial Computer Vision, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Alliance, 2022-2025
    project website
  • Simulation and Visualization of Flood and Drought events in Urban Areas, Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS), 2022-2024
    project website
  • ACESO: Computer Vision Algorithms for Computer-Assisted Surgical Systems, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Alliance, 2021-2024
    project website coming soon
  • DAEDALUS: Massive-scale Urban Reconstruction, Classification, and Rendering from Remote Sensor Imagery, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, CRD/DND, 2018-2022
    project website
  • iMARECULTURE: Advanced VR, iMmersive serious games and Augmented REality as tools to raise awareness and access to European underwater CULTURal heritagE, EU HORIZON 2020, 2016-2019
    project website
  • A State-of-the-Art VR CAVE facility for the Advancement of Multi-Disciplinary Research & Development in Cyprus - Research Promotion Foundation, 2012-2014
    project website
  • Rapid Scanning and Automatic 3D Reconstruction of Underwater Sites, FP7 Marie Curie Fellowship (IRG), 2010-2014
    project website

Grants and Awards

  • 2022-08
    NSERC Alliance
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Title: PHOENIX: Generative models and Deep Reinforcement Learning for Geospatial Computer Vision
Duration: 36 months
Amount: $474,000CAD

  • 2022-08
    Mitacs Accelerate
    Role:Co-principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS)
Title: Flood and drought prediction, simulation, and monitoring
Duration: 12 months
Amount: $105,000CAD

  • 2022-04
    Mitacs Accelerate
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS)
Title: Simulation and Visualization of Flood and Drought events in Urban Areas
Duration: 24 months
Amount: $90,000CAD

  • 2021-12
    NSERC Alliance
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Title: ACESO: Computer Vision Algorithms for Computer-Assisted Surgical Systems
Duration: 36 months
Amount: $285,000CAD

  • 2021-12
    Mitacs Accelerate Explore
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS)
Title: Enhancing Visual Realism of 3D synthetic scene with Deep Learning and Generative models
Duration: 2 months
Amount: $6,000CAD

  • 2021-09
    Mitacs Accelerate Explore
    Role:Co-principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS)
Title: Flood and drought prediction, simulation, and monitoring for the City of Terrebonne
Duration: 1.5 months
Amount: $6,000CAD

  • 2021-05
    NSERC Discovery Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Title: Semantic Segmentation in Geospatial Computer Vision
Duration: 60 months
Amount: $145,000CAD

  • 2018-01
    NSERC CRD - Department of National Defense (DND)
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Title: DAEDALUS: Massive-scale Urban Reconstruction, Classification, and Rendering from Remote Sensor Imagery
Duration: 48 months
Amount: $599,317.50 CAD

  • 2016-11
    HORIZON 2020, Research In Action
    Role:Concordia Team Coordinator

Awarding agency/body: European Commission, Research Executive Agency
Title: iMARECULTURE: Advanced VR, iMmersive serious games and Augmented REality as tools to raise awareness and access to European underwater CULTURal heritagE
Duration: 36 months
Amount: €2,644,025

  • 2016-07
    Microsoft Azure sponsorship
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Microsoft
Title: Creation of Large-scale Virtual Worlds
Duration: 12 months
Amount: $20,000 USD

  • 2016-03
    NSERC Discovery Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Title: Rapid and Automatic Reconstruction of Large-scale Areas
Duration: 60 months
Amount: $110,000 CAD

  • 2016-03
    SSHRC Partnership Development Grant
    Role:Co-principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Title: Exploring Elastic 3D Spaces: bodies and belonging
Duration: 36 months
Amount: $509,550 CAD

  • 2016-01
    Concordia CASA Research Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Concordia University
Title: Smart Projection Mapping
Duration: 12 months
Amount: $5,000 CAD

  • 2016-01
    SSHRC Connections Grant
    Role:Co-principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Title: Elastic 3D Space Research Workshop Exchange
Duration: 12 months
Amount: $25,000 CAD

  • 2015-11
    Concordia Strategic Hire Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Concordia University
Title: Immersive and Interactive Visualizations of Realistic Virtual Environments
Duration: 36 months
Amount: $60,000 CAD

  • 2015-09
    Concordia Start-up Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Concordia University
Title: Robust algorithms for the detection and extraction of linear features
Duration: 24 months
Amount: $50,000 CAD

  • 2014-11
    KAINOTOMIA/EYRESI/0114/02
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation
Title: A Framework for Automatic Modeling from Pointcloud Data
Duration: 30 months
Amount: €20,000

  • 2014-10
    METPA/SYND/1013/36
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation
Title: Face 2 Face Meetings at H2020 Conference ICT 2014 Brokerage Event
Duration: 5 days
Amount: €1,500

  • 2014-03
    Micro Media Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Marie Curie Alumni Association
Title: Dissemination of Scientific Results relating to 3DUNDERWORLD
Duration: 1 month
Amount: €250

  • 2013-11
    METPA/SYND/1013/01
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation
Title: Face 2 Face Meetings at H2020 Conference ICT 2013 Brokerage Event
Duration: 2 days
Amount: €1,500

  • 2012-09
    DESMH 2009-2010 - IPE/NEKYP/0311/02
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation
Title: A State-of-the-Art VR CAVE facility for the Advancement of Multi-Disciplinary Research & Development in Cyprus
Duration: 36 months
Amount: €499,887

  • 2012-04
    Microsoft Imagine Cup (Game Design) Award
    Role:Supervisor

Awarding agency/body: Microsoft
Title: Microsoft Imagine Cup (Game Design) Award

  • 2011-04
    Microsoft Imagine Cup (Software Design) AwardRole:Supervisor

Awarding agency/body: Microsoft
Title: Microsoft Imagine Cup (Software Design) Award

  • 2010-09
    FP7 PEOPLE Marie Curie Actions IRG Fellowship Grant
    Role:Principal investigator

Awarding agency/body: European Commission - Research Executive Agency
Title: 3DUNDERWORLD - Rapid Scanning and Automatic 3D Reconstruction of Underwater Sites
Duration: 48 months
Amount: €100,000

  • 2009-03
    Audience Choice Award - Best Sketch Paper Award
    Role:First author

Awarding agency/body: IEEE VR 2009

  • 2007-11
    Best Fast-Forward Poster Presentation Award
    Role:First author

Awarding agency/body: ACM SIGSPATIAL 2007

  • 2005-08
    Scholarship/Teaching Assistanship
    Role:Awardee

Awarding agency/body: University of Southern California
Duration: 48 months

  • 2003-08
    Scholarship/Research Assistanship
    Role:Awardee

Awarding agency/body: University of Southern California, Institute for Creative Technologies
Duration: 24 months

  • 2001-08
    Post-Graduate Studies Scholarship
    Role:Awardee

Awarding agency/body: University of Southern California
Duration: 24 months