Yoav Y. Schechner
Curriculum Vitae

Personal details
Name:Yoav Y. Schechner
Address:Department of Computer Science
 Columbia University
 1214 Amsterdam Avenue, Mailcode: 0401
 New York, NY 10027-7003
E-mail: yoav@cs.columbia.edu
Phone:(212) 939-7071
Fax:(212) 666-0140


Education

1996 to 1999   Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (Technion - Israel Inst. of Tech., Haifa, Israel).
                        Thesis: Analysis and reconstruction of complex scenes via optical cues.

1994 to 1996   M.Sc. in Physics (Technion, Haifa, Israel).
                        Thesis: Rotation phenomena in waves.

1987 to 1990   B. A. in Physics cum laude (Technion, Haifa, Israel).



Awards and Honors

  1. The Louis Morin Fellowship, 2000,2001.
  2. The Award for Excellence in Teaching, from the Technion, 1999.
  3. Otto Schwarz Foundation Excellence Award, 1999.
  4. Israeli Ministry of Science (Eshkol) Distinction Fellowship, 1998-99.
  5. Ollendorff Award for research in the field of image processing and analysis, 1998.
  6. Gutwirth Special Distinction Fellowship, 1995.
  7. Wolf Foundation Excellence Award for graduate students, 1994.
  8. Invention Award, IAF, 1994.
  9. Excellence Award from the President of the Technion, 1990.
  10. Excellence Award from the Dean, 1989.
  11. Excellence Award from the Dean, 1988.



Research Experience

2000 to Present   Research Scientist, Department of Computer Science, Columbia University.
                           $\bullet$ A unified framework for multispectral, high dynamic range, polarization,
                                 depth and wide field of view imaging.
                           $\bullet$ Removal of atmospheric scattering effects on imaging.

1996 to 1999      PhD. research, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion.
                           Worked in the Image Sciences and the Electrooptics Lab on:
                           $\bullet$ Separation of semi-reflections using polarization and defocus analysis.
                           $\bullet$ A theoretical unification of triangulation methods with methods for
                                 estimating depth from defocus blur.

1996 to 1999      MSc. research, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
                           Worked in the Electrooptics Lab on:
                           $\bullet$ A unified description of propagation invariant wave fields.
                           $\bullet$ Beams having rotating intensity distributions and self imaging effects.
                           $\bullet$ Projects involving computer generated holograms;
                                   spatial light modulation; photorefractive effects.

1990 to 1994      IDF.



Teaching and Administrative Experience

1994 to 1999      Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
                           $\bullet$ Taught image processing classes. Supervised teaching assistants.
                           $\bullet$ Received the Award for Excellence in Teaching.
                           $\bullet$ Supervised undergraduate projects in the field ofimage processing.
                           $\bullet$ Instructed students in the electrooptics lab (EE) and the physics labs.
                           $\bullet$ Coordinator of the ``Pixel-Club'' - a colloquium forum of Technion
                                   researchers in the fields of image processing and computer vision.
                           $\bullet$ Initiated and developed a novel exam method in computer farms.

1990 to 1994      Officer, IDF.
                           $\bullet$ Conducted, organized and supervised training courses and seminars.



Publications
Journal papers

  1. Y. Y. Schechner, S. G. Narasimhan and S. K. Nayar, ``Instant dehazing of images using polarization analysis,'' in preparation.
  2. Y. Y. Schechner and S. K. Nayar, ``Generalized mosaicing: Depth of field and polarization,'' in preparation.
  3. Y. Y. Schechner and S. K. Nayar, ``Generalized mosaicing: Wide field of view multispectral imaging,'' submitted to IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (2001).
  4. Y. Y. Schechner and S. K. Nayar, ``Generalized mosaicing: High dynamic range in a wide field of view,'' submitted to the International Journal of Computer Vision (2001).
  5. Y. Y. Schechner and N. Kiryati, ``Depth from defocus vs. Stereo: How different really are they?'' International Journal of Computer Vision 39, pp. 141-162 (2000).
  6. Y. Y. Schechner, N. Kiryati and R. Basri, ``Separation of transparent layers using focus,'' International Journal of Computer Vision 39, pp. 25-39 (2000).
  7. Y. Y. Schechner, J. Shamir and N. Kiryati, ``Polarization and statistical analysis of scenes containing a semi-reflector,'' Journal of the Optical Society of America - A 17, pp. 276-284 (2000).
  8. R. Piestun, Y. Y. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Propagation invariant wave-fields with finite energy,'' Journal of the Optical Society of America - A 17, pp. 294-303 (2000).
  9. Y. Y. Schechner, J. Shamir and N. Kiryati, ``Vision through semi-reflecting media: Polarization analysis,'' Optics Letters 24, pp. 1088-1090 (1999).
  10. R. Piestun, Y. Y. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Self-imaging with finite energy,'' Optics Letters 22, pp. 200-203 (1997).
  11. Y. Y. Schechner, R. Piestun and J. Shamir, ``Wave propagation with rotating intensity distributions,'' Physical Review E. 54, R50-R53 (1996).
  12. Y. Y. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Parameterization and orbital angular momentum of anisotropic dislocations,'' Journal of the Optical Society of America - A 13, pp. 967-973 (1996).

Other publications

  1. Y. Schechner, ``Northern exposure - a kayaking trek in Alaska,'' The Nature of Things (Hebrew)- The Society for Research of Man and Surroundings 27, pp. 24-47 (1998).
  2. Y. Y. Schechner, ``Aurora Borealis,'' Optics and Photonics News 9/9, p. 72 (1998).
  3. Y. Y. Schechner, ``The arc-family of the rainbow,'' Optics and Photonics News 9/4, p. 64 (1998).

Conferences
Invited talks

  1. Y. Y. Schechner, N. Kiryati and J. Shamir, ``Multi-valued images and their separation,'', 10th International Workshop on Theoretical Foundations of Computer Vision, Dagstuhl (March/12/2000). Published in Multi-Image Analysis, LNCS 2032, pp. 129-141 (2001).
  2. J. Shamir, R. Piestun and Y. Y. Schechner, ``Propagation-invariance and 3D light fields,'' ICO XVIII Optics for the Next Millennium, pp. 108-109, (1999).

Refereed conference papers

  1. Y. Y. Schechner, S. G. Narasimhan and S. K. Nayar, ``Instant dehazing of images using polarization analysis,'' To be published in the Proc. IEEE CVPR - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2001).
  2. Y. Y. Schechner and S. K. Nayar, ``Generalized mosaicing'', Proc. IEEE ICCV - International Conference on Computer Vision, Vol. 1, pp. 17-24 (2001).
  3. Y. Y. Schechner, N. Kiryati and J. Shamir, ``Blind recovery of transparent and semireflected scenes,'' Proc. IEEE CVPR - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Vol. 1, pp. 38-43 (2000).
  4. Y. Y. Schechner, J. Shamir and N. Kiryati, ``Polarization-based decorrelation of transparent layers: The inclination angle of an invisible surface,'' Proc. IEEE ICCV - International Conference on Computer Vision, pp. 814-819 (1999).
  5. Y. Y. Schechner and N. Kiryati, ``The optimal axial interval in estimating depth from defocus,'' Proc. IEEE ICCV - International Conference on Computer Vision, pp. 843-848 (1999).
  6. Y. Y. Schechner, N. Kiryati and J. Shamir, ``Separation of transparent layers by polarization analysis,'' Proc. IAPR SCIA - Scandinavian Conference on Image Analysis, Vol-I, pp. 235-242 (1999).
  7. Y. Y. Schechner and N. Kiryati, ``Depth from defocus vs. Stereo: How different really are they?'' Proc. IAPR ICPR - International Conference on Pattern Recognition pp. 1784-1786 (1998).
  8. Y. Y. Schechner, N. Kiryati and R. Basri, ``Separation of transparent layers using focus,'' Proc. IEEE ICCV - International Conference on Computer Vision, pp. 1061-1066 (1998).
  9. Piestun, Y. Y. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Generalized self-imaging with finite effective apertures,'' ICO XVII - The International Commission for Optics, pp. 302-303 (1996).

Other contributed talks

  1. R. Piestun, Y. Y. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Rotating waves and the generalized self-imaging effect,'' Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America (1997).
  2. R. Piestun, Y. Y. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Generalized self-imaging in free space,'' EOS Topical meeting on Diffractive Optics, pp. 128-129 (1997).
  3. Y. J. Schechner and J. Shamir, ``Orbital angular momentum of anisotropic dislocations,'' Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America, p. 76 (Portland, Oregon, 1995).