Troy, N.Y. — Daniel Freedman, 30, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. He is the fifth Rensselaer faculty member this year and the 17th in the past three years to receive the award. The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious honor for faculty members who are at the beginning of their academic careers.

Freedman, assistant professor of computer science, will use his $350,000 five-year grant to develop a new automated visual tracking system that could improve surveillance and MRI technology.

Current tracking systems are task-specific, which means that for each new application, an entirely new tracker must be designed from scratch. Freedman will develop general-purpose algorithms that can be used to track objects with varied properties. These algorithms would be able to track people for surveillance purposes using conventional cameras as they move through buildings. The algorithms also could track the slight movements of human organs, due to regular functions such as breathing and even eating, through a stream of MRIs or CT scans.

Freedman’s work will help solve current problems, such as when a tracked object becomes blocked by another object and appears to break into two separate pieces. In addition, properties such as curves and color can be treated simultaneously, giving a more accurate and complete trace.

Freedman, a resident of Albany, has been a Rensselaer faculty member since 2000. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation’s oldest technological university. The school offers degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research and teaching. The Institute is especially well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.

Contact: Patricia Azriel
Phone: (518) 276-6531
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