The Image of Accomplishment
by A.J. Kleber
In recent years, the importance of automated systems to maintain health and safety in large public buildings has become an area of increased interest and relevance, as the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic turned our collective attention to the importance of ventilation and HVAC systems. At the same time, the urgency of the climate change crisis and booming energy demands make efficiency a paramount concern for our society. How can we make sure our built environments are safe for their occupants, without wasting enormous amounts of power on running automated inefficient systems? The obvious answer would be to fine-tune the automation of those systems to operate based on real-time need – that is, on occupancy levels. This would require systems to be able to identify how many people were in a building at any given time, and adjust accordingly.
This was the focus of the COSSY study, funded by the Department of Energy, and led by Professor Janusz Konrad. Professor Konrad’s expertise in video processing and computer vision were key to the effort. His other research interests include visual sensor networks, stereoscopic and 3-D imaging, and multidimensional signal processing.
A dedicated teacher and hardworking but unassuming scholar, Professor Konrad rarely seeks the spotlight, in spite of his years of behind-the-scenes effort as the Publicity Chair for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at BU. Nevertheless, he is being recognized for the substantial achievements earned during 30 years of diligent research, backed by a funding portfolio which includes the NSF, DOE, NIH, DOD, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. He has been elected to the rank of 2025 Fellow of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) for his “contributions to visual motion analysis and video processing.”
EURASIP is highly selective with this, its highest honor; each year, a maximum of four scholars are recognized with the title of EURASIP Fellow, which celebrates outstanding achievements in the broad field of signal processing. Professor Konrad will receive his well-earned certificate at the European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO) in Palermo, Italy in September 2025.
Professor Janusz Konrad has been a dedicated member of the BU ECE Faculty for nearly 25 years. Highly service-oriented with regard to both his department and his field, he has served in a variety of capacities on conference boards, committees, and editorial roles for peer-reviewed journals. He served as General Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-Based Surveillance in 2013. He was recognized by the ECE department with the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award in 2011, and the Faculty Service Award in 2024. He is an IEEE Fellow and was an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer from 2019-2020. He has received several Best Paper Awards and other publication honors.