SU Prof. Pramod K. Varshney receives award at international information fusion conference

SU Prof. Pramod K. Varshney receives award at international information fusion conferenceJuly 29, 2004Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Pramod K. Varshney, professor of electrical engineering and computer science in Syracuse University’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, is known as one of the world’s most foremost experts in the area of information and data fusion.

His reputation has been further enhanced by Varshney’s receipt of the Best Paper Award at FUSION 2004, the 7th International Conference on Information Fusion. The conference, sponsored by the International Society of Information Fusion and the Swedish Defense Research Agency, was held June 28-July 1 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Varshney and colleagues Ruixin Niu, a postdoctoral researcher at SU, and Michael Moore and Dale Klamer from ALPHATECH Inc., in San Diego, presented “Decision Fusion in a Wireless Sensor Network with a Large Number of Sensors.”

Data fusion takes information from different sources-such as humans, sensors or databases-and integrates that information to come up with a single, unified result. Varshney and his co-authors studied wireless sensors, such as those used by the military for surveillance and detection, and evaluated the performance after integration. They also provided a methodology for detecting activity when a large number of sensors are used.

Varshney received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and came to SU as an assistant professor in 1976. He is regarded as a pioneer in the area of data fusion,a field in which he began working in the early 1980s.

He was named as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1997 and received a Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement from SU in 2000.

Varshney’s current research interests include image processing and remote sensing. He is the research director for SU’s CASE Center and leads the information management and intelligent control efforts of the New York Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems.

The L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science at SU is nationally recognized for excellence in education and research. Diverse programs and learning opportunities prepare students for professional careers in aerospace, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, and mechanical engineering, bioengineering, engineering physics, computer science, and systems and information science.

Officially chartered in 1870 as a private, coeducational institution of higher education, SU is a leading student-centered research university. SU’s 12 schools and colleges share a common mission: To promote learning through teaching, research, scholarship, creative accomplishment and service while embracing the core values of quality, caring, diversity, innovation and service. The 938-acre campus is home to more than 18,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and 90 countries.