Dr.U. B. Desai

Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay
Powai, Bombay 400 076
India

SPANN Lab (direct line): (+91-22)-2572-0651
Ph. No. (+91-22)-2576-7414, (+91-22)-2572-2545 Ext.7401
Cell: 98190-49360
Fax: (+91-22)-2572-3707, (+91-22)-572-3480
Email: ubdesai@ee.iitb.ac.in

Uday B. Desai received the B. Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1974, the M.S. degree from the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1976, and the Ph.D. degree from The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., in 1979, all in Electrical Engineering.

From 1979 to 1984 he was an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Washington State University, Pullman, WA, U.S.A., and an Associate Professor at the same place from 1984 to 1987. Since 1987 he has been a Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay. He was Dean of Students at IIT-Bombay from Aug 2000 to July 2002. He has held Visiting Associate Professor's position at Arizona State University, Purdue University, and Stanford University. He was a visiting Professor at EPFL, Lausanne during the summer of 2002. From July 2002 to June 2004 he was the Director of HP-IITM R and D Lab. at IIT-Madras.

His research interest is in wireless communication, wireless sensor networks and statistical signal processing. He is also interested in multimedia, image and video processing, artificial neural networks, computer vision, and wavelet analysis. He is interested in connectivity for rural India - the objective being to bring the advantages of modern day telecommunication and information technology to rural and small town India. He is the Editor of the book "Modeling and Applications of Stochastic Processes" (Kluwer Academic Press, Boston, U.S.A. 1986) and co-editor of Second Asian Applied Computing Conference, Springer Verlag (2004). He is also a co-author of two books "A Bayesian Approach to Image Interpretation" and "Multifractal based Network Modeling", both from Kluwer Academic Press.

Dr. Desai is a senior member of IEEE, a Fellow of INSA (Indian National Science Academy), Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and a Fellow of The Institution of Electronic & Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). He is recipient of Ram Lal Wadhwa Award from Indian Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers for 2001. He is on the Executive Committee (EC) for the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). He was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing form Jan 1999 to Dec. 2001. He is Vice-President of the Indian Unit for Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence. He is on: (i) The Technology Advisory Board of Microsoft Research Lab. India, (ii) The Academic Advisory board of The LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur, (iii) The National Advisory Board of International Centre for Wireless and Mobile Communication, BIT-Mesra.  He was (i) the General Co-Chair for IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, 1998, (ii) International Liaison for Asia Pacific, and Technical Program Committee Co-Chair for Video Processing for IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) 2002, and (iii) Associate Vice Chair for PHY/MAC for IEEE International Conference for Wireless Communication and Networking (WCNC) 2005, (iv) TPC Chair for WPMC 2007, and TPC Co-Chair for COMSWARE 2008. He is the Chair for IEEE Bombay Section. He is also on the Visitation Panel for University of Ghana. Also check out http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/spann/

Awards and Honors

• INSA Fellow (Indian National Science Academy)
• Fellow, INAE (Indian National Academy of Engineering)
• Fellow, IETE (Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers)
• Member Emerging Markets Advisory Board, Microsoft Research Lab., India
• Recipient of Ram Lal Wadhwa Award from Indian Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers 2001
• Felicitation by Society for Cancer Research and Communication, Bombay, India (Jan. 2003)
• Senior Member IEEE
• Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (Jan 2000- Dec.2001)
• General Co-Chair for the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Jan. 1998.
• International Liaison for Asia Pacific, and Technical Program Committee Co-Chair for Video Processing for International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) 2002.
• Area Chair (Innovative Applications for the Developing World) for Asian Applied Computing Conference, October 2004, Nepal.
• Associate TPC Vice Chair (PHY/MAC) for IEEE Wireless Communication and Networking Conference  (WCNC) 2005.
• Vice-President Indian Unit for Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence.
• Director on the Board of Indian American Education Foundation 
• Member Academic Advisory Board for L. N. M. Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur, India 
• Member National Advisory Board of International Centre for Wireless and Mobile Communication, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, India
• Vice-Chair, IEEE Bombay Section, 2005
• Member of DSP Technical Committee for IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
• Editorial Board of Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, National Institute of Science Communication and Information Sciences, CSIR, New Delhi, India.
• Member, Executive Committee, (Apex Body) of AICTE - All India Council for Technical Education (2005-2008)
• Member, Editorial Board of  European Association of Signal Processing - Signal Processing Journal EURASI-SP

Experience

• Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay, Powai, July 1987 to present.
• Director, Hewlett-Packard - IIT-Madras R and D Lab. July 1, 2002 to June 30 2004 (leave of absence from IIT-Bombay)
• Dean, Student Affairs, IIT-Bombay, August 2000 to June 2002.
• Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, U.S.A., August 1984 to June 1987; also Assistant Professor at the same university from Sept. 79 to July 84.
• Visiting Professor, EPFL-Lausanne, Switzerland, Summer 2002.
• Visiting Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oregon State University, Summer of 1989. 
• Visiting Associate Professor,  Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Arizona State University, Aug. 84 to Dec. 84.
• Held short time Visiting Associate Professor's position with the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Purdue University, Indiana, U.S.A, and Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Palo Alto, U.S.A., during 1986.
• Evening College Lecturer, Department of Electrical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Maryland, U.S.A., September 1976 to June 1979.

Fields of Specialization

• Wireless Communication
• Signal processing
• Sensor Networks
• Adaptive signal processing
• Information and Communication Technology for Socioeconomic Development
• Image Processing and Computer Vision
• Wavelets and Multiresolution analysis
• Artificial neural networks.
• Biomedical Signal and Image Processing

Current Research Interests

• Multiuser detection
• Multihop protocols and localization in sensor networks
• Collaborative Signal Processing
• 802.16d,e and 802.11x
• Security in Wireless LAN
• Video Streaming
• Dim and single pixel target tracking in IR video
• Technologies for enabling fast Rural Credit
• Applications on Cellular Networks

Some Current Projects

• Sensor networks for landslide detection
• Localization, routing, and collaborative signal processing in sensor networks
• Development of a software reconfigurable 802.11b and 802.11g compatible gateway using DSPs, with the aim of providing low cost wireless connectivity to rural areas
• Sensor networks: Development of a 30 node test-bed for sensor networks; development of localization algorithms and multi-hop protocol.
• Wireless patient monitoring system for automated health care
• Voice based web news groups for non-literate and semi-literate people.
• Cellular banking to bridge the banking divide in rural and urban areas in developing countries
• IRST: Development of a system for Infrared Search and Tracking
• MPOE: A new space-time multiuser detection technique based on Minimum Probability of Error (MPOE) criterion.
• MPOE based multiuser detection in a muticarrier CDMA systems

Patents

1.      Patent filed on Bluetooth Wireless LAN Interface

Books

1. U. B. Desai (Edt.) Modelling and Application of Stochastic Processes, Kluwer Academic Press, Boston, U.S.A. 1986.

2. Sunil Kopparapu and U. B. Desai, Bayesian Approach to Image Interpretation, Kluwer Academic Press, Boston USA, July, 2001.

3. Murali Krishna P., Vikram Gadre and Uday B. Desai, Multifractal based Network Modeling, Kluwer Academic Press, Bostom, USA, 2003.