News Article

"ECE Welcomes New Director Tsuhan Chen"

From National Taiwan University to Caltech to Bell Labs to Carnegie Mellon University—and now to Cornell. Tsuhan Chen's professional journey began in Taipei, 7,633 miles from Ithaca, but his broad-ranging research in visual computing is contributing to the kind of increasingly sophisticated, robust communication that makes those miles evaporate.

Chen was chosen to become the new director of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) after an extensive national search. He begins in January, 2009. Chen succeeds Clifford Pollock, the Ilda and Charles Lee Professor of Engineering, who has been credited with increasing the school's growth and stature during a term of office that began in 2001.

Chen expresses his excitement about joining the university that introduced the world's first program in electrical engineering. "The school's depth and history immediately got my attention," he says, "but what really impressed me is how the faculty have stayed so dynamic over the years, constantly finding new ways to do things—staying out in front. This spirit is no doubt encouraged by the kind of openness that dean (now Provost) Kent Fuchs and outgoing ECE chair Clif Pollock and the faculty have shown in bringing me—a newcomer—into the school."

He brings a customer-focused perspective to the position. "As teachers, I think we have to have an awareness of our students as customers. I have a strong sense that here, that awareness is already in place." He brings this perspective to alumni relationships, too. Extending the business analogy, he believes that once students have graduated, "we continue to provide support." He believes one of his roles will be to help bring alumni together and facilitate their relationships with one another.

The new director brings both extensive experience and a fresh perspective to Cornell ECE. He earned his B.S. from National Taiwan University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Caltech, all in electrical engineering. After working for Bell Labs for several years, he joined the ECE faculty at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 1997. There, in addition to research and teaching responsibilities, he has served as associate department head of ECE and co-director of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon, a collaborative research program with ITRI in Taiwan. His highly productive research group, the Advanced Multimedia Processing Lab, includes postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars as well as other CMU faculty and graduate students. Their work is in the area of visual computing, which includes computer vision and pattern recognition, computer graphics, multimedia coding and streaming, and more.

In 2007, Chen earned one of the highest honors in his field: he was elected a fellow of IEEE. In selecting him, the society recognized Chen's contributions in the area of multidisciplinary multimedia signal processing. In 2004 and 2008, he delivered the keynote address at International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), IEEE's flagship conference on multimedia technologies. From 2002 to 2004, he served as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, a publication designed to integrate all aspects of multimedia systems and technology, signal processing, and applications.

An outstanding educator as well as researcher, Chen received the Benjamin Richard Teare Teaching Award in 2006 from the CMU College of Engineering for his consistent excellence in graduate and undergraduate education. He was cited particularly for his success with Signals and Systems, a large undergraduate course serving students with diverse backgrounds and interests, in which he provided clear explanations of complex mathematical methods for analyzing signals and systems. Chen's success at the intersection of research and education is evident in the awards that he has earned jointly with his graduate students. These include several best paper awards at IEEE Conferences on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

Chen will assume his ECE responsibilities at Cornell in January. During the spring semester, his daughters Jonya (age 14), Jonlin (13), and Jonna (7) will finish out their school year in Pittsburgh. They and his wife Shufen will join Chen in Ithaca during the summer. They all look forward to enjoying the natural beauty of the region.

Meanwhile, Chen looks forward to "getting to know and bring fresh perspectives to the people and culture of ECE and Cornell University, building relationships with alumni, and enjoying the warm welcome" he has already begun to experience