The Vision

BACKGROUND

Universities are increasingly being looked to for contributions to economic growth and innovative technologies. UNM has taken some bold steps in partnering with sister universities of the Rio Grande Corridor and the national laboratories (Sandia and Los Alamos), as well as the federal Air Force Research Laboratory. Great interest by the local business and industry community in such partnerships became clearly evident at the first economic development summit held at UNM on September 21 st, 2012. The summit focused on a rainforest economy, a concept pioneered by Victor Hwang.

ORIGIN OF THE INTELLIGENT IMAGING INITIATIVE (I3)

In the fall of 2011, four UNM engineering faculty met at a Central Avenue coffee shop and the seed for the Intelligent Imaging Initiative tree was planted. The Dean of Engineering at UNM had challenged faculty to identify areas of research that would rank UNM’s School of Engineering among the top five programs in the country. During their coffee house brainstorming session, it became evident that several strong programs centered on imaging had evolved locally within UNM, and that leveraging them provided a unique opportunity for building an internationally recognized research concentration. At UNM there exists a strong Physics and Engineering based program in fundamental imaging-related studies including quantum optics, a world-renowned program on sensor development in Electrical Engineering, and the Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM), as well as a concerted thrust on image processing and data analysis in engineering, computer science and the MIND network. Strong interdisciplinary programs in optical science and engineering (OSE), nanoscience and microsystems (NSMS) and biomedical engineering (BME) provide the educational framework to sustain this research effort. Together, all these programs fortuitously provided the underlying “roots” of the Intelligent Imaging Initiative. The tree has already been growing!

tree

RATIONALE

Present-day, man-made sensors provide massive amounts of data, but only limited information. The communication link between the imaging device and the remote processor is today’s roadblock. Nature, on the other hand, has evolved to a very sophisticated “hardware” level; there are 150 million photoreceptors in the human eye coupled with efficient smart algorithms which send only small amounts of processed information to the brain. The Intelligent Imaging Initiative (I3) seeks to develop bio-inspired sensors to address a wide range of societal problems from cancer imaging to global public health, from brain and behavior studies to remote sensing, from sustainable green building to film industry applications. The four components represented by the imaging tree serve as the core technical strengths at UNM, which feed a variety of industry applications appearing as branches on the tree. Uniquely, UNM has the capabilities to integrate the physical and processing components at the focal plane level. As we evolve at UNM, we will entertain strategic discussion about planting even more trees, eventually leading to a “Rainforest in the Desert”!

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

Use Corporate Affiliates Program (I3-CAP) as the Catalyst Our primary challenge is to step down from our lofty, scientific vision to the more ground-level reality of implementation and societal benefit. Disruptive technologies must be envisioned by eyes that see the possibilities, not ON the horizon, but BEYOND. Such endeavors require a clear work plan backed by resources, as well as industry’s demand to be on the cutting edge of the next discovery that could change our world. Right now, Intelligent Imaging and the I3 Corporate Affiliate Program at UNM is it! If you are interested in the possibilities, please send an email to jvander2@unm.edu or call (505) 272‐7503. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Sanjay Krishna, Professor and Regents’ Lecturer
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Center for High Technology Materials
University of New Mexico
skrishna@chtm.unm.edu
505-272-7800

Vince Calhoun, Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Chief Technology Officer
The Mind Research Network
Associate Professor , Computer Science
vcalhoun@unm.edu
505- 272-1817