Jafar Saniie

Education

Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, 1981
M.S. Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 1977
B.S. Electrical Engineering (with High Honors), University of Maryland, 1974

Research Interests

In 1981 Jafar Saniie (IEEE Life Fellow for contributions to ultrasonic signal processing for detection, estimation, and imaging) joined the Department of Applied Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland, to conduct research in photothermal and photoacoustic imaging. Since 1983 he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology where he is the Department Chair, the Filmer Endowed Chair Professor, and Director of Embedded Computing and Signal Processing (ECASP) Research Laboratory. Saniie's research interests and activities are in ultrasonic signal and image processing, ultrasonic software-defined communication, artificial intelligence and machine learning, statistical pattern recognition, estimation and detection, data compression, time-frequency analysis, embedded digital systems, system-on-chip hardware/software co-design, Internet of Things, computer vision, and deep learning, and ultrasonic nondestructive testing and imaging. Saniie’s research activities have been supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Naval Research (ONR), National Science Foundation (NSF), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), University of Chicago, and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to conduct research in the area sensors, signal processing for detection, estimation, imaging, and system-on-chip design, ultrasonic communications for secure networking, thermal tomography and nondestructive testing. Saniie has been a Technical Program Committee member of the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium since 1987 (The Chair of Sensors, NDE and Industrial Applications Group, 2004-2013), Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control since 1994, the Lead Guest Editor for the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (UFFC) Special Issue on Ultrasonics and Ferroelectrics (August 2014), the IEEE UFFC Special Issue on Novel Embedded Systems for Ultrasonic Imaging and Signal Processing (July 2012), and Special Issue on Advances in Acoustic Sensing, Imaging, and Signal Processing published in the Journal of Advances in Acoustics and Vibration, 2013. Saniie was the General Chair for the 2014 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium in Chicago. He has served as the IEEE UFFC Ultrasonics Awards Chair since 2018. He served as the Ultrasonics Vice President of the IEEE UFFC Society (2014-2017). He has over 420 publications and has supervised 37 Ph.D. dissertations and 28 M.S. theses to completion. Saniie received the 2006 Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence and Contributions to Computer Engineering Program and the 2007 Armour College of Engineering and the University (Illinois Institute of Technology) Excellence in Teaching Award.

Publications

Saniie has over 420 publications in technical journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, and technical reports. To access his publications and research projects, please visit his research website.

Expertise

Ultrasonic signal and image processing, ultrasonic nondestructive testing and imaging, ultrasonic software-defined communication, artificial intelligence and machine learning, statistical pattern recognition, estimation and detection, data compression, time-frequency analysis, embedded digital systems, system-on-chip hardware/software co-design, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, computer vision, and deep learning.