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Alejandro Koretzky, a MCL alumnus, is currently working on his own start-up company named Tunesplit. We had an interview as well as a friendly conversation with him.

Alejandro came from Argentina in 2013 to pursue a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, specializing in multimedia and creative technologies. His focus is on signal processing and machine learning.

During his study, he developed a strong interest in source separation and decided to conduct research in this field. Being a musician (both singer and writer), Alejandro became interested in developing an algorithm that automatically decomposes audio according to its sources (e.g. guitar, keyboard, singer, etc.). This would give the user the ability to access and manipulate the individual sources within an audio mix, and thus, personalize the music listening experience. To make it convenient for the users, this splitting process needs to be conducted in real time. In order to make his idea come true, Alejandro took Directed Research with Professor Kuo, who not only supervised him in research but also helped him establish connections with other people.

Starting from the first prototype, an iPhone app, Alejandro converted his idea to a real product and entered the battlefield of business as well. His team was selected by the Viterbi Startup Garage, a program which provides support in funding, space, strategic, and financial resources. Currently, he is focusing on connecting his product with Spotify.

Reflecting on his experiences as a member of MCL, Alejandro says he is very proud of the lab. He believes it is not only a great place for conducting research, but also a great place to connect with other people and learn about other research projects. He also would like to share the following advice with us and [...]

In spring 2016, MCL has a new master student, Zhehang Ding. We welcomed him and had an interview with him.

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself? (Previous research experience, project experience, research interest and expertise)

My name is Zhehang Ding, from China. I earned a bachelor’s degree from Hangzhou Dianzi University in Electronic and Information Engineering. In the last year of my undergraduate study I attended a program in Queen’s University Belfast, UK and finished my thesis about augmented reality there. After that, I became a master student in USC to study image processing and pattern recognition.

I have been an amateur astronomer and photographer for about eight years. So playing with images is just like a part of my daily life. I am very interested in the techniques involved as well. Furthermore, I am extremely curious about the nature of consciousness and intelligence, especially about how to teach computer to see and think. It is these interests that led me into image processing first and then the world of computer vision finally . I feel that I really have to learn much more, from both knowledge and methodology, in order to satisfy my curiosity. Therefore I applied a directed research program and joined MCL this semester.

2. What’s your first impression of USC and MCL?

After being living almost all my life in humid eastern China and recently in pastoral Northern Ireland, I feel both strange and curious living in this dessert-like city. USC for me is like a oasis in this dessert, not only for its natural environment and architectures, but also for the active academic atmosphere and its rich cultural activities.

When I first attended the MCL ‘s seminar, I was impressed and actually shocked by these [...]

In spring 2016, MCL has a new Master’s student, Ahmet Ozbek. We welcomed him and had an interview with him.

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself? (Previous research experience, project experience, research interest and expertise)

I graduated from Electrical Engineering department of Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2014 with an emphasis on Signal&Image processing. Then I decided to continue my studies at USC focusing on Signal&Image processing towards masters degree.

2. What’s your first impression of USC and MCL?

First thing I noticed about MCL is how hardworking its members are. It is also very nice to see that people help each other out and they are willing to share their knowledge. The special thing is that Professor Kuo pushes to help students to reach out to their full potential, he tries to get the best out of his students.

3. What’s your future expectation for MCL?

I believe that there is a strong progress of research and strong unity MCL. Therefore MCL is already doing very well and I can see that it is going to accomplish much more in the future.

Young Ju Jeong, a MCL member, has passed her defense on Feb 16, 2016. Congratulations!

Her dissertation title is “Autostereoscopic 3D Display Rendering from Stereo Sequences”. Rapid developments in 3D display technologies have enabled consumers to enjoy 3D environments in an increasingly immersive manner through various display systems such as stereoscopic, multiview, and light field displays. Sufficient 3D contents for various display systems play important role for further commercial viability of 3D display products. The common 3D content, however, is only stereo sequences for 3D stereoscopic displays and it is not guaranteed that the stereo sequences are well calibrated. 3D display rendering algorithm is a key to generating 3D contents from the conventional stereo sequences. In this dissertation we investigate 3D display rendering framework for various type 3D display systems from conventional stereo contents.

Young Ju gave a nice talk with clarity and smooth flow. The Committee was impressed by her high quality research work and results. About her future plan, she wants to generate real like 3D displays which enables us to enjoy wonderful 3D world through conventional devices such as mobiles, tablets, and laptops. When talking about her success in her research work, Young Ju shares her experience with us. She thinks that she couldn’t continue her PhD about 9 years ago and she almost gave up to finish it. However, she could resume PhD again because of others’ help and eventually she can pass the defense exam. She really appreciates for the help and support especially for Prof. Kuo’s sincere guidance.

In spring 2016, MCL has a new PhD student, Yuanhang Su. We welcomed him and had an interview with him.

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself? (Previous research experience, project experience, research interest and expertise)

Before I join in the MCL lab, I had worked in the industry for five years. But my work mainly focused on video codecs, image/video processing, and system/algorithmic design for digital cameras. Over the years, I have realized that big data analytics and machine learning is in vogue in the industry right now. I believe machine learning combined with video and image data is the future.

2. What’s your first impression of USC and MCL?

I choose MCL, which is guided by Professor Kuo. He is very much invested into this field. I wish I can also learn the state of the art in machine learning from my MCL colleagues.

3. What’s your future expectation for MCL?

Wish MCL can continue leading its way and hopefully I can make my own contribution to this field.