ECE Assistant Professor Md Jahidul Islam has been named the Yangbin Wang Rising Star Professor, a recognition of his cutting-edge research and impactful student mentoring. Dr. Islam becomes the twentieth ECE faculty member to be supported by an endowed professorship.
Islam received his Ph.D. (2021) in Robotics from the Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) department of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His research focuses on solving challenging open problems in the domains of robotics and AIoT. In particular, he is interested in the design and development of robust perception modules that enable autonomous robots and intelligent machines to accurately interpret their surroundings in real time. His proposed methodologies have been deployed in real-world applications such as active inspection, remote monitoring, and autonomous explorations. The novel algorithms and technological solutions behind these methods are published in premier robotics conferences (e.g., RSS, ICRA, IROS) and journals (e.g., IJRR, JFR, RA-L). Prior to his Ph.D., he obtained his M.Sc. (2015) and B.Sc. (2012) degrees from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), specializing in AI and evolutionary algorithms.
Islam is the director of the RoboPI (Robot Perception and Intelligence) laboratory. The primary research focus of his group is to develop novel and improved robotics systems for autonomous inspection, surveillance, and long-term monitoring applications to address and mitigate various challenging real-world problems. He is also exploring research problems in the domains of applied machine learning and 3D computer vision—aiming at multidisciplinary use cases of AI and AIoT.
About Yangbin Wang
Mr. Wang’s connection with the area is deep—he considers Gainesville his ‘American hometown.’ Having earned a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from Zhejiang University in China, he came to the University of Florida to pursue a Master’s degree, receiving his MSEE in 1993.
His time at UF was formative. As quoted in an excellent profile by UF Advancement, Wang received some pivotal advice from ECE Distinguished Professor José Príncipe:
…Príncipe, his electrical and biomedical engineering professor, drew a circle and told students that the inside represented current knowledge; the outside, the unknown. Príncipe encouraged them to work in the area outside the circle, attempting to make breakthroughs and advancing the field. Wang says that illustration always encouraged him to seek leading-edge technologies.
And after leaving UF, Wang did just that. He worked for a Silicon Valley company, Compression Labs, then began a series of startups which ultimately led to the founding of Vobile in 2005. The technology at the heart of the innovative company takes ‘fingerprints’ of movies, frame by frame, then stores them in a database. Matching these prints to content streaming on the internet allows content creators to find, and stop, pirated movies streaming on the web.
Wang is continuing to honor his American hometown, opening a Vobile R&D operations center in Gainesville, creating hundreds of jobs for his American hometown. As he explained in a Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering news article,
“We [chose] Gainesville, FL as our next center for innovation and product development because of its proximity to the University of Florida (UF) Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and the top talent produced there. In addition, UF has made significant investments in artificial intelligence (AI) research and a commitment to students being AI proficient before graduation. Our new office will focus on our continued hiring efforts to secure the talent required to execute our growth strategy.”
Yangbin Wang can claim a distinction not common among his electrical engineering peers—he has an Emmy award. In recognition of his technical contributions to the industry, specifically Vobile’s patented Video DNA technology, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded the company a Technology and Engineering Emmy in 2018.
Wang has also generously named a signature classroom on the second floor of Malachowsky Hall, home to ECE Department headquarters. This bold space is a daily reminder of Wang’s crucial support of the department.
