EAST LANSING – Advancing the science that recognizes people by their face, fingerprints, gait, and voice – and protecting the privacy of those images – have earned an international award for a faculty member in the Michigan State University College of Engineering.

Arun Ross, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at MSU, will receive the 2014 J.K. Aggarwal Prize from the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) in Sweden on Aug. 25. The prize is given to a scientist, under the age of 40, who has brought a substantial contribution and impact to the pattern recognition field.

The Aggarwal Prize acknowledges his research contributions on biometric fusion, fingerprint analysis, iris recognition and biometric privacy.

?Biometrics is a fascinating pattern recognition problem, and my students and I are fortunate to be working in a field that has direct societal benefits,? he said.

Ross and his students are currently developing algorithms to perform robust face, fingerprint and iris recognition, including:

Matching a face image obtained using a thermal camera against one from a regular digital camera;

Protecting the privacy of face and fingerprint images that are stored in a database;

?Anti-spoofing? techniques for detecting a fake fingerprint or a cosmetically altered face.

A colleague from the University of Notre Dame said Ross?s work in biometrics is widely respected and highly cited.

?(His) remarkable range of contributions reflects an agile and creative approach to research, a talent for identifying and mentoring talented students, and a collaborative spirit that has fostered many productive relationships with other schools in the U.S. and abroad,? said Patrick Flynn, Duda Family Professor of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

Kevin W. Bowyer, who is the Schubmehl-Prein Professor and Department Chair, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, noted that Ross seems to always be doing interesting research.

?Most recently, I have followed his work in iris recognition and in face recognition across the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. He is certainly deserving of this recognition,? Bowyer said.

Ross said he is grateful for this international honor and very appreciative of his PhD advisor and research mentor at MSU, University Distinguished Professor Anil K. Jain. ?Professor Jain introduced me to this field more than 15 years ago. Since then, I have been privileged to work with excellent students in the iPRoBE Lab as well as a number of collaborators.?

The award will be given at the 22nd International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR) in Stockholm, Sweden, Aug. 24-28, hosted by the Swedish Society for Automated Image Analysis. This international forum advances pattern recognition, machine learning, and computer vision and the application of these technologies. Ross will deliver a plenary address, “Biometrics: From Pattern Recognition to Data Privacy.?

Matt Mutka, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, said the award is significant and recognizes the researcher who has already had a substantial impact on the field, but is not yet 40 years old. “With the large number of researchers in the field of pattern recognition, it is truly an important honor.”

Mutka noted that previous award recipients are Bernhard Sch�lkopf (Max Planck Institute, 2006), Song-Chun Zhu (UCLA, 2008), Antonio Torralba (MIT, 2010), and Rene Vidal (Johns Hopkins, 2012).

“Prior recipients from places such as Max Planck Institute, MIT, and John Hopkins, as have Arun, have all distinguished themselves,” Mutka said.