For Technological Achievements, Govindaraju Wins Trio of Awards from Academic Groups, Industry

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Venu Govindaraju, PhD, UB Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has received three major awards in recognition of his continued record of achievement in technological innovation.

He was one of five technologists in the world to receive the 2010 IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Computer Society Technical Achievement Award, given to recognize outstanding and innovative contributions to computer and information science and engineering or computer technology.

Govindaraju received the award for his pioneering contributions to biometric systems.

He accepted the award at the IEEE awards ceremony earlier this year, where a video about his achievements was shown.

Govindaraju has the special distinction of having been selected three years in a row to participate in the prestigious 2010 HP Labs Innovation Research program, putting him into an elite group of computing pioneers. The HP Labs Innovations Research program is designed to provide colleges, universities and research institutes around the world with opportunities to conduct breakthrough, collaborative research with HP and encourage open collaboration between HP and the academic community.

And last year, Govindaraju was named an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow, one of fewer than 50 in the world to be so honored, for contributing fundamental knowledge to computing and computer science and for playing a crucial role in driving innovations necessary to sustain competitiveness in an information-based society.

The founding director of UB's Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS) and the associate director of the Center for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR), Govindaraju has been the co-author of more than 325 scientific papers and principal or co-principal investigator of more than $55 million in research projects.

Since it was founded in 2003, CUBS has produced 17 doctoral-level graduates and attracted approximately $10 million in federal and industry funding covering biometrics, security, document recognition and retrieval. The center advances machine learning and pattern recognition technologies to build engineered systems for both civilian and homeland security applications. It develops new methods for customizing devices that use data from physical biometrics, such as fingerprints, hand geometry and iris scans; behavioral biometrics, such as signature, voiceprint and gait, and chemical biometrics, such as DNA and body odor.

As a computer scientist specializing in pattern recognition, Govindaraju's research into getting machines to recognize and understand handwriting was at the core of the first handwritten address interpretation system used by the U.S. Postal Service. He also was responsible for technology transfer to Lockheed Martin and Siemens Corporation for the system's deployment by the U.S. Postal Service, Australia Post and UK Royal Mail.

Govindaraju has given more than a hundred invited talks around the world and has supervised the dissertations of 20 doctoral students. He has served on editorial boards of premier journals in his field and has chaired several technical conferences and workshops. He has won numerous awards, including the prestigious MIT Global Technovator Award (2004). He also is a Fellow of the IEEE and the IAPR, the International Association of Pattern Recognition.

A recipient of a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, he is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and earned master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from UB.