Computer Science students, Zubairi to participate in NSF Regional I-Corps program

Two students majoring in Computer Science who are supervised and mentored by SUNY Distinguished Professor Junaid Zubairi have been accepted along with their professor to participate in the upcoming National Science Foundation’s Innovation-Corps Regional Course hosted by SUNY Binghamton.

The students are Camron Walsh, of Lakeview and Donghyun Kim, Gyeonggi-do from China, both seniors.

SUNY Fredonia’s team proposes to design and build a deep learning-based smart, efficient and reliable radar augmented-computer vision system with minimal power requirements. It is named DLTEAM (Deep Learning based Traffic Enumeration and Analysis Module). The video feed will be augmented by the on-site intelligent system through analysis and classification of the type of vehicles passing a monitoring point withstanding harsh weather conditions.

The system will also be able to detect special traffic and weather situations besides sending data to the management center. In the proposed system, road mounted surveillance cameras and radar are used to train models which can detect vehicles on the road and identify their type as well as any special traffic situations 24X7 – even in harsh weather conditions such as snow, rain, fog and haze.

It will be of immense benefit to the national transportation system, fulfilling the need for smart traffic management in all areas including rural traffic monitoring centers, Dr. Zubairi said.

Through the I-Corps regional course, Mr. Kim anticipates gaining more experience with entrepreneurship in terms of software engineering as well as a glimpse of how software development business operates in the real world.

"I am thrilled to work alongside Dr. Zubairi and Donghyun throughout this course, as I believe we will all greatly benefit from the opportunity to extend our work beyond the classroom,” Mr. Walsh said. “The chance to enhance my skillset through training and establish new connections is particularly exciting to me, and I anticipate these benefits will be among the most rewarding aspects of the program."

In the I-Corps regional course, STEM researchers and aspiring entrepreneurs “get out of their comfort zone” and learn from potential customers. The goal is to determine if they are solving a real-world problem with a sizable market opportunity. In addition to entrepreneurial training, this program helps researchers identify new ways to apply their research to solve real-life challenges.

The program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, runs from April 17 to May 19. At the successful completion of the course, $3,000 will be awarded to the team for travel purposes. In addition, the team may be nominated for the National I-Corps program of the National Science Foundation.