• E-mail: abidi@utk.edu

Education

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1986
• MS in Electrical Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1984
• Principal Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering, The National Engineering School of Tunis, Tunisia, 1981

Mongi A. Abidi, Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, directs activities in the Imaging, Robotics, and Intelligent Systems Laboratory. Abidi has been conducting research in the field of three-dimensional imaging, specifically in the areas of scene building, scene description, and data visualization. Abidi is also involved in the areas of robotic multisensing, landmark tracking and sensor calibration, data fusion and probabilistic reasoning, and enhancement of medical images. Since joining UTK as a faculty member in 1986, Abidi has acted as either principal investigator or co-principal investigator for research contracts totaling over $16 million.

Abidi is currently acting as principal investigator for three programs. The first program is the 3D Imaging and Data Fusion for Robotic Manipulation and Inspection, part of the DOE’s multi-university Research Program in Robotics. The second program is the 3D Imaging and Data Fusion for Automotive Simulation and Design, part of a multi-university program with the U.S. Army TACOM. The third program involves two projects, Gate-to-Gate Automated Video Tracking and Location and Operator Assisted Threat Assessment for Carry-on Luggage Inspection, both with National Safe Skies.

In addition to his research duties, Abidi teaches senior and graduate courses at UT in the fields of pattern recognition, image processing, computer vision, and robotics. He has developed three courses in image processing and robotics. He has also taught industrial courses in the areas of mathematical transforms for engineers, data fusion, fuzzy logic, and neural networks.

Abidi is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu, and the Order of the Engineer. He received the First State Award in primary graduation, the First State Award in secondary graduation, and the First Presidential Principal Engineer Award. He holds memberships in the IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Pattern Recognition Society, Association of Computing Machinery, and the International Society of Optical Engineering. Abidi is the recipient of the following awards: 2002-2003 Dun & Bradstreet Who’s Who in Executives and Business, 2002 United Who’s Who in Empowering Executives and Professionals, 2002 Marquis Who’s Who in America, Strathmore’s Lifetime Who’s Who Award, 2001-2003 Philips Professorship Award, 2001 Science Alliance Faculty Award, 2001 Brooks Distinguished Professor Award, 1999-2001 Weston Fulton Professorship, 1997-2000 Magnavox Professorship, and 1995 Chancellor’s Award for Research and Creative Achievement.

Abidi is author or co-author of over 200 publications in computer vision and robotics journals and conference proceedings. He is co-editor of the book Data Fusion in Robotics and Machine Intelligence, published by Academic Press in 1992 and co-editor of the following book chapters: Logical Combinatorial Pattern Recognition: A Review, Recent Research Developments in Pattern Recognition, Transworld Research Networks, 2002; Positron Emission Tomography: Image Filtering, Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology, Marcel Dekker, 1993; and A Regularized Solution to Multi-Dimensional Data Fusion, Data Fusion in Robotics and Machine Intelligence, Academic Press, 1992.

• Image Processing
• Robotics
• Artificial Intelligence