Biography
Prof. Paul F. Whelan
BEng (Hons), MEng (Limerick), PhD (Cardiff), SMIEEE, CEng, FIET
Professor of Computer Vision
Centre for Image Processing & Analysis
School of Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Computing
Prof. Paul F Whelan received his B.Eng. (Hons) degree from the National Institute for Higher Education Dublin, a M.Eng. degree from the University of Limerick, and his Ph.D. (Computer Vision) from the Cardiff University (UK). During the period 1985-1990 he was employed by Industrial and Scientific Imaging Ltd and later Westinghouse (WESL), where he was involved in the research and development of high speed computer vision systems. He was appointed to the School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University (DCU) in 1990 and has been the Professor of Computer Vision (Personal Chair) since 2005. Prof. Whelan founded the Vision Systems Laboratory and its associated Vision Systems Group in 1990 and the Centre for Image Processing & Analysis is in 2006 and currently serves as its director. He also serves on the board of the Rince Institute (an Irish national research institute focussed on innovation in engineering technologies - a €10 million HEA-PRTLI I initiative) and is the DCU deputy coordinator and PI in the National Biophotonics & Imaging Ireland Platform [NBIPI] (a €30 million HEA-PRTLI IV initiative). He is also the Imaging Technology core coordinator for the National Biophotonics & Imaging Ireland Platform.
Prof. Whelan was also responsible for the establishment and on-going management (1995-2000) of the World Wide Web based Remote Access to Continuing Engineering Education (RACeE) initiative for the School. Prof. Whelan is also responsible for the VSG's NeatVision Project (a freely distributed image analysis and software environment for computer vision and computer aided diagnostic application development with over 1600 users worldwide). Prof. Whelan was the research convenor for the School of Electronic Engineering and a member of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing Research board (2001-2010). He is currently a member of the DCU Governing Authority (2006-2011) [Professor/Associate Professor Constituency] and is the current DCU institutional nominee on the Royal Irish Academy Committee For Engineering Sciences (2009-2013).
As well as publishing over 150 peer reviewed papers, Prof. Whelan has co-authored 2 monographs namely "Intelligent Vision Systems for Industry" (1997-Springer) and "Machine Vision Algorithms in Java: Techniques and Implementation" (2000-Springer, reprinted in 2001). He has also co-edited 3 books including "Selected Papers on Industrial Machine Vision Systems" (1994-SPIE). His research interests include image segmentation, and its associated quantitative analysis (specifically mathematical morphology, colour-texture analysis) with applications in computer/machine vision and medical imaging (specifically computer aided detection and diagnosis focusing on translational research). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE a Chartered Engineer, a member of IAPR and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He is also a member of a range of computer vision related conference program committees and acts as a reviewer for the main computer/machine vision journals. He served on the IEE Irish centre committee (1999-2002) and as the national representative and member of the governing board (1998-2007) of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), a member of the International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS) council and the inaugural President (1998-2007) of the Irish Pattern Recognition and Classification Society.
Prof. Whelan's computer vision research programmes have been funded by Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Amdahl, Technology Systems International Ltd., European Commission: Framework IV, Accompanying Measure projects, EOLAS/British Council, DCU Research Committee, Private Donors, DCU Educational Trust, Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute (NUIG), IRCSET, Mater Hospital, Temple Street Children's Hospital, HEA/PRTLI I (RINCE), Enterprise Ireland (Applied Research Grant Scheme, Proof of Concept, Technology Development Grant, Commercialisation Plus Award), SFI (Principal Investigator & Research Frontiers Programmes), HEA/PRTLI IV (NBIPI) and the Wellcome Trust.
Prof Whelan has filed 7 patents since 2007 and has successfully licensed elements of his medical image analysis research programmes. He was also the winner of the DCU INVENT (ICT/Engineering Section) Invention Disclosure Award in 2007 & 2008.