Assistant professor in computer science and software engineering elevated to Senior Member status by IEEE
Published: May 28, 2024 8:25 AM
By Joe McAdory
Sathyanarayanan “Sathya” Aakur, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE), has been elevated to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Senior Member.
“This is an exclusive level achieved by only about 10 percent of IEEE’s more than 450,000 members,” said CSSE Chair Hari Narayanan. “Earning this level is the highest professional grade of IEEE and requires extensive experience and reflects professional accomplishment and maturity.”
Senior members are chosen based on professional service, leadership and significant contributions to the field and research. Aakur, who has served as an area chair and associate editor with several IEEE conferences and journals for the past five years, focuses his research interests on computer vision, natural language processing and visual understanding.
A 2022 National Science Foundation CAREER Award winner, Aakur’s recent works were accepted at the IEEE’s International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging and in the Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.
“I’m extremely honored to be elevated to senior member,” said Aakur, who joined the Auburn Engineering faculty in Fall 2023. “Researchers need to be IEEE senior members for five years to apply for IEEE fellowship positions — the highest honor IEEE awards.
“Earning this distinction opens further opportunities within the IEEE for me. I have been involved in organizing conferences, recently co-chaired the demo track at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2024. Being a senior member will allow me to explore leadership opportunities within IEEE and help Auburn continue to develop a culture of research and education in computer science.”
Aakur’s expertise in video understanding and computer vision for robotics comes in very handy, leading to publications and service in the computer vision and artificial intelligence research communities— giving him the experience and prestige deserving of the IEEE senior member distinction.
“We typically receive thousands of submissions to a conference, the 'around 30' papers that fall under my area are assigned to me and it's my job to make sure that each of these papers receive a fair peer review from at least three people,” he said. “Then I make recommendations to the program chairs, who administer the conference about the decisions on the papers that are in my batch with justification based on reviewer comments and intensive discussions.”
Aakur encourages faculty peers to pursue opportunities within professional organizations. Why? Their work will be noticed.
“Every day, dozens of new papers come out,” he said. “No matter how talented we are as researchers, our work gets lost in that. But these professional memberships allow us to showcase our work and bring more visibility to the department and the university.”
Media Contact: , jem0040@auburn.edu, 334.844.3447
Sathyanarayanan "Sathya" Aakur joined the Auburn faculty in summer 2023.
