Dr. Rehan Hafiz

Professor, Department of computer and software Engineering

PhD - Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Manchester, UK

  • rehan.hafiz@newitu2.itu.edu.pk

RESEARCH INTERESTS

His current research revolves around the Vision System Design. Recently, His currently interested in development of power efficient architectures and computing frameworks utilizing Approximate Computing techniques for Computer Vision & Image Processing Applications. Other areas of interest include FPGA based design, H/W/SW based Co-Design, Multi-Projector & Immersive Display Technologies and Image Processing & Computer Vision Applications. Currently, he leads the Vision Processing Lab  (VISpro Lab, http://vispro.newitu2.itu.edu.pk/) which specifically deals with Embedded & Real-time Systems for Machine Learning, Computer Vision & AI. 

Biography

Dr. Rehan Hafiz has over eight years of R&D experience in the area of Digital Embedded Systems, Design of architectures for hardware accelerators and applied Vision &  Image Processing. Earlier, he founded the Vision Image & Signal Processing (VISpro) Lab at School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, NUST in 2011. Under his leadership, VISpro lab set up a joint collaboration with South Korea’s premium research organization, Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI), South Korea, to develop a state of the art Ultra High Definition (UHD) Panorama Generation and Multi Projector Rendering System. Such UHD based ultra-wide angle displays hold the future for next generation immersive displays. Technologies based on UHD content & projection systems shall find place in upcoming home theaters & television broadcasting systems. UHD-TV consists of extremely high resolution imagery and multichannel sound to give viewers a stronger sensation of presence. He and his team filed 7 US and Korean Patent applications, out of which two patents have already been accepted. Dr. Rehan has published several journal and conference articles related to custom processor design, approximate computing, application specific processor designing, video stabilization & multi projector rendering.

To know more about VISpro lab, log on to  http://vispro.newitu2.itu.edu.pk/

 
  • (Book Chapter) "Machine Learning in VLSI CAD", Chapter Title: Energy-Efficient Architectures and Design Methods for Advanced Machine Learning, Springer
  • (Journal) Awarded an equivalence of Three (03) Impact Factor Journals vide HEC letter Ref: 3-3(Patents)DD-QA/HEC/2017/175 for US/Korean Patents titled, " Geometric correction apparatus and method based on recursive bezier patch sub-division "
  • Journal: S. Mazahir, O. Hassan, R.Hafiz, M. Shafique, "Probabilistic Error Analysis of Approximate Recursive Multipliers", in IEEE Transactions on Computers (IEEE-TC), -accepted May 2017.
  • M.Shafique, R.Hafiz, M. U. Javed, S. Abbas,  L.Sekanina, Z.Vasicek, V.Mrazek, "Adaptive and Energy-Efficient Architectures for Machine Learning: Challenges, Opportunities, and Research Roadmap", IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI 2017).
  • M. A. Hanif, R. Hafiz, O. Hasan and M. Shafique, “QuAd: Design and Analysis of Quality-Area Optimal Low-Latency Approximate Adders”, Design Automation Conference (DAC-2017), Austin, TX, USA, To Appear.
  • El-Harouni, Walaa, et al. "Embracing approximate computing for energy-efficient motion estimation in high efficiency video coding." 2017 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE). IEEE, 2017.
  • Mazahir, Sana, et al. "Probabilistic error modeling for approximate adders." IEEE Transactions on Computers 66.3 (2017): 515-530.
  • S. Mazahir, O. Hasan, R. Hafiz, M. Shafique, J. Henkel, An area-efficient consolidated configurable error correction for approximate hardware accelerators. ACM/EDAC/IEEE 5rd Design Automation Conference (DAC),DAC 2016: 96
  • M. Shafique, R. Hafiz, S. Rehman, W. El-Harouni, J. Henkel, Invited - Cross-layer approximate computing: from logic to architectures. ACM/EDAC/IEEE 5rd Design Automation Conference (DAC),DAC 2016: 99
  • M. Shafique, W. Ahmad, R. Hafiz, Jörg Henkel, A low latency Generic Accuracy Configurable Adder in ACM/EDAC/IEEE 52nd Design Automation Conference (DAC), San Francisco, CA, USA, June 8-12, (2015)
  • Journal: Ameer Hamza, R. Hafiz, Muhammad M. Khan, Yongju Cho, Jihun Cha, Stabilization of panoramic videos from mobile multi-camera platforms, Elsevier Image and Vision Computing, Volume 37, (May 2015), Pages 20-30, ISSN 0262-8856
  • Journal: S.  Saeed, R. Hafiz, A. Rasul, M. M. Khan, Y. Cho, U. Park, J.  Cha, “A unified panoramic stitching and multi-projector rendering scheme for immersive panoramic displays” (Elsevier Displays, July 2015)
  • Journal: K. Babar, R. Hafiz, K.Khurshid, et.al.  A Scalable Architecture for Geometric Correction of Multi-Projector Display Systems, Elsevier Displays , (July 2015)
  • Journal: S. Mussadiq, R. Hafiz, M. Abdullah , Confined Projection on Selected Sub-surface using a Robust Binary Coded Pattern for Pico Projectors (Springer Multimedia, 2015)
  • Journal: U.Kakli, Qureshi. H.S , M. M. Khan; R. Hafiz,  Y. Cho, P. Unsang, Quality Assessment of Images Projected using Multiple Projectors, KSII Transaction (May 2015)
  • Journal: M. T. Ibrahim, R. Hafiz, M. M. Khan,Y. Cho,J. Cha, Automatic selection of colour reference image for panoramic stitching, Springer Multimedia Journal, ISSN 0942-4962, (May 2015)
  • Hardware/Software Co-Design of Embedded Real-Time KD-Tree Based Feature Matching Systems ( ISVC 2014, USA)
  • M. Ahmad, A. Kamboh &  R. Hafiz, "Power & Throughput Optimized Lifting Architecture for Wavelet Packet Transform", IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems ISCAS 2014 (June 2014, Melbourne)
  • R. Bilal, R. Hafiz, M. Shafique, S. Shoaib, A. Munawar, and Jorg Henkel. "ISOMER: Integrated selection, partitioning, and placement methodology for reconfigurable architectures." In Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 2013 IEEE/ACM International Conference on, pp. 755-762.
  • S. Mussadiq and R. Hafiz, “Projection on Suitable Sub-Surface Selected in Indoor Environment", Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC 2013), Crete Greece.
  • Journal: Ahmed, Atif, R. Hafiz, Muhammad Murtaza Khan, Yongju Cho, and Jihun Cha. "Geometric Correction for Uneven Quadric Projection Surfaces Using Recursive Subdivision of Bézier Patches." ETRI Journal 35, no. 6 (2013).
  • Journal: Qureshi, H. S., M. M. Khan, R. Hafiz, Y. Cho, and J. Cha. "Quantitative quality assessment of stitched panoramic images." IET Image Processing 6, no. 9 (2012): 1348-1358
  • M. T. Ibrahim, R. Hafiz, M. M. Khan,Y. Cho,J. Cha, "Automatic Reference Selection for Parametric Color Correction Schemes for Panoramic Video Stitching", Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC 2012), pp. 492-501, 2012, Crete Greece.
  • Journal: R. Hafiz, and K. B. Ozanyan. "Optical absorption measurements in particle-containing ambients using gated ratiometric detection." Sensors Journal, IEEE 8, no. 8 (2008): 1437-1444.
  • Journal: R. Hafiz and K. B. Ozanyan, "Digitally balanced detection for optical tomography." Review of Scientific Instruments 78, no. 10(2007): 103101-103101.
  • R. Hafiz and K. B. Ozanyan, "Digital Balanced Detection for Fast Optical Computerized Tomography," Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 6371 (2006)
  • R. Hafiz, A. Tahir et al., “An optimized hardware accelerator for Real Time Registration of Aerial Video Imagery and its applications.” ICIG 2004. Proceedings of 3rd IEEE International Conference on Image and Graphics , Hong Kong , December 18-20 (2004)

  • Awarded HEC NRPU Funding on A"n advance coding scheme for wireless Communication in an unknown environment", (PI: Dr. Ali Ahmed, Co-PI Dr. Rehan Hafiz )
  • HiPEAC 2017 Award for QuAd: Design and Analysis of Quality-Area Optimal Low-Latency Approximate Adders, DAC 2017 by HiPEAC Steering Committee
  • Overseas Research Scholarship (ORS,UK) award from Universities UK (2007)
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Scholarship, Manchester (2007)

    • IEEE USA
    • Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) : COMP/02715
  • List of Patents
    • 1.        Approved Patent, “Geometric Correction Apparatus and Method based on Recursive Bezier Patch Sub-Division”, Registration No.(Date) 1014096190000 (2014.06.12) (Korean Patent Office) – Granted2.        Application No. 550/2011, “A High Throughput, Low Interrupt Generic Micro-coded Architecture for Ultra High Speed Communication Protocols”, Accepted May 2015 (Pakistan Patent Office) -- Granted3.        Application No. US 13/658,039, “Apparatus and method for correcting color of image projection device”, Filed Oct 2012 (US Patent Office)-Provisionally Accepted4.        Application No. 1020130109111, “Colour correction apparatus for panorama video stitching and method for selection of reference image thereof”, Filed 2013.09.11 (Korean Patent Office)5.        Application No. 1020120111325, “Apparatus and method for correcting color of image projection device.”, Filed 2012.10.08 (Korean Patent Office)6.        Application No. 13/678,315, “Geometric correction apparatus and method based on recursive Bezier patch sub-division cross-reference to related application”, Filed Nov 2012 (US Patent Office)7.        Application No. 14/044,405, A method for stabilization of stitched videos captured from a multi-camera platform, Filed Nov 2013 (US Patent Office)8.        Application No. 14/024,877, “Colour correction apparatus for panorama video stitching and method for selection of reference image thereof”, Filed 2014.03.13 (US Patent Office)9.        Application No. 10-2015-0047735, “System and method for displaying panorama image using single look-up table”, Filed 2015.03.03 (Korean Patent Office)