Avinash C. Kak (born 1944) is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

who has conducted pioneering research in several areas of information processing. His most noteworthy contributions deal with algorithms, languages, and systems related to networks (including sensor networks),

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...

, and computer vision. Born in Srinagar, Kashmir, he did his Bachelors in BE at

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

and Phd in

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

. He joined the faculty of

in 1971. His brother is the

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

Subhash Kak Subhash Kak is an Indian-American computer scientist and historical revisionist. He is the Regents Professor of Computer Science Department at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, an honorary visiting professor of engineering at Jawahar ...

and sister the literary theorist

Jaishree Odin Jaishree Odin is a literary scholar who is the director and a professor of the Program of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii. Her research relates to cultural studies of science and technology, literary and political ecology, ec ...

Robotics and computer vision

His contributions include the 3D-POLY, which is the fastest algorithm for recognizing 3D objects in depth maps In 1992, Kosaka and Kak published FINALE, which is considered to be a computationally efficient and highly robust approach to vision-based navigation by indoor mobile robots. In 2003, a group of researchers that included Kak developed a tool for content-based image retrieval that was demonstrated by

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

s to improve the performance of radiologists. This remains the only clinically evaluated system for content-based image retrieval for radiologists. His book ''Digital Picture Processing'', co-authored with Azriel Rosenfeld, is also considered a classic and has been one of the most widely referenced sources in literature dealing with digital

image processing An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimension ...

and

computer vision Computer vision is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate t ...

. Kak is not a believer in

Strong AI Strong artificial intelligence may refer to: "Strong Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an artificial intelligence that constructs mental abilities, thought processes, and functions that are impersonated from the human brain. It is more of a phil ...

as evidenced by his provocative/amusing essay ''Why Robots Will Never Have Sex''. This essay a rejoinder to those who believe that robots/computers will someday take over the world.

Image reconstruction algorithms

The SART algorithm ( Simultaneous Algebraic Reconstruction Technique) proposed by Andersen and Kak in 1984 has had a major impact in CT imaging applications where the projection data is limited. As a measure of its popularity, researchers have proposed various extensions to SART: OS-SART, FA-SART, VW-OS-SART, SARTF, etc. Researchers have also studied how SART can best be implemented on different parallel processing architectures. SART and its proposed extensions are used in emission CT in nuclear medicine, dynamic CT, and holographic tomography, and other reconstruction applications. Convergence of the SART algorithm was theoretically established in 2004 by Jiang and Wang. His book ''Principles of Computerized Tomographic Imaging'', now re-published as a classic in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemat ...

SIAM Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

(Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics), is widely used in courses dealing with modern medical imaging. It is one of the most frequently cited books in the literature on

image reconstruction Iterative reconstruction refers to iterative algorithms used to reconstruct 2D and 3D images in certain imaging techniques. For example, in computed tomography an image must be reconstructed from projections of an object. Here, iterative reco ...

Software engineering and open source

The three books written by Kak in the course of his 17-year-long Objects Trilogy Project cover

object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...

, object-oriented scripting, and

object-oriented design Object-oriented design (OOD) is the process of planning a system of interacting objects for the purpose of solving a software problem. It is one approach to software design. Overview An object contains encapsulated data and procedures grouped ...

. The first of these, ''Programming with Objects'', presents a comparative approach to the teaching and learning of two large object-oriented languages, C++ and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

. This book is now used in several universities for teaching object-oriented programming with C++ and Java simultaneously. The second book, ''Scripting with Objects'' does the same with Perl and Python. The last book of the trilogy is ''Designing with Objects''. Regarding the teaching of programming languages in universities, Kak is critical of programs that start the students off with relatively easier-to-learn languages like Java. and Over the years, Kak has also contributed to several

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

projects. The software modules developed through these projects are widely used for data analytics and computer security. In addition, during the last decade, Kak has collaborated with people in industry and developed metrics for measuring the quality of large software systems and the usability of APIs ( Application Programming Interfaces).

Computer and network security

In computer security research, together with Padmini Jaikumar he has presented a robust solution to the difficult problem of

botnet A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its co ...

detection in computer networks. He has authored popular online lecture notes that are updated regularly. These notes provide comprehensive overview of computer and

network security Network security consists of the policies, processes and practices adopted to prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Network security involves th ...

.Kak, A. Cryptography and Network Security
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References

External links

Avi Kak's articles on Google Scholar

Avi Kak's Personal Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kak, Avinash Living people 1944 births American computer scientists Artificial intelligence researchers Indian computer scientists Theoretical computer scientists Indian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American engineers Purdue University faculty American technology writers American textbook writers American male non-fiction writers IIT Delhi alumni Modern cryptographers American academics of Indian descent 20th-century Indian mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians Scientists from Jammu and Kashmir People from Srinagar Indian American American people of Indian descent