Dapeng Oliver Wu

        Professor

Office:
              431 Engineering Building
    Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
    University of Florida
 
Mailing Address:
    Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
              P.O.Box 116130
    Gainesville, Florida 32611-6130
 
UPS/FedEx Mailing Address:
    1064 Center Drive
    Room # NEB 431
    Gainesville, FL 32611-6130
 
Tel:  (352) 392-4954
Fax: (352) 392-0044
Email: wu@ece.ufl.edu
          Homepage: http://www.wu.ece.ufl.edu       

Education

Here is my short biography, long curriculum vitae (in PDF), and academic family.

Research Group

Affiliations

Research Interests

Research Projects and Topics

Techniques Developed by My Group and Collaborators

Openings in Multimedia Communications and Networking Laboratory

For new applicants who intend to apply for the Ph.D. program in ECE department, U.F.:

Refer to notice for graduate applicants seeking research assistantships for details. 

No postdoc openings currently

Students and Visitors

Alumni

Past Visitors

Student Mentoring

Teaching

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision, Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2013

EEL 6935: Network Science and Applications, Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2013 

EEL 6825: Pattern Recognition,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2013

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2013

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision, Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2012

EEL 6935: Network Science and Applications, Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2012 

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2012

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision, Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2011

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision, Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2010

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2010

EEL 4514: Communication Systems and Components,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2009

EEL 4514L: Communications Laboratory,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2009

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2009

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2008

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2008

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2007

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2007

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2006

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2006

EEL 6562: Image Processing and Computer Vision,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2005

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2005

EEL 6935: Multimedia Communications and Networking,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2004

EEL 6509: Wireless Communications,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Spring 2004

EEL 6935: Special Topics in Multimedia Communications and Networking,  Dept. of ECE, University of Florida, Fall 2003

Teaching Philosophy

Publications

List of publications

List of journal publications according to topics

List of conference publications according to topics

Awards and Honors

IEEE Fellow, Class of 2013

Best Paper Award, IEEE GLOBECOM 2011

Best Associate Editor Award of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, 2010

University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship Award, 2009 - 2011

Outstanding Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, 2009

AFOSR Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, 2009

ONR Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, 2008

National Research Council/AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship Award, 2008

NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2007

National Research Council/AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship Award, 2007

Best Paper Award, International Conference on Quality of Service in Heterogeneous Wired/Wireless Networks (QShine 2006)

IEEE CSVT Transactions Best Paper Award for Year 2001

Certificate of Appreciation, IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communication (PIMRC), London, UK, Sept. 18-21, 2000.

Professional Activities

Editorship for international journals

Organizer or member of executive committee for international conferences

Member of Technical Program Committees for international conferences

Keynote/Plenary Speech

Chair, Special Committee of Area Chairs, Multimedia Signal Processing (MMSP) Technical Committee, IEEE Signal Processing Society, Jan. 2011--Dec. 2012

Chair, Mobile and wireless multimedia Interest Group (MobIG), Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society, July 2004 – June 2010.

Chair,  Award Committee, Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society, Sept. 2008 – June 2010.

Member, EDICS committee for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Nov. 2007--present.

Member,  Best Paper Award Committee, Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications, IEEE Communications Society, July 2004 – present.

Member, Best Paper Award Committee, IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2006), Toronto, Canada, July 9--12, 2006.

Director of Communications, IEEE Gainesville Section,  Jan. 2004 – Dec. 2005.

Senior Member of IEEE

Member of ACM

Member of American Society for Engineering Education

Research Sponsors

National Science Foundation  (NSF)

Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio

Department of Veterans Affairs

Florida Institute of Phosphate Research (FIPR)

Intel Corporation

PCS, Inc.

Stretch, Inc.

Cyber Technology Research Foundation

We would like to thank the following companies for their generous donations:

Intel Corporation

Summaries and References for Theories (including textbooks)

Memorizing a theory does not mean mastering the theory.  It is essential to understand the underlying principles and the insights of the theory.  When the theory looks very natural and logical to you, you are at the stage of commanding the theory.   Then you do not have to forcefully memorize it at all.  A good habit in learning theories is to record and summarize how you grow from intellectual infancy to intellectual maturity on each research area.  Here (http://www.wu.ece.ufl.edu/books/books.html) are the summaries and references for the subjects of my interests.

Many textbooks present theories from the theorist's perspective, rather than the user's perspective. The reader is presented with various theories, and applications of the theories based on a methodological taxonomy.  A danger with this approach of presentation is that the thinking behind the theories will not be grasped, leading to misuse of the theories.  Such presentation typically does not provide answers to "why does it work?", "under what condition does it work?", "Compared with other approaches, what are the pros and cons of this approach?"  In textbooks divided on methodological grounds, the opportunity for comparing alternative methodologies is diminished, lessening the guidance in method selection. In some sense, the textbooks teach the reader the dead knowledge but leave the job of method selection (the thinking) to the reader.  The reader needs to spend years on understanding the trade-off among various methods, and the conditions, under which a method is more suitable.   

A textbook typically follows the deductive reasoning rather than inductive/plausible reasoning.  Such a textbook starts with a rigorous formulation of a problem, then presents the theories to solve the problem.  It seldom provides the insight and the information about how the theorist came up with the theory; it rarely discusses about the underlying principle/design philosophy; and it seldom tries to make the theory natural and logical to the reader (e.g., pointing out its similarity to other familiar things, simplifying the presentation, stressing the key point).  

If a textbook is to be presented from the user's perspective, I suggest the following five steps.

  1. Exploring the problem and solution spaces.   The textbook should start with plausible reasoning, provide the information about how the theorist attacked the problem (e.g., try-and-errors examples, no-brainer/naive approaches, run-of-a-mill/classical approach, advanced approach), discuss which one works, which one does not work, and why it works or does not work; after some try and errors, the theorist hit upon an idea due to some magical reason.  
  2. Developing the theory.   The book should address how the magical idea was developed into the full-blown theory, how the theorist systematically studied the problem using the new theory (recording all the thoughts instead of only final version of the theory), and how to make the theory rigorous.  At this stage, the specific problem has been abstracted to a general problem.   
  3. Presenting the theory (in depth).    The book should present the theory using a deductive reasoning/framework, i.e., formulate the general problem, present the theory (final version) as a solution, provide rigorous proofs.   
  4. Discussing related theories (in breadth).    The book should summarize related theories in a concise and clear manner, address the pros and cons in solving the problem, compare all the theories in all possible aspects, and discuss the applications of the theories, significance of the problem and the theories.   (People learn things by comparison.)
  5. Organize the knowledge around important principles, concepts, and ideas.   Make connections between the new knowledge and the familiar things.  Help the student develop conditionalized knowledge, which includes a specification of the contexts where the theory is applicable, and the condition-action pairs required for problem solving.   In other words, help students learn how to organize the knowledge and how to recognize the patterns of problems and solve them effectively.   In contrast, most textbooks are much more explicit in enumerating the laws of math or of nature than in saying anything about when these laws are applicable in solving problems.  

The five steps are natural and logical to the reader, and hence is easily accessible to the reader!  The steps are first from the specific to the general (induction), making it rigorous, and then from the general to the specific (deduction).

Typically, a textbook only presents final version of the theories, which is not natural and logical to a beginner.   So it is the reader's job to make the theories logical to himself/herself.  This may be achieved by independent, critical, and creative thinking.  Independent thinking means that the reader should have his/her own views (e.g., trying to solve the problem by his/her own approach and comparing his/her own approach with the theory).  This is the first cut.  Critical thinking means that the reader should relentlessly attack the theory from all possible angles.  Attack its limitations and weaknesses or even tend to disprove the theory.   Unless the theory is completely justified, do not accept the theory.  After identifying the weaknesses of the theory, the reader is ready to think creatively.  Creative thinking means that the reader makes efforts to produce something which is not in the book (e.g., insights, simpler proofs, new theorems).   For example, the theory may only provide the necessary condition but the reader can provide a sufficient condition.  In sum, most readers have comparable intelligence but the results of the reading (i.e., understanding of the theory and capability of applying the theory) may be quite different.  The difference may be caused by the degree of curiosity, imagination, and efforts made on independent, critical, and creative thinking.

Leisure

Useful Links

Upcoming Conferences

Advice on Creative Thinking, Research, Writing, Speaking

Publish or Perish

Search citations of publications via ISI

Impact Factors of Scientific Journals, Journal Citation Report by ISI and Journal Ranking in EE by ISI

The Web's most comprehensive list of U.S. federal funding sources for scientific research

NEC Research Index

Wireless Technology Companies and Institutions

Lyrics

Optimization Theory

English Pronunciation

Lifespan of Electronic Products

Data measurement chart

Stories

The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e

Comprehensive TeX Archive

Oxford Advanced American Dictionary for Learners of English

English Dictionary with Voice Pronunciation

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or use google to find the definition of a word (define: the word)

Online Reference Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia & more (http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryHome.aspx?lextype=2)

Nobel Prize

Wolf Prize

Claude E. Shannon Award

Turing Award

Millennium Prize Problems (Want to try to win $1,000,000 by solving one of the seven millennium prize problems?)

International Mathematical Olympiad

Free online courses

 

Mottos:

Quotations:

The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.

Zen Philosophy

The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s, must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way.  Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics. 

G. H. Hardy

An intelligent problem-solver tries first of all to understand the problem as fully and as clearly as he can.  Yet understanding alone is not enough; he must concentrate upon the problem, he must desire earnestly to obtain its solution.  If he cannot summon up real desire for solving the problem, he would do better to leave it alone.   The open secret of real success is to throw your whole personality into your problem.

George Polya

Intellectual courage, intellectual honest, and wise restraint are the moral qualities of the scientist.   (Intellectual courage = dare to challenge authority; intellectual honest = dare to admit that yourself made a mistake if you did; wise restraint = do not follow others without some good reason)

George Polya

By endurance, we conquer.

Ernest H. Shackleton

We may have knowledge of the past and cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.

Claude E Shannon

There will be plenty of time to rest in the grave.

Paul Erdös

Private property is a nuisance.

Paul Erdös

Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion, more interesting than the inventions themselves.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Luck favors the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Thomas Edison

If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.

Isaac Newton

I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Isaac Newton

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Albert Einstein

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