CS welcomes new Department Head Baoxin Li
CS welcomes new Department Head Baoxin Li
Professor Baoxin Li joined UIC’s computer science department as the new department head on August 16. Li’s research focuses on visual computing and machine learning, emphasizing their application to human-centered computing.
He actively works on computer vision and pattern recognition, multimedia, image/video processing, medical imaging, human-computer interaction, and statistical methods in visual computing.
Li earned his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Maryland, and his MS and BS degrees in electrical engineering and information science from the University of Science and Technology of China.
Most recently, Li served as a computer science and engineering professor at Arizona State University, where he was the associate director for academic and student affairs for ASU’s School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence (SCAI). The school houses three departments, computer science and engineering, industrial engineering, and software engineering. Prior to assuming the associate director role, Li was the chair of their computer science and engineering program. Li was also a founding member and co-director of the ASU-Mayo Clinic Center for Innovative Imaging, a joint effort between the two entities. Mayo Clinic’s presence is massive in Arizona, with two campuses, including a hospital. Li spent 21 years at ASU.
He joined ASU from SHARP Laboratories and was the technical lead in developing SHARP’s HiIMPACT Sports™ technologies. During his time with SHARP, Li worked as an adjunct professor with Portland State University.
Li received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2008. He was named a Fulton Exemplar Faculty at ASU in 2017. He holds 18 U.S. patents, and his work has been featured on POLITICO, The New York Times, EE Times, MSNBC, Discovery News, ABC News, Gizmodo India, and many other media sources.
Li was drawn to UIC for its research and educational excellence, noting how productive faculty members in the department are, especially junior faculty. He was also attracted to UIC by the visionary leadership of the College of Engineering and the University.
“UIC has a strong foundation and excellence in all typical dimensions of research,” Li said. “Also, the curriculum and education provided to our students, especially the hands-on courses, is great.”
Li hopes to elevate the department, especially in its educational rankings. He also hopes to promote more interdisciplinary research.
Li also appreciates UIC’s urban locale, for student internship and employment opportunities, and for research collaborations with UIC’s medical campus and beyond, to area businesses and National Laboratories.