Dr. Nasser Kehtarnavaz
- Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor
This non-endowed faculty position is supported by the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
“I am grateful to the anonymous donor who made this professorship possible. I see this professorship or any endowed position coming with a responsibility: to educate students through teaching and research in such a way that they are inspired to make a difference in society.”
Kehtarnavaz is the director of the Signal and Image Processing (SIP) Laboratory at UT Dallas, where research projects are conducted on real-time implementation of signal and image processing algorithms using embedded processors — in particular processors in smartphones — on biomedical signal and image analysis, and on machine learning.
Kehtarnavaz is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), where he currently serves as the university relations chair of the IEEE Dallas Section, a member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society Education Committee, and the faculty advisor of the UT Dallas chapter of the IEEE Eta Kappa Nu honor society. He is also a fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), serving currently as co-chair of the SPIE conference on real-time image and video processing. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Real-Time Image Processing.
Kehtarnavaz has authored or co-authored 10 books and more than 330 papers, patents, manuals and editorials. He received the IEEE’s Region 5 Professional Leadership Award in 2015, and the IEEE’s Region 5 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award in 2013. He has worked in various capacities at Texas Instruments, AT&T Bell Labs, U.S. Army TACOM Research Lab and Houston Health Science Center. He also has conducted 50 funded projects as principal investigator or co-principal investigator. In his latest research project, he is collaborating with UT Dallas colleagues to develop a smartphone-based open-source research platform for conducting hearing improvement studies.
Kehtarnavaz has pioneered and introduced several novel approaches for students to learn practical implementation aspects of signal processing concepts. In his latest contribution, he has introduced a mobile and cost-free laboratory paradigm based on smartphones for signal processing and signals and systems laboratory courses.
Kehtarnavaz received his master’s degree and PhD from Rice University, the latter in 1987. Before arriving at UT Dallas in 2002, he taught at Texas A&M University for 15 years.