SUMMARY

An applied research mathematician and associate professor of mathematics with expertise in mechanics, elasticity, and representation theory.   Experienced as a consultant for problems of feature extraction from multi-and hyperspectral data, computer image analysis, and optical character recognition. Experienced as a consultant in developing image and video compression/decompression software for transmission or stream over the wired internet.  Experience with problems of data transmission over wireless media.  Experience in the analysis of signals using multi-resolution, statistical learning machines, and neural nets. Experience with three-dimensional, interactive environments to represent and analyze data.  Experience with database structures.    Research interests and expertise include:

Mechanics: Stability of nonlinear flexible structures; stability of robots, and vision/mechanics interface problems in robotics.

Image Compression:  Using wavelet and other multi-resolution based methods for the purposes of 

--compressing images and video for transmission over the wired and wireless internet,

--designing in software still image and video transform encoder/decoders,

--designing streaming video systems in software and hardware.

Image Enhancement and Analysis: Using morphological, wavelet, and other multi-resolution based methods for the purposes of:

--registering images from satellite sensors,
--automatically extracting and classifying features from spatially dependent multi- and hyper-spectral data,
--separating signal from noise in hyperspectra from vegetation and soils,
--separating in near time signal from noise, and primary from secondary structure images of radio-frequency discharge breakdown,
--improving optical character recognition (OCR) algorithms for automated address recognition and for automated graphics-to-text translation.

Feature Extraction: Using statistical learning machines, wavelet, and other multi-resolution based methods to extract features:

--from remotely sensed data to support agricultural, environmental, and water resources management,
--from remotely sensed data to support disaster planning and mitigation,
--from streaming imagery for monitoring and controlling traffic on highways,
--from streaming imagery for avoiding hazards in railroad operations,
--from streaming imagery for improved tele-robotic operations of robots operating at a distance or in hazardous environments.

Interactive, Three-Dimensional Environments:  Examining the feasibility of using immersive workbenches and emerging interactive, three-dimensional workstation peripherals as environments for developing  hyper-spectral image analysis tools and applications to more effectively survey and mine information from data;

Network Management and Security: Assess the feasibility for  introducing a Web-based, interactive network management system that used Java network classes for secure management.
 
 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2000-present: Consultant and Chief Scientist, 

ZeroTree, Inc., Calverton MD

Commercial Activity

Project:  Assist in the design of software for a patent-pending wavelet-based transform encoder/decoder for image transmission over the wired internet.

Activity: Assist in integrating the encoder/decoder into a software-based video codec for transmitting video over the wired internet, in both batch and streaming modes.

Activity: Assist in imbedding into hardware the video codec to enhance its performance and increase its functionality.

Project: Assess the feasibility of applying redundant multi-resolution based transform methods to build a transform encoder/decoder for image transmission over the wireless internet.

Activity: Assist in negotiating an alliance between ZeroTree,Inc. and the Industrial Mathematics Institute (IMI), University of South Carolina, to pursue redundant, multi-resolution based filter designs that can address in an original way problems of communicating information over narrow band channels with significant and unpredictable data loss.  

Activity: Assess the feasibility of applying a multi-resolution based transform encoder/decoder to problems of interactive, real time, distributed data management.

1998-2000: Senior Research Scientist; 1997-1998: Consultant

Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing (CSTARS), Univ. California, Davis

Research Activity

Project: Assess the feasibility of automatically identify in hyperspectral (Probe1) image data spectral indicators of stress in vegetation (with Chevron, Inc.).

--Assess the feasibility of isolating automatically spectra arising from vegetation, and to extract from them the location of the red edge, which is a robust indication of stress in vegetation;

--Design and implement a fast, efficient, yet computationally reasonable application to realize the objective;
--Design a program to verify the accuracy of the application and validate the operation and results from the red-edge detection engine;

--Design and implement a fast, efficent, yet computationally inexpensive application to automatically compute a continuum removal over spectral subsets of spatially distributed hyperspectral images.

Project: Assess the feasibility of using Statistical Learning Machines to distinguish among vegetation and non-vegetation community types from single wavelength, multiple-angle reflectance data from the POLDER sensor (with NASA Ames, Code SGE).

Project: Examine the use of algebraic indexes derived from the wavelet representation of multi-spectral image data to characterize the extent of spatial correlation (with NASA Goddard, Code 923);

Activity: Investigate the use of support vector machines to develop robust, supervised classifiers for extracting information form hyperspectral data;

Activity: Investigate the use of wavelet and other windowed and multi-resolutional transforms to discriminate information from spatially dependent multi- and hyper-spectral imagery, and use the results to contribute to the design of protocols to fuse multi-spectral and other sensors to aquire the relevant information;

Activity: Investigate the use of wavelet and other windowed transforms to extract signal from noise in hyperspectral data from vegetation and soils;

Project: Image Registration using Nonlinear Wavelet Compression and Singular Value Decomposition (with KT-Tech Inc., and NASA Goddard, Code 935):

--Contributed to the development of a method and algorithm for geo-registration using nonlinear wavelet compression and singular value decomposition techniques;

--Proposed and assisted in successfully negotiating the validation of the geo-registration algorithm as an element of the Registration Toolbox under development by the Center of Excellence in Space Data Information Science (CESDIS) for NASA Goddard Code 935.

--Proposed and assisted in successfully negotiating collaboration among CSTARS personnel, CESDIS, and NASA Goddard Code 935, leading to a position for CSTARS personnel on site at NASA Goddard, Code 935, summer 1997.

--Co-author on a paper presented at the Image Registration Workshop, Goddard Space Flight Center, November 1997.

--Support CSTARS personnel in the development of tools which combine multi-resolution, spatial and spectral analytical methods to extract information/features from spatially distributed multi- and hyper-spectral data.

--Assisted in establishing contact between CSTARS and CESDIS personnel to foster further development and application of the tools.

--Co-author on a paper accepted for presentation at the SPIE AeroSense'98 conference.

--to establish a University of California system-wide center of excellence in remote sensing under the aegis of the California Space Institute.

--a proposal to assess the feasibility detecting from remotely sensed data stress in salt marsh vegetation as a manifestation of petrochemical contamination. University of California System DimII program,  industrial partner: Chevron Oil Corporation.

--Remote agricultural monitoring utilizing hyperspectral imagery with an un-piloted aerial vehicle (with
AutoVision, Inc. and GS Engineering, Inc.).   Response to NASA NRA-00-OES-02, UAV-Based Science Demonstration Program.

--Application of hyperspectral techniques to monitor and manage invasive weed infestations (with Dynamac, Inc.).  Response to DoD Strategic environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) CCSON-00-02.

--A space station based imaging spectrometer for the analysis and modeling of biogeochemical processes and land cover change (with JPL, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and several outreach
partners).  Response to NASA University Earth System Science (UnESS) Announcement of Opportunity AO99-OES-02.

--A Regional Earth Science Applications Center to Assess and Monitor Vegetation and Environmental Stresses at Local and Regional Scales.  Response to NASA NRA-98-OES-06.

--California Regional Earth Science Information Partners for Water Resources Management and Natural Hazard Prediction. Response to NASA MTPE Cooperative Agreement Notice 02: Extending the Use and Applications of MTPE Data and Information to the Broader User Community.

--Center of Excellence for Climate, Environment and Water Resource Assessments in California. Response to NASA MTPE NRA-05: Call for Centers of Excellence in Applications of Remote Sensing to Regional and Global Integrated Environmental Assessments.
 

KT-Tech., Inc., Greenbelt, MD.

Commercial Activity:

Project: Develop a wavelet-based compression engine for the transmission of still imagery and video over the internet.

Project: Develop strategies for video streaming and interactive three-dimensional graphics using techniques based upon  three-dimensional wavelet pyramids.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Projects and Related Activities
Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 935:

Project: Data Storage, Analysis and Retrieval: An Efficient Enhancement/Compression System. (1996 to 1998). Activities:

--analyzed the relative performance of existing methods of image compression feature recognition and registration;

--contributed to the development of a tool for assessing the complexity of an image in order to determine an optimal method for compressing it for a specific purpose, such as registration;

--contributed to the development of an algorithm using the low-low components of a linear wavelet compression to automatically geo-register satellite imagery;

--contributed to a paper presented at the SPIE/AIPR conference, October 1996;

--served as lead writer for the technical section of a proposal for using nonlinear wavelet-based methods for the automatic registration of satellite images.
 

--Contributed to the development of a method and algorithm for geo-registration using nonlinear wavelet compression and singular value decomposition techniques;

--Proposed and assisted in successfully negotiating the adoption of the geo-registration algorithm as element of the Registration Toolbox under development by the Center of Excellence in Space Data Information Science (CESDIS) for NASA Goddard Code 935.

--Contributed to a paper presented at the Image Registration Workshop, Goddard Space Flight Center, November 1997.
 

--investigate the feasibility of incorporating a Java-based, secure web-based network monitoring and management system for the Code 600 network.

Wrote or contributed to the technical sections for the following proposals:

--Real Time Astronaut Vision Enhancement Network (RAVEN). NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 442.

--Image Enhancement of Tele-Robotic Operation. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 442.

--Digital Image Enhancement and Improved Tele-Operator Performance. NASA Johnson Space Center.
 

Project: Algebraic Image Enhancement for Automated Address Recognition.
Systems analysis, software design, implementation and evaluation to support and improve the performance of current U.S. Postal Service automated address recognition technologies. Work addressed:

--image enhancement of addresses for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) analysis using fuzzy logic based morphological operators;

--feature extraction for better segmentation of characters to improve the performance of image to text conversion engines;

--morphological and wavelet-based image operators to enhance degraded addresses, or to extract addresses from "noisy" backgrounds.
 

--user authentication
--secure data transmission
--mathematical models for encryption
--large database archiving and retrieval
--data migration.

Wrote or contributed to the technical sections of the following proposals:

--Distributed Controller for Multi-Sensor Approach to Dynamic Traffic Monitoring. Federal Highway Administration; Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

--An Onboard, Multi-Sensor Approach to the Problem of Collision Avoidance at Grade Crossings. Federal Railroad Administration.
 

Research activities included:

--Algebraically-based classification of nonlinear constitutive (stress-strain) relations for composite materials.

--participate in the design of an interactive, web-based materials testing laboratory and simulation facility centered at NRL, Washington DC.
 

--Image enhancement/automated distinguishing of volcanoes from meteor impact craters from Magellan Spacecraft data on the topography of Venus for Dr. J. P. Garvin, Code 920.0.

--Analysis of laser altimeter signals to extract topographical information beyond elevation for the Mars Orbiter Satellite, for Dr. J. P. Garvin, Code 920.0.

--Image enhancement and vision-mechanics interface problems for tele-robotic operations for Colleen Hartman, Code 735.1.
 
 

Academic Positions:

2000-present: Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis MD

Activities include:

--teach undergraduate mathematics and applied mathematics courses, particularly those in support of statistical learning,

--assist in developing multi-disciplinary courses and projects involving feature extraction from remotely sensed data,

--pursue research in areas of multi-resolution based data compression and feature extraction.

1997-1998: Visiting Scholar, Department of Hydrology, Division of Land, Air, and Water, Resources (LAWR), University of California, Davis California.  Activities Included:

--assist in developing multi-resolution based methods to register satellite imagery in automatic, unsupervised manner.
--assess the feasibility of applying statistical learning machines to problems of vegetation feature extraction from hyperspectal and multispectral data.
--assist the director of the Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing (CSTARS) in maturing the laboratory into a self-sustaining center of excellence in remote sensing.

1990-1996: Associate Professor. Department of Mathematics, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.
Activities include:

--teach undergraduate mathematics and applied mathematics courses, particularly those in support of mechanical engineering;

--develop modules, projects, and notebooks in Mathematica for use in classroom lectures, laboratories, and as project assignments for vector analysis, differential equations and engineering mathematics courses;

--teach engineering statics and dynamics in the mechanical engineering department, so as to serve as a liaison between mechanical engineering and mathematics;

--develop and teach special courses in differential equations to mechanical engineering majors which use Mathematica and which integrate the perspectives of dynamical systems, engineering dynamics with the purpose of engineering design;

--initiate the design of an interactive, Web-based environment and investigate the use of Mathematica to drive Virtual Reality scenes to facilitate instruction in the course on differential equations for mechanical engineering;

--conduct research on the static and dynamic stability of mechanical structures, particularly in the presence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations;

--apply the results of research in the stability of mechanical structures to problems in robotics.
 

--developed a method for analyzing symmetry-breaking bifurcations for pseudo-rigid mechanical structures;

--applied modern group representation theory to develop the mathematical representation for all stress-strain relations for transversely-isotropic materials.
 

1988-1989: Visiting Assistant Professor. Department of Mathematics, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.

1983-1988: Assistant Professor. Department of Mathematics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
 

Research Appointments and Awards

1996: Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C.:

--Visiting Researcher, Materials Science and Technology Directorate, Summer 1996.

--Visiting Lecturer, College of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy;
--Visiting Lecturer, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico, Milan, Italy.

1990: Visiting Lecturer, College of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy;
          Visiting Lecturer, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico, Milan, Italy,
          Visiting Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, Universita di Roma, Rome,
           Italy.

1988: Visiting Lecturer. Institutes fur Mechanik, Technischen Universitat Wien, Vienna,
          Austria,
          Visiting Fellow. College of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

1988: Visiting Assistant Professor. Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland,
          College Park, Maryland.

1983: Visiting Fellow. College of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

1982-1983: Postdoctoral Fellow. Department of Rational Mechanics, College of
                   Engineering, the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
 

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Mathematics. University of California, Santa Cruz, California, December 1982.

Ph.D. Physics. University of Houston, Houston, Texas, December 1973.

M.S. Physics. University of Houston, Houston, Texas, August 1967.

B.A. Mathematics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, August 1964.
B.S. in Physics. University of Houston, Houston, Texas, August 1964.
 
 

PUBLICATIONS

J. E. Pinzon, J. F. Pierce, C. J. Tucker, “Analysis of remote sensing data using Hilbert-Huang Transforms.”  Proceedings of SCI2001, Orlando, FL, July 2001, accepted March 2001. 

J. Pinzon, J. Pierce, C. Tucker, M. Chase, "Evaluating coherence of natural images by smoothness membership in Besov spaces."  IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, accepted June 2001.

J. Pinzon, S. Ustin, C. Casteneda, J. Pierce, W. Campbell, "Robust spatial features extraction for multispectral and hyperspectral images."  Algorithms for Multispectral & Hyperspectral Imagery IV, S. Shen and M. Descours, editors, AeroSense '98, Orlando, FL, April 13-14, 1998. Proceedings of the SPIE, v. 3372.

J. Pinzon, J. Pierce, S. Ustin, C. Castaneda, "Image registration by nonlinear wavelet compression and singular value decomposition." Proceedings of the Image Registration Workshop, NASA/GSFC, November 20-21, 1997.

J. LeMoigne, W. Xia, S. Chettri, T. El-Ghazawi, E. Kaymaz, B. Lerner, M. Mareboyana, N. Netanyahu, J. Pierce, S. Raghavan, J. Tilton, W. Campbell, R. Cromp, "Towards an intercomparison of automated registration algorithms for multiple source remote sensing data." Proceedings of the Image Registration Workshop, NASA/GSFC, November 20-21, 1997.

J. LeMoigne, J. Tilton, B Lerner, E. Kaymaz, J. Pierce, S. Raghavan, S. Chettri, T. El-Ghazawi, M. Mareboyana, N. Netanyahu, W. Campbell, R. Cromp, "A registration toolbox for multi-source remote sensing applications." Proceedings of the 1997 International Conference on Earth Observation and Environmental Information (EOEI'97), Egypt, October 13-16, 1997.

R. DeVore, W. Shao, J. Pierce, B. Lerner, W. Campbell, "Using nonlinear wavelet compression to enhance image registration." Wavelet Applications IV, AeroSense97, Orlando, April 1997, Proceedings of the SPIE, 3078, 1997, 539-551.

E. Kaymaz, J. Pierce, B. Lerner, W. Campbell, "Registration of satellite imagery utilizing the low-low components of the wavelet transform." 25th AIPR Workshop, Washington DC, October 1996, Proceedings of the SPIE, 2962, 1997, 45-54.

J. F. Pierce, "Symmetry-breaking bifurcations in Stoppelli's problem for pseudo-rigid bodies." Mathematical Models and Methods In Applied Sciences, 5, 1995, 683-724.

J. F. Pierce, "Representations for transversely hemitropic and transversely isotropic stress-strain relations." Journal of Elasticity, 37, 1995, 243-280.

B. Lerner, J. Pierce, M. Morelli, "Algebraic image enhancement for automated address recognition." U. S. Postal Service Advanced Technology Conference 5, Washington DC. Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 1992, Volume 3, 1099-1112.

S. S. Antman, J. F. Pierce, "The intricate global structure of buckled states of compressible columns." SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics,50, 1990, 395-419.

J. F. Pierce, "Local triviality of the restriction map for immersions with normal crossings." Topology and its Applications, 31,1989, 301-307.

J. F. Pierce, Singularity Theory, Rod Theory, and Symmetry-Breaking Loads. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, No. 1377. Springer-Verlag, Inc., 1989, 175 pp.

J. F. Pierce, "Global models for Cosserat continua and some fibrations of Palais, Cerf, and Smale." Physical Mathematics and Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations. J. Lightbourne, and S. Rankin, editors. Marcel Dekker, 1985, pp. 239-257.

J. F. Pierce, "Morse theory in the context of elastostatics: a prototypical problem." Rend. Sem. Mat. Univers. Politecn. Torino, 41, 1983, 9-48.

J. F. Pierce, A. P. Whitman, "Topological properties of the manifolds of configurations for several simple deformable bodies." Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 74, 1980, 101-113.
 

TECHNICAL REPORTS

J. Pinzon,  and J. Pierce,  "Program Documentation for an Algorithm for Image Registration using Nonlinear Wavelet Compression and SVD Tools." Code 935, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, December 1997.

E. Kaymaz, J. Pierce,  and J. Pinzon, "Program Documentation for an Algorithm for Image Geo-Registration using the Low-Low Components of a Wavelet Transform." Code 935, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, December 1997.
 

RECENT ADDRESSES AND PRESENTATIONS

Invited Address, Materials Science and Technologies Directorate, Naval Research Laboratories, Washington DC, June 1996.

Invited Address, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada, June 1994.

Invited Address, Center for Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, March 1994.

Invited Address, Special Session on Symmetry-Breaking and Bifurcation, Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New Orleans, LA, November 1993.

Invited Address, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, Summer 1993.

Invited Address, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico, Milan, Italy, Summer 1993.

Invited Address, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, Summer 1992.

Invited Address, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico, Milan, Italy, Summer 1992.
Presentation, 2nd SIAM/INRIA International Congress of Applied Mathematicians, Washington, D.C., July 1991.

Invited Address, Conference on Rod Dynamics, Rutgers University. New Brunswick, New Jersey, August 1990.

Presentation, Annual Meeting, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematicians. Chicago, IL, July 1990.

Invited Address, Applied Analysis Seminar, Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park MD, March 1990.

Invited Address, Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University. Lehigh Pennsylvania, October 1989.

Invited Address. Society for Natural Philosophy. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, June 1989.

Invited address, Inst. f. Mechanik, Technischen Univ. Wien, Vienna, Austria, June 1988.

Invited address, MSI Workshop on Symmetry and Groups in Nonlinear Continuum Mechanics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, June 1988.

Presentation, 1st SIAM/INRIA International Congress of Applied Mathematicians, Paris, France, June 1987.

Invited address, Ist. d. Mat. "M. Piccone". Rome, Italy, May 1987.
 

COMPUTER EXPERIENCE

Languages
C, C++, Java, JavaScript, VRML2.0, OpenGL

Hardware (Environments)

--Dec UNIX workstations and servers
--Sun UNIX workstations and servers
--SGI UNIX workstations
--Pentium PC: Win95/98/NT operating systems

--ENVI, ERDAS, PCI
--Mathematica, Matlab, Maple

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