Alexander Wong

Alexander Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Systems Design Engineering department and Co-Director of the Vision and Image Processing (VIP) Research Group at the University of Waterloo. He is also the Canada Research Chair in Medical Imaging Systems.

His research interests revolve around imaging, image processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, and cognitive radio networks, with a focus on the hardware-software design of integrative medical imaging systems, and biomedical and remote sensing image processing and analysis. He is also interested in multimedia management systems and 3D graphics and game development.

One of Professor Wong’s key research interests is medical image processing and analysis with applications to prostate, breast, lung and dermatological cancer analysis. He is developing an improved Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system that recognizes cancer indicators such as tissue characteristics, size and shape. This will allow for enhancements to early stage cancer detection and the capturing of data in a more efficient manner.

He has published refereed journal and conference papers, as well as patents, in various fields such as imaging, computer vision, graphics, image processing, multimedia systems, and wireless communications. Professor Wong is the co-author of the textbook “Data Structures and Algorithms in a Nutshell’ and has also co-authored the chapter “Melanoma decision support using lighting-corrected intuitive feature models” in Computer Vision Techniques for the Diagnosis of Skin Cancer. Additionally, he co-wrote the chapter “Nonparametric sample-based methods for image understanding” in Emerging Topics in Computer Vision.

As a result of his research work, Professor Wong has received multiple awards such as the Early Research Award from the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, as well as the Alumni Gold Medal from the University of Waterloo in 2012. In 2009 and 2014, he received Best Paper Awards from the Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society (CIPPRS). He also received two Outstanding Performance Awards, an Engineering Research Excellence Award, as well as a Distinguished Paper Award by the Society of Information Display (2015).

Professor Wong holds 3 patents and 10 patent applications in the area of imaging.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Image processing and data analytics
• Medical imaging
• Scanning
• Sensors and devices
• Drinking water
• Autonomous and connected car
• Automotive
• Operational Artificial Intelligence
• Robotics
• Smart Infrastructure

• 2010, Doctorate, Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo
• 2007, Master of Applied Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo
• 2005, Bachelor of Applied Science, Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo

• SYDE 372 - Introduction to Pattern Recognition
  • Taught in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
• MTE 140 - Algorithms and Data Structures
  • Taught in 2014
• SYDE 770 - Selected Topics in Communication and Information Systems
  • Taught in 2014, 2016
• SYDE 780 - Selected Topics in Engineering Sciences
  • Taught in 2014, 2016, 2018
• SYDE 750 - Topics in Systems Modelling
  • Taught in 2014, 2015
• BME 102 - Seminar
  • Taught in 2016, 2017
• BME 122 - Data Structures and Algorithms
  • Taught in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

• Scharfenberger, Christian and Chung, Audrey G and Wong, Alexander and Clausi, David A, Salient Region Detection Using Self-Guided Statistical Non-Redundancy in Natural Images, IEEE Access, 4, 2016, 48 - 60
• Xu, Linlin and Wong, Alexander and Li, Fan and Clausi, David A, Intrinsic representation of hyperspectral imagery for unsupervised feature extraction, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 54(2), 2016, 1118 - 1130
• Siva, Parthipan and Shafiee, Mohammad Javad and Jamieson, Mike and Wong, Alexander, Scene Invariant Crowd Segmentation and Counting Using Scale-Normalized Histogram of Moving Gradients (HoMG), arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.00386, 2016
• Kazemzadeh, Farnoud and Wong, Alexander, Laser light-field fusion for wide-field lensfree on-chip phase contrast nanoscopy, arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.08145, 2016
• Cameron, Andrew and Khalvati, Farzad and Haider, Masoom A and Wong, Alexander, MAPS: a quantitative radiomics approach for prostate cancer detection, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 63(6), 2016, 1145 - 1156
• Xu, Linlin and Wong, Alexander and Li, Fan and Clausi, David A, Extraction of Endmembers From Hyperspectral Images Using A Weighted Fuzzy Purified-Means Clustering Model, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 9(2), 2016, 695 - 707
• Shafiee, MJ and Siva, P and Scharfenberger, C and Fieguth, P and Wong, A, NeRD: a Neural Response Divergence Approach to Visual Salience Detection, arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.01728, 2016
• Amelard, Robert and Clausi, David A and Wong, Alexander, A spectral-spatial fusion model for robust blood pulse waveform extraction in photoplethysmographic imaging, arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.09118, 2016
• Haider, SA and Cameron, A and Siva, P and Lui, D and Shafiee, MJ and Boroomand, A and Haider, N and Wong, A, Fluorescence microscopy image noise reduction using a stochastically-connected random field model, Scientific reports, 6, 2016
• Shafiee, Mohammad Javad and Siva, Parthipan and Wong, Alexander, Stochasticnet: Forming deep neural networks via stochastic connectivity, IEEE Access, 4, 2016, 1915 - 1924
• Wong, Alexander and Mishra, Akshaya and Fieguth, Paul and Clausi, David, An adaptive monte carlo approach to nonlinear image denoising, Pattern Recognition, 2008. ICPR 2008. 19th International Conference on, January 2008, 1 - 4
• Wong, Alexander, Illumination invariant active contour-based segmentation using complex-valued wavelets, 2008 15th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, January 2008, 1089 - 1091
• Wong, Alexander S and Newmark, David M and Rolfson, J Brett and Whiting, Randy J and Neureuther, Andrew R, Investigating Phase-Shifting Mask Layout Issues Using a Cad Toolkit, Electron Devices Meeting, 1991. IEDM'91. Technical Digest., International, January 1991, 705 - 708

• New touchless device makes earlier detection of heart problems possible