ALI SOLTANI-FARANI
CAMPUS ADDRESS:
Digital Media Lab
Room 803, Department of Computer Eng
Sharif University of Technology
Azadi Rd. Tehran, Iran
[email protected]
http://ssp.dml.ir
EDUCATION:
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Sharif University of Technology, Iran, Tehran,
Sep 2010 - Aug 2014
Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Artificial Intelligence
Degree expected: Summer 2014
Current GPA: 18.58
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Sharif University of Technology, Iran, Tehran,
Sep 2008 - Aug 2010
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering,
GPA: 18.72 / 20
Relevant Coursework: Stochastic Processes (19.2), Pattern Recognition (19.2), Speech
Processing (17.5), Speech Recognition (20).
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Sharif University of Technology, Iran, Tehran,
Sep 2003 - Aug 2008
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering,
GPA: 17.86 / 20
Relevant Coursework: Probability & Statistics (19.5), Numerical Calculation (20), Signals
& Systems (20), Digital Signal Processing (16.5), Engineering Mathematics (20).
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AWARDS AND
HONORS:
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Shaid Babaie High School (A Branch of “National Organization for Development of
Exceptional Talents”. NODET), Iran, Qazvin
Sep 1999 – Aug 2003
Diploma in Physiques and Mathematics Discipline
GPA: 19.5 / 20
Ranked 1st in Amirkabir Artificial Intelligence Competitions, AAIC 2013, Data Mining
Category.
Admitted to Ph.D., graduate study, at Sharif University of Technology based on Exceptional
Talents Admittance, Sep 2010
Admitted to M.Sc., graduate study, at Sharif University of Technology based on
Exceptional Talents Admittance, Sep 2008
Ranked 1st based on GPA at Computer Engineering Department, Sharif University of
Technology, Sep 2007
Ranked 658th in B.Sc. National University Entrance Exam among more than 400,000
competitors, Sep 2003
RESEARCH
EXPERIENCE:
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TEACHING
EXPERIENCE:
Sparse Signal Processing (SSP) Group:
The Sparse Signal Processing (SSP) group was created mid 2011 as a subgroup of the
Digital Media Lab at Sharif University of Technology. Since then I have managed the group
which consists of several MS and BS students. Please see: http://ssp.dml.ir
PhD Thesis Project: “Structured Sparse Representations for Signal Processing and
Machine Learning”
This project is underway.
Reviewer of 17th CSI Computer Conference, AISP 2011, and AISP 2013
MSc Thesis Project: “Detecting Speakers on a Telephone Line”
The goal of this project is the design and implementation of a system for open set speaker
identification from telephone conversation data. We have used Gaussian mixture models to
model speakers and have decreased error rates using pattern classification in model score
space.
BSc Thesis Project: “A VQ-based Method for Speech Denoising in the Log-Spectral
Domain"
This thesis explores the use of spectrogram columns as feature vectors in a method for
speech denoising. The presented method uses the feature vectors for training. The trained
system attempts to recover speech from a single microphone recording by non-stationary
reweightening (“masking”) of frequency sub-bands.
Design and implementation of Audvis, used for test phases of a sound visualization project
based on auditory-based dynamic spectrogram.
Potential real time implementation of auditory-based dynamic spectrogram
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Sharif University of Technology, Tutor:
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Signals and Systems, Spring 2012 (Evaluation: 3.36/4)
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Signals and Systems, Spring 2013 (Evaluation: 3.42/4)
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Sharif University of Technology, Teaching Assistant:
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Stochastic Processes, Dr. H. Rabiee, Fall 2012
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Signals and Systems, Dr. H. Rabiee, Fall 2010, 2011, 2012
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Speech Recognition, Dr. H. Sameti, Spring 2010
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Digital Signal Processing, Dr. H. Rabiee, Autumn 2008
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Operating Systems, Dr. M. Kargahi, Spring 2008
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Sharif University of Technology, DML Study Groups (Created, held, and lectured):
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Information Theory, Spring 2011
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Convex Optimization, Spring 2011
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Dehkhoda Institute of Higher Education, Qazvin, Iran
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Tutor of Probability & Statistics
Spring 2010
EMPLOYMENT:
Intelligent Data Processing Group (Pegah Co.), Tehran, Iran Feb 2013 - Present
Co-Founder, Board Member
The Intelligent Data Processing Group is focused on the application of cutting edge ICT
technology to real world problems. Currently the group is working on data mining and
augmented reality. At Pegah, I am involved in every aspect of the work, from strategic
decision making to fine tuning the final product.
Value Added Services Lab, Tehran, Iran
Jan 2012 - Feb 2013
Technical Consultant
As a technical consultant at VASL, I researched solutions for new value added services or
technologies, identified potential service opportunities and risk factors, and helped provide
overall analysis of systems. I have also been one of the reviewers of the VAS conferences.
Asr Guyesh Pardaz, Tehran, Iran
Mar 2009 - Sep 2009
Researcher of Speaker Identification Technology
AGP is a company researching and building speech related products. I researched specifically
the field of speaker recognition. We worked on a system for detection of speakers on a phone
line. My job involved acquiring theoretic knowledge of the problem, implementing the
system, any looking for innovative ways to improve the performance.
Miremad Institute of Higher Education, Qazvin, Iran
Jan 2009-Sep 2010
System Administrator
My work at Miremad institute of higher education involved administrating the entire network,
and keeping the educational software system running.
PUBLICATIONS:
[1]
A. Soltani-Farani, H. R. Rabiee, “Spatially-Weighted Sparse Coding for
Hyperspectral Image Classification”, IEEE Geoscience and Remote sensing letters,
2014
[2]
A. Soltani-Farani, H. R. Rabiee, S. A. Hosseini, "Spatial-Aware Dictionary Learning
for Hyperspectral Image Classification", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing, 2014
[3]
A. Soltani-Farani, H. R. Rabiee, A. Zarezade “Collaborating Frames: Temporally
Weighted Sparse Representation for Visual Tracking”, IEEE Int. Conf. Image
Processing (ICIP’14), 2014 (Under Review)
[4]
A. Hosseini, H. R. Rabiee, H. Hafez, A. Soltani-Farani, “Classifying A Stream Of
Infinite Concepts: A Bayesian Non-Parametric Approach”, European Conf. Machine
Learning ECML PKDD, 2014 (Under Review)
[5]
S. Haghiri, H. R. Rabiee, A. Soltani-Farani, S. A. Hosseini, M. Shadloo, “Locality
Preserving Dictionary Learning”, IEEE Int. Conf. Image Processing (ICIP’14), 2014
(Under Review)
[6]
A. Zarezade, H. R. Rabiee, A. Soltani-Farani, A. Khajenezhad, “Patchwise Joint
Sparse Tracking with Occlusion Detection”, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing,
2014 (Under Review)
[7]
M. Najibi, H. R. Rabiee, A. Soltani-Farani, “Modeling Statistical Relations among
Visual Atoms for Reconstruction-Based Image Encoding”, IEEE Journal of Signal
Processing Letters, 2104 (Under Review)
[8]
M. H. Kefayati, H. Sheikhzade, H. R. Rabiee, A. Soltani-Farani, "Semi-Spatiotemporal
Brain Decoding", In Proc. International Workshop on Pattern Recognition in
NeuroImaging (PRNI'13) , Philadelphia, USA, June 2013
[9]
M. Farajtabar, H. R. Rabiee, A. Shaban, A. Soltani-Farani, "Efficient Iterative SemiSupervised Classification on Manifold", International Conference on Data Mining
Workshops (ICDMW) , Vancouver, Canada, December 2011
[10] S. H. Mohammadi, H. Sameti, A. Tavanei, A. Soltani-Farani, "Filter-bank Design
Based on Dependencies Between Frequency Components and Phoneme
Characteristics", In Proc. European signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), pp.
2142-2145, Barcelona, Spain, August 2011
[11] Editor, Translation into Persian from English, A. Papoulis, “Probability & Statistics”
[12] A. Soltani-Farani, “Detecting Speakers on a Phone Line”, M.Sc. Thesis, Sharif
University of Technology 2010
[13] A. Soltani Farani, “A VQ-based Method for Speech Denoising in the Log-Spectral
Domain”, B.Sc. Thesis, Sharif University of Technology, 2008
LANGUAGES:
COMPUTER
SKILLS:
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Persian: Native
English: Fluent (U.K resident of over 4 years)
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Proficiency at C, C++, LaTeX, and MATLAB
Operating Systems: Mac OS X, Ms. Windows, Linux
Working knowledge of System Programming and Hardware Programming Languages