Christopher Kanan
Research Faculty
Christopher Kanan
Research Faculty
Education
BS, Oklahoma State University; MS, University of Southern California; Ph.D., University of California
Bio
I’m an Associate Research Professor in the Carlson Center for Imaging Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Previously, I was a tenured Associate Professor in the department. Currently, my primary academic appointment is at the University of Rochester.
While at RIT, I co-founded and served as Associate Director of RIT’s Center for Human-aware AI (CHAI). I was also a member of the McNair Scholars Advisory Board, part of RIT’s Division of Diversity and Inclusion.
My lab’s main focus is basic research in deep learning, especially related to continual learning and systems capable of integrating language and vision for generalist scene understanding.
I have worked on medical AI, semantic segmentation, object recognition, object detection, active vision, object tracking, and more. Beyond machine learning, I have a strong background in eye tracking, primate vision, and theoretical neuroscience.
In the News
-
January 31, 2022
![student wearing sensors on her head adjusts a robotic arm.]()
AI research collaboration begins
Cecilia Alm, an associate professor in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, was awarded nearly $2 million by the National Science Foundation to lead a team of RIT faculty addressing a lack of diversity in the artificial intelligence research community and gaps in AI curricula.
-
January 31, 2022
![logo for the National Science Foundation.]()
Scholars earn coveted early career awards
Three faculty members who chose to start their research careers at RIT received prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Awards in 2021. Their research aims to advance the foundations of machine intelligence, artificial intelligence, and clean energy.
-
September 21, 2021
![student making adjustments to a robotic arm.]()
RIT awarded nearly $2 million for NSF Research Traineeship Program, AWARE-AI
To help address a lack of diversity, as well as gaps in AI curricula, RIT was awarded a grant of nearly $2 million by the NSF to create a new research traineeship program for graduate students
-
January 5, 2022
Student presents at invasive species conference
-
December 2, 2021
Graduate student presents at invasive species summit