University of Waterloo

John Zelek


John Zelek

Professor Zelek is an Associate Professor and co-director of the VIP (Vision Image Processing) lab. He is formerly the Associate Graduate Chair of Systems Design Engineering, serving from 2013 to 2017.
Professor Zelek’s current main research interests include autonomous robotic mapping and localization, 3D scene understanding, man made infrastructure assessment (e.g., roads, buildings, bridges), eye (fundus, OCT) image understanding for disease, learning 3D models from single-views, athletic sport tracking & biomechanical understanding of play & ability from video feeds, to name a few. Some of these projects make use of AI & deep learning techniques.
Prof. Zelek’s interests in the past have included assistive devices, social engineering, haptics, robot navigation to name a few.

Professor Zelek has been the co-founder of two startup companies: Tactile Sight and Sweep3D. Tactile Sight commercialized a haptic navigation device for people who are cognitively (e.g., dementia) or perceptually (e.g., blind) disabled. Sweep3D commercialized technology that produces 3D models by sweeping a camera around objects or spaces for various applications including clothes fitting, orthotics as well as well as exploring real estate premises remotely. Professor Zelek also sits on the advisory boards for Intelligent Health Solutions Inc. and EyeCheck.

Students

Supervision – Current

PDF

ph.D.

M.A.Sc.

Supervision – Completed

PDF

ph.D.

M.A.Sc.

Publications
Journal Articles

Conference Papers