Harry H. Goode Memorial Award Winner Marilyn Wolf on Smart Cameras and the Source of Genius

IEEE Computer Society 2019 Harry H. Goode Memorial Award winner Marilyn Wolf is a computer scientist and scholar of great accomplishment. She was with AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1984 to 1989, after which she joined the faculty of Princeton University. While at Princeton, she directed the New Jersey Center for Multimedia Research and co-founded Verificon Corporation to commercialize smart camera technology. She was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1998. Three years later, she was elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery for contributions to embedded computing. Wolf joined Georgia Tech in 2007 where she is currently Distinguished Chair in Embedded Computing Systems and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. She has developed a number of techniques for embedded computing, ranging from hardware/software co-design algorithms and real-time scheduling algorithms to code compression and distributed smart cameras.

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."

                                                            ~ Thomas Edison

After she won the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award, we caught up with Marilyn Wolf for a quick interview about her accomplishments and extensive work in the field of digital imagery and computer vision. Here’s what she had to say.

Smart Camera Tech Provides Better Detection While Consuming Less Power

Computer Society: How have your colleagues responded to the news that you will receive the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award? Wolf: I've received a number of very nice emails of congratulations. Computer Society: Years ago, you co-founded a company that was involved in developing surveillance and image processing tools. What are the biggest issues facing this technology? Wolf: While our company no longer exists, smart camera technology continues to develop to provide accurate detection of important events and to consume less power while doing so.

How Thomas Edison Inspires Her

Computer Society: What are the biggest benefits? Wolf: The goal of our partners was to identify safety and security problems as they happen so they can be dealt with quickly.  In the past, they had simply recorded video cameras and used them only to review an accident after it had been reported manually. Computer Society: What's the best career advice you can give, for any level -- entry, mid-career, managerial? Wolf: I still rely on Thomas Edison's advice regarding ninety-nine percent perspiration. Subscribe to our biweekly ComputingEdge eNewsletter to stay informed of the latest technology news, peer-reviewed research, and practical articles from industry.

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About Lori Cameron Lori Cameron is Senior Writer for IEEE Computer Society publications and digital media platforms with over 20 years extensive technical writing experience. She is a part-time English professor and winner of two 2018 LA Press Club Awards. Contact her at l.cameron@computer.org. Follow her on LinkedIn.