Introduction of the Board Members: Hüseyin Abut

On behalf of the editorial team of TASSA we are pleased to introduce the members of our Board of Directors, who have agreed to graciously share their thoughts on TASSA and its activities, as well as information about themselves with our readership.  In this issue we feature Hüseyin Abut.  Professor Abut is a Professor Emeritus from Electrical and Computer Engineering at San Diego State University where he has served as a FERP professor through 2006 and a full-professor between 1981 through 2001.  Since 2008, he is a frequent visiting Adjunct Professor at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. He has also held and still hold visiting faculty appointments in Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Germany, CSU Long Beach and Stanford University.

The Bridge: Could you please give us a brief summary of your background?

Hüseyin Abut:  I received my BS degree from Robert College (Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey) in 1968 in Electrical Engineering and completed my MSEE and Ph.D. at North Carolina State University with specialization in speech processing and bounds on information theory 1970 and 1972, respectively.

My first job was at TÜBITAK Marmara Institute (Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey), where we have worked on Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) infrastructure for Turkish PTT (1972). Subsequently, I was an assistant and later associate professor at Boğazici University, Istanbul.

When an opportunity came along to spend some time at Stanford University (March 1979), which was followed by a period with National Semiconductor Corporation in Santa Clara and followed by a professorship at San Diego State University until the retirement at the end of 2006. I served as the founding director of a well-funded and productive academic research facility for more than twenty years. I wore many hats as an academic senator, leadership search committees and several university-/college-/department-level committees and an associate dean for research.  

During my 40+ years in academia, I was involved with the establishment of a foundation university in Turkey, served on its board of trustees and two other universities in Singapore and in Turkey. I served as the VP for Research and Development of a high-tech company in 1980s, was the President of one and the TCO of yet another high-tech start-ups both in the US and abroad. Additionally, I served twice at the capacity of Senior Advisor for the U.N. Programme Development. 

I was one of the founding editors of the IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing and a Distinguished Lecturer (Class of 2002) for IEEE. I was associated with numerous international workshops, biennials, and conferences including nine ICASSP Meetings (General Chair 2000) two speech coding workshops, general chair of six biennials on DSP for In-Vehicle and Mobile Systems (DSPINCARS) and one called the Special Workshop in Maui (SWIM) in honoring nine masters in speech processing. I volunteered my services at many capacities as member, secretary, board member and senator in the academic and professional organizations including the IEEE Signal Processing Society. Finally, I am serving as the Executive President for Boğaziçi University-Robert College (BURCIN) Alumni organization and a Board Member of the Turkish-American Scientist and Scholars Association (TASSA).

T.B. :  Could you also summarize your research program/area of study?

H.A. :  MY R&D areas span a fairly wide range in EE, telecommunications, and signal processing.  Briefly, I am the author, editor or co-editor of eight books and the author/co-author of more than 100 publications in journals, books, and book chapters in the field of speech processing, biometric signatures, speaker verification, image processing, image understanding, minimum-entropy-based radiotherapy dose planning (RTP) for some cancer case and signal processing for vehicular applications and driver behavior. I hold two patents on Speaker Verification Systems for Consumer Applications. My recent interests include driver behavior and smart devices and systems for ‘Patient-Centric Remote Medicine” for heart attack and stroke prevention. My specific contributions can be outlined as:

    I was involved with projects on transportation needs of Greater Istanbul with funding from Istanbul Planning Office and the World Bank.
    At Stanford and National semiconductor, I was involved on data compression and vector quantization (VQ) with the key players in the field, which resulted in speech compression for the wireless (mobile, cell) standards of today and worked on the design of “talking chips,”
    Next, together with my graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, we were involved with the development of proof-of concept for video streaming from Interstate Highways in California at DSPC Lab at San Diego State University and funded by California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS). This work led to systems for highway monitoring commonly known as red-light cameras!
    Together with scholars from Japan, US, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Korea, and Spain, we have established a research group called “International Alliance for Advanced Study on DSP in Cars and Driver Behavior.” We were blessed with funds from EU, US funding agencies, CIAIR and NEDO in Japan, Devlet Planlama Teskilati in Turkey, and numerous additional national and industrial support and gift-in-kind in each country. 6 biennial workshops followed by book published through top-notch publishers and a Technical Advisory report presented to the ISO WG-8. Several concepts from this effort is already in the deployment stage and we will see many more to improve safety and infotainment in vehicles.

T.B. : Would you please tell us about your involvement with TASSA, its importance to you, and your vision for the future of TASSA.

H. A. :  I was always aware of the good work TASSA had been doing since its establishment, mostly through former students and colleagues. However, in 2010, I was called upon to join the Transition Team to rekindle the TASSA and contributed to the preparation and adaption of the new bylaws, served and continue to serve in the nominating committee as its chair and also a board member.  Since its rebirth in 2012, TASSA has become a true effective scientific and scholarly bridge between the US and Turkey through the efforts of the current leadership. As another board member (Bülent Başol) mentioned earlier in your interview, “the Goals and Vision of TASSA are very valid and achievable. We just have to work hard to bring more resources to bear.”

T.B. :  What, in your opinion, can be done to increase the collaboration and strengthen the bridge between scientists and scholars in Turkey and the Turkish-American scientists and scholar in the US? And how can TASSA, in your opinion, contribute to it?

H.A. : As the bridge between scientific and scholarly communities across the pond, TASSA is doing superb job through its biennial meetings, newsletter and the web. In the future, it would be nice to see long-term endowments to sustain its current momentum and get engaged new projects including more involvement from leading technological leading companies. Additionally, to be a meeting platform for graduating young scholars (both Turkish-studying in the US and Turkish Diaspora) to strengthen the bridge, place them to leading companies and the academia, point them to resource pools. Organizing meetings with focused topics both in Turkey and various locations in the US would make the TASSA much more recognizable globally. Finally, TASSA would benefit immensely if more Turkish American scientists and scholars from industry get involved with its  activities  (both first-generation and second/third generation ones with Turkish origin).

T.B. :  Are there any project that TASSA is undertaking that you are excited about and why?

H. A. :  Each and every project is exciting, well-thought and executed professionally.  Briefly, I like what I see.

T.B. :  Could you please tell us about your life outside of your work? Do you have hobbies? What are your favorite activities? If you recommend a book, what would that be and why?

H. A. :  Having played football (soccer) until 50 years old, being involved with tennis since 1960s (player, umpire, referee, volunteer leader) sports, sports, and more sports summarizes me. Of course, involvement with Boğazici University and BURCIN has a special place in me. I have been reading works on the history of Robert College and Boğazici University by Cyrus Hamlin, Edwin A. Grosvernor, John Freely, Marcia & Malcolm Stevens, and Zafer Toprak.