Testimonianze
Periodo sabbatico al Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity
Herbert Freeman
IEEE Computer Society's Pioneer award, IEEE Life Fellow, ACM Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, former director of the Center for Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity at Rutgers, NJ, USA
I first met Professor Cantoni in October 1980, when I was invited to present a paper at the International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing in Pavia, for which he was in charge of the Secretariat. We had numerous stimulating discussions about image processing, remained in professional contact, and in 1987 I invited him to be a visiting professor in my group at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. We continued to interact over the years through professional visits to each other's universities and I was pleased to have had the opportunity to contribute technical articles to his numerous book publications on the subject of computer vision and image processing. I have been impressed by his professional knowledge, by his administrative skills, and by his reputation as a scholar. It has been a rewarding privilege for me to have known and interacted with him over these many years.
Soggiorni nel periodo di distacco all'Accademia dei Lincei
Bertrand Zavidovique
Professor of Image Processing and Robot Vision , University Paris XI, ORSAY, France, former adviser of the Ministry of Defense for Robotics R&D
I have known Prof. Cantoni for more than 20 years now. We have done research together in Image Processing and Computer Architecture, sharing students (among whom Paolo Lombardi who was awarded the best thesis 2003 in Artificial Intelligence). We recently wrote a book together with Prof. Levialdi. Prof. Cantoni was visiting Orsay in several occasions and for various durations, teaching advanced graduate courses and working with several among us on different research topics of his own as well as of ours. He was organizing, chairing, helping in various manners many conferences on many topics, among which an edition of the IEEE-CAMPS conference that I invented.
All that made us friends, I am proud to say, but also allows me to acknowledge the bright intelligence of this colleague, his reactivity although smiling calm under pressure, his genuine sense of diplomacy, all that supported by a cheering curiosity providing him with a wide culture and teasing a never tired enterprising spirit.
I strongly support his effort to become a Rector of the University, and I do so all the more in favor of the University itself. I am sure that he knows how to make a large institution work together in good and efficient harmony, as he constantly advocates for collaborative team-effort and knows how to draw the best out of people around. Last but far from least, in the difficult times our societies are now facing and likely so for the next decade, and especially universities and other educational or cultural institutions, they need experienced leaders who got acquainted with different countries, cultures and systems and were able to pull the best out of such experience: having traveled and worked abroad quite a lot, keeping strong relationship with milieus of Industry on one side and Art on the other, proving a long practice of intricate administrations as the EEC and their projects..., Prof. Cantoni is definitely of that kind.
Pieter P. Jonker
Fellow of the IAPR, Professor in Vision based Robotics Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
I know Viginio Cantoni as a professor with deep understanding in the field of image processing, pattern recognition and massively parallel computer architectures. He combines this with insight in the human visual system and its active robot vision counterpart. He wrote many books on these subjects and as such he showed himself a great teacher as he combined and over-viewed these areas often already in a quite early stage. By doing this he showed many the paths to go in research. He is a very friendly person, takes initiatives, has a great network and is always stimulating people making them enthusiastic to go on with their research with full power. He has also a tendency to keep people together in the true belief that combined efforts will be more profitable. I am glad that I already met him as a young researcher as he positively influenced my choices in life.
Erik Aurell
KTH Chair of Theoretical Biological Physics, Stockholm, Sweden also Finland Distinguished Professor, Academy of Finland
As then Deputy Director of the research center ACCESS at KTH-Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, I had the pleasure of hosting in the spring of 2011 Virginio Cantoni while he was working at Accademia dei Lincei. Prof Cantoni was extremely active during his visit in Stockholm, conducting a widely followed advanced course in our center, giving several talks in my own research seminar, and at the same time continuing his work with his team in Pavia. He is a brilliant and engaging lecturer, with very broad interest from science and technology to culture and history of science and much else. I am looking forward to many years of interaction and collaboration with him.
Rappresentanze istituzionali della pattern recognition
Gabriella Sanniti di Baja
IAPR Fellow, PhD honoris causa Uppsala, Director CNR Institute of Cybernetics Napoli
I first met Professor Cantoni in October 1980, when I was invited to present a paper at the It's my great pleasure to support the candidature of Prof. Virginio Cantoni for the position of Pavia University Chancellor. As for my credentials, I am Director of Research at the Institute of Cybernetics "E. Caianiello" of the Italian National Research Council and have been President of both the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) and the Group of Italian Researchers in Pattern Recognition (GIRPR). I'm co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Pattern Recognition Letters, Finally, I am IAPR Fellow and Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala, Sweden.
I have known Prof. Cantoni since several years. I have met him very frequently, often in occasion of international conferences, and have always had many useful discussions with him on topics of mutual interest. Virginio Cantoni is well known within the IAPR community, being a IAPR Fellow since 1994. He has been active within IAPR since many years: he was the Vice General Chair for the Rome 1988 ICPR, track chair for the The Hague 1992 ICPR and the Cambridge 2004 ICPR, and invited speaker for the Hong Kong 2006 ICPR. Of course, Virginio is very well known and appreciated within the GIRPR community. In fact, he has been GIRPR President and has been chair of various editions of ICIAP, the international conference organized by GIRPR, besides of many other IAPR sponsored conferences. Moreover, he is among the initiators of renowned conference series such as CAMP and Human and Machine Perception.
Virginio is an outstanding researcher, well known at international level, and his scientific interests cover a wide spectrum of topics. He has been visiting professor at Rutgers University and Paris XI University, has been member of the Conseil d'Orientation Scientifique International of the Pole Universitaire Europeen de Tolouse, has had scientific cooperation with various institutions and since 2001 is Director of the Mediterranean School for Advanced Studies in Media Science and Technology of Tunis, Tunisia.
Moreover, Virginio is a person with many bright ideas and I'm sure that he would highly contribute to the progress of the Pavia University.
Fabio Roli
Presidente del Gruppo Italiano dei Ricercatori in Pattern Recognition, IAPR Fellow, IEEE Fellow, membro del Governing Board dello IAPR e della IEEE SMC society, Università di Cagliari.
Quando penso a Virginio Cantoni le prime cose he mi vengono in mente sono tre parole: immaginifico, creatività e rigore. Immaginifico è uno splendido termine che Virginio mi ha elargito durante una chiacchierata all'inizio degli anni 90 (all'epoca ero un ricercatore alle prime armi) per spiegarmi come gli informatici italiani spesso consideravano con spocchia noi ricercatori di "computer vision": dei visionari ("immaginifici") che si occupavano di una disciplina che, all'epoca, non era ben chiaro se dovesse essere considerata una scienza in seno all'informatica o il frutto di menti un pò troppo fantasiose. Oggi, con aziende come Google che fanno della "computer vision" la loro tecnologia principe, è facile capire quanto Virginio Cantoni, uno dei padri della disciplina in Italia, avesse visto molto più avanti degli altri.
Questo bel termine, unito a numerosi consigli su come fare ricerca in "computer vision" all'interno della comunità degli informatici italiani, mi sono stati preziosi nei primi anni della mia carriera. Creatività e rigore sono gli altri termini che associo d'istinto a Virginio Cantoni. Sono due parole che non è facile associare a una stessa persona, ma nel caso di Virginio lo descrivono bene. Creativo nel lavoro scientifico e nelle sue iniziative (dallo storico calcolatore P.A.P.I.A. fino alla odierna proteomica), Virginio è anche una persona di grande rigore e concretezza. Creatività, rigore e concretezza sono quello che un osservatore attento può trovare nella sua vasta produzione scientifica, nei suoi libri e nelle sue innumerevoli iniziative. Non saprei quale citare per prima fra le tante cose fatte da Virginio. Su due dei libri di cui è coautore (la pietra miliare dal titolo "La Visione delle Macchine", 1989, e il più recente libro sulle architetture piramidali per la computer vision) ho molto studiato, e da molti suoi articoli ho tratto ispirazione. Il Prof Cantoni ha anche contribuito a creare e plasmare l'associazione scientifica di cui oggi ho l'onore di essere il Presidente, che conta ben 293 soci. Ha contribuito a crearla negli anni 80, e oggi chiunque nella comunità lo considera uno dei nostri padri nobili, sia per quello che ha fatto che per quello che rappresenta.
L'Università italiana vive oggi tempi difficili ma anche interessanti e potenzialmente grevi di opportunità. Ma per cogliere le opportunità servono oggi più che ieri immaginazione, creatività e rigore. Auguro all'Università di Pavia di poter sfruttare a pieno queste doti del Prof. Virginio Cantoni.
Cooperazione nella didattica avanzata
Hristo Beloev* and Angel Smrikarov**
*Rector and **Vice Rector of the University of Ruse, Bulgaria
Our cooperation with Prof. Cantoni started back in 1996 as partners in a joint TEMPUS project about restructuring degree courses in Computing in Bulgaria. Then it continued with three consecutive Erasmus Thematic Networks in the field of Computing in the period 2000-2011. Our two universities regularly sign Erasmus Bilateral Agreements and exchange lecturers and students under the ERASMUS programme. From our joint activities we know Prof. Cantoni very well an excellent researcher and trustworthy friend and colleague, who possesses very good management skills and who successfully managed several work packages in our joint projects. Herewith we strongly support Prof. Cantoni's application for a Rector of the University of Pavia and think that with his long years' experience in higher education he will be up to the challenges of this position!
Compagni di viaggio nella ricerca in pattern recognition
Dimo T. Dimov
Head Dep. of Signal Proc. & Pattern Recognition, Institute of Information & Communication Technologies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Prof. Virginio Cantoni is an internationally recognizable scientist - researcher and lecturer - who successfully combines extensive research experience and remarkable lecturer practice with successful administrative career.
I have known Prof. Cantoni personally for more than 10 years, from its participation in the annual international conference CompSysTech and from our work in the Erasmus projects ETN-DEC and ETN-TRICE. As a representative of the University of Pavia in these projects, Prof. Cantoni stands out as a leader of the other 7 participating organizations from Italy. His publications in CompSysTech conferences are a good example of scientific growth for the young researchers.
Prof. Cantoni is a wonderful speaker; his presentations focus the audience's attention, either they are academic in nature, or refer to problems of education and public life. I follow the successful performances of Prof. Cantoni, as a manager and lead investigator in a series of forums at the National Research Fund of Italy, the EU, the NATO, etc.. Prof. Cantoni is a welcomed visiting professor at prestigious schools and universities, both in Italy and abroad. The reason for this is his thorough research (over 250 publications and 3 books, most of them in the fields of computer vision), and knowledge of French and English, and some Russian as well.
As the leader of the Computer Vision & Multimedia Lab CVML, University of Pavia, Prof. Cantoni, was invited for an international expert and partner in the European project AComIn of the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (IICT) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). Our scientific research collaboration with Prof. Cantoni and his CVML is expected in the areas of 3D modeling and recognition in biometrics as well as of Digital preservation of cultural heritage for research and education.
From Prof. Cantoni's CV, it is visible that he is an alumnus of the University of Pavia and that most of his administrative, lecturing and research activities are associated with the University of Pavia, despite his busy international schedule.
Thus, I am confident that the University of Pavia will definitely win from the rector candidacy of Prof. Cantoni, which will contribute significantly to the further innovative prosperity of the University of Pavia in education, research and administrative aspects.
Masatsugu Kidode
Past director of TOSHIBA Kansai Research Laboratories, vice-president of TOSHIBA America, Inc., professor emeritus, Nara Institute of Science and Technology
Dr. Cantoni is my first international research colleague, who is at the same generation, with the same research interest, for the same international activity, and so on.
Since I joined a private company in 1970 to develop image processing techniques and their practical applications, several research groups have been active in European countries such UK, West Germany, Italy, and France, as well as USA. In Japan the government promoted a big project, the Pattern Information Processing System project subsidized by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, in this framework I and my colleagues implemented a high speed image processing system with practical applications to remote sensing and industry automation. In Europe some groups already realized advanced image processing functions and their special parallel architectures. When we realized a series of high-speed image processing systems, a new research association (GIRPR) invited us to attend the image processor workshop at Ischia, Italy, where Dr. Cantoni and I firstly exchanged our academic and technical ideas on computer vision system, having the same research interests, having about the same age we were both agile for the coming international activities.
Consequently we met each other in many workshops and conferences, in particular at the Technical Committee 6 on Special Architectures, of the International Association of Pattern Recognition. He has continued to propose more advanced and leading vision concepts in terms of low, intermediate, and high-level software functions as well as parallel hardware architectures. Of course, he has been devoted to practical realizations with broader focus on real world applications such as medicine, human-machine interface, intelligent robotics, bioinformatics, etc. , which are important key factors in our modern life and sustainable environments.
We are expecting more strong relationship among academic organizations, academic societies, and countries in the world.
Stefano Levialdi
Lifelong IEEE Fellow, IAPR Fellow, Università la Sapienza Roma
I met Virginio Cantoni far back in 1980 when we started a very long cooperation (publishing over 20 papers together) on different research subjects and on the organization of International Conferences held in different places of Italy. We started studying the multi-resolution approach for image analysis, the use of the diffusion process as a means to extract image contours, the design and construction of a pyramidal machine (PAPIA) which was really implemented. We also edited a number of books (both text books on Image Analysis and as a collection of reviewed papers). We have published, a book (3C Vision, Elsevier Press) last year together with Bertrand Zavidovique, a French mathematician.
I believe Virginio's management vision has enabled him to assemble and group together researchers of similar interests into fully fledged organizations, like the one on Pattern Recognition, presently very active in Italy. A wide angle view of the numerous problems present in a large institution, like Pavia University, provides the best reliance on Virginio Cantoni's capabilities to find adequate solutions to face a complex and difficult future.
Hanan Samet
ACM, IEEE, AAAS, and IAPR Fellow, 2009 UCGIS Research Award, 2011 ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award, University of Maryland, MD, USA
I first met Professor Cantoni in June 1983 when I was invited to participate in the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Computer Architectures for Spatially Distributed Data in Cetraro, Italy.
Prof. Cantoni attended my one hour overview lecture on LISP and made many perceptive comments that helped me sharpen my presentation.
He impressed me with the level of organization of his comments and the precision with which they were expressed. I immediately knew that he would be well-suited as an executive as he knew how to get to the heart of the matter. Over the years we met a number of times at various conferences due to our mutual interest in computer vision and parallel architectures with a particular emphasis on the pyramid data structure which turned out to be very important in computer vision systems and most importantly in other applications especially in spatial data mining. I was also a visiting professor at the University of Pavia in 1992 and have memories of our stimulating discussions. Over the past years I have admired his ability to successfully combine administrative duties as Dean with scholarship as shown by his research output during these years. This is critical for a University Administrator as it ensures that he does not forget his roots thereby ensuring his full understanding of the current needs of his Faculty due to shared interests which is a key to improving today's university in the face of unprecedented challenges.
John Tsotsos
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Sciences, Division of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, York University at Toronto
I am pleased to offer this testimonial for Prof. Virginio Cantoni.
It has been my pleasure and honour to know Virginio for over 20 years and have had several opportunities to meet with him, discuss all manner of topics, and have followed his research. I also have participated in at least one of the workshops he has organized and visited his laboratory in Pavia.
All I can say is that in every way, he is a very impressive academic. He has a deep understanding of his discipline and its place in society and industry. His research contributions in pattern recognition and computer vision have been internationally recognized specifically for topics involving computer architectures and pyramidal hierarchical systems. On the organizational front, he has been the leader in many successful major collaborative ventures, evidence of his talent to bring people together and lead them to a common goal. During my discussions with him, I find that Virginio has the kinds of perspectives on academia, its current status and future prospects, that I find wise and insightful. I certainly would be proud to be in a university where he is Rector.
Harry Wechsler
IEEE Fellow, IAPR Fellow, George Mason University, VA, USA
Dear Virginio, it is with great pleasure to learn that you are a candidate for the next election to choose the Rector of Pavia University. I have known you for more than 30 years and I have always admired you for your eclectic background and expertise, on one side, and the international recognition you have earned among your peers. I have been also impressed by your interests in arts, sciences, and engineering, and their combined impact to advance our knowledge, e.g., your book on "3C Vision: cues, context and channels." An excellent publication record, co-author of several books, many students you educated including doctoral students who earned their PhD under your supervision. Always at the frontier of research you have most recently engaged in proteomics research with impressive results.
The Pavia University will be fortunate to elect somebody like you to lead it in a time of change when fortitude, knowledge, international reputation and involvement, wisdom are so important. You bring both academic know-how and administrative skills as evidenced by being awarded the IEEE Fellowship and the IBM Faculty Award, Deanship and Directorship of Research and Consortium Centers where you coordinated national and international projects.
Look forward to your election and to many more years of collaboration.
Hezy Yeshurun
Professor of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University, former Head of the Israeli National Committee for R&D in Information Technology
I have known Virginio for more than 20 years now, and cooperated with him on several occasions in planning and overseeing scientific meetings and conferences.
Virginio is a world renowned scientist in the area of Computer Architecture for Computational Vision. He is one of the founders of this research area and his contributions has been recognized internationally in the areas of Computer Vision and Pattern recognition, as well as in the formal institutes of the IAPR and the IEEE.
On top of being a highly prolific researcher and a successful organizer of numerous scientific conferences and workshops, Virginio has an impressive perspective of science and art in general. His candidacy honors the university, and I am confident that he would lead the University of Pavia to new horizons in his future position as a rector.
Ex miei tesisti, poi affermatisi nel mondo dell'industria e della ricerca
Enrico Bocchieri
Principal Technical Staff Member, AT&T Research, IEEE Fellow
Caro Virginio, ho saputo cha sarai candidato alle prossime elezioni per la carica di Rettore dell`Università di Pavia. Per quello che hai dimostrato, sia nella ricerca che nella didattica, penso che l`Università di Pavia non potrà che trarre un grande giovamento dalle tue qualità e dal tuo impegno. Io ti sono molto grato per quello che ho imparato da te nel corso della mia tesi di laurea e dal metodo che hai saputo insegnarmi nello svolgere la ricerca che mi avevi affidato, e che mi consentì di inserirmi immediatamente nella attività di ricerca negli Stati Uniti. Ho poi apprezzato la tua successiva attività di ricerca e la guida che hai saputo dare ai tuoi studenti, come ho avuto un grande piacere, qui negli Stati Uniti nel vedere quale era la considerazione che godevi nel CAIP Center della Rutgers University del New Jersey.
Fabrizio Capobianco
CEO TOK.tv, Chairman and President Funambol
Conosco Virginio da oltre vent'anni. Lo incontrai per la prima volta nel 1990, quando mi chiese di fondare JETAI Italia. Mi sembrò strano allora che un Professore fosse così entusiasta di promuovere una associazione studentesca internazionale. Non riuscivo a trovarne la motivazione. Non aveva nulla da guadagnare da un gruppo di studenti di Ingegneria che si incontravano con pari età di altri paesi europei, per crescere insieme.
Accettai comunque l'invito e dopo qualche mese capii: Virginio fa tutto per passione. Ha un'energia e un entusiasmo rarissimo. Credeva nell'idea di unire l'Università di Pavia con il resto dell'Europa, partendo dai ragazzi. Mi spinse ogni giorno per trasformare l'idea in un successo. Fu un esperienza straordinaria.
Quella passione l'ho rivista ogni giorno in laboratorio, durante la tesi e il dottorato. E la rivedo tutte le volte che lo incontro, anche se purtroppo succede molto di rado. Da lui ho imparato che nella vita bisogna fare quello che si ama. Che il lavoro non può avere come scopo un assegno a fine mese. Senza passione nel lavoro, la vita perde tanto.
Sento Virginio entusiasta all'idea di aiutare l'Università di Pavia come Rettore. Mi auguro che gli elettori non si lascino scappare questa occasione, perché abbiamo bisogno di entusiasmo, energia e passione per far crescere la nostra Università. Virginio Cantoni sarebbe un magnifico Rettore.
Enrico Negroni
Già top manager di SAP, la maggiore azienda di software applicativo al mondo
Ho avuto il privilegio di essere uno fra i primi laureati, forse il primo in assoluto, a sviluppare e preparare la propria tesi di Laurea con il prof. Virginio Cantoni.
Ancora oggi, passati oltre trent'anni, ricordo quell'esperienza come una fase formativa importantissima e determinante nello sviluppo successivo della mia carriera.
L'informatica era agli albori sia dal punto di vista dell'hardware ma ancor più del software ma era una disciplina verso la quale sentivo un grande interesse a dispetto di tante altre materie studiate decisamente "obtorto collo".
Virginio è stato insegnante prezioso perché con il lavoro di tesi e quello svolto poi in facoltà, nell'attesa di partire per il servizio militare, mi ha introdotto verso quell'attitudine al metodo e all'analisi che sono basilari non solo nel lavoro dell'ingegnere ma soprattutto di chi abbia a lavorare nel mondo del software.
Il suo contributo mi ha preparato e indirizzato verso la mia successiva carriera nella quale sono arrivato a guidare, prima in Italia e poi in Europa, da top manager, la maggiore azienda di software applicativo al
mondo: SAP!
Anche nell'attività manageriale quel metodo appreso nel periodo di attività con Virginio è risultato prezioso e ha contribuito a formare la mia leadership.
Nel corso della mia attività professionale ho poi avuto diverse volte modo di incontrare Virginio riscontrando sempre grande comunanza di vedute in quella che deve essere una nuova dimensione verso cui deve evolvere l'Università.
Da manager di grandi aziende ho, soprattutto in SAP, contribuito direttamente e indirettamente alla creazione di un autentico mercato e bacino di risorse competenti sul tema.
Questo ha dato vita a migliaia di posti di lavoro costituendo quindi un grande sbocco per le Università.
Ma ciò nonostante il dialogo con le Università è sempre stato complesso, spesso ostacolato dall'arcaica visione di chi vede ancora l'ambiente universitario come elemento impermeabile ad azioni dirette di formazione su piattaforme e prodotti diventati nel frattempo veri riferimenti di mercato.
Nei miei incontri con Virginio ho invece sempre apprezzato un'ampia apertura di vedute e quella sensibilità che trovo fondamentale nel poter mettere le basi a un indotto di conoscenze e competenze capace di collegare direttamente Università e imprese.
Ritengo quindi il prof. Virginio Cantoni candidato ideale al ruolo di Magnifico Rettore per un'Università di Pavia veramente al passo con i tempi.