
Dr Mahdi Rezaei
- Position: University Academic Fellow; Assistant Professor
- Areas of expertise: Computer Vision; Machine Learning; Autonomous Driving; Self-driving Cars; Road / Traffic Perception; Driver Behaviour Monitoring; Human Factors.
- Email: M.Rezaei@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 5342
- Location: Office 2.11, Institute for Transport Studies, 34-40 University Road
- Website: YouTube | Twitter | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | Researchgate | ORCID
Profile
Dr Mahdi Rezaei is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and a University Academic Fellow at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. Dr Rezaei has a background in AI, Computer Vision, and Machine Learning and obtained his PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Having over 15 years of experience in academia and industry his primary research focus is the application of Computer Vision and ML in Autonomous Vehicles, Smart Cars, and Driver/Occupant Behaviour Monitoring. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Group in LIDA data scientist development programme (LIPAG), and also an executive member of the “Universities Transport Study Group” (UTSG). Dr Rezaei has contributed as a PI or lead discipline CoI in various European and UK-funded projects, totalling over £3 million.
Qualification
PhD in Computer Science, The University of Auckland. 2014. Best PhD Thesis Award.
Employment History:
- 2020 - Present, Assistant Professor (University Academic Fellow), Uni of Leeds, UK
- 2017 - 2020, Senior Researcher, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
- 2015 - 2020, Lecturer in the Department of Computer Engineering, Qazvin University, IR
- 2010 - 2017, Honorary Academic Staff, University of Auckland, New Zealand
- 2006 - 2010, Lecturer in the Department of Computer Engineering, Qazvin University, IR
Selected videos & research outputs:
3D Vehicle Detection / Pedestrian Detection, and Speed Estimation Using a Single Camera:
Driver Behaviour Monitoring (Distraction, Drowsiness, Phoning / Texting, Yawning, Head Nodding,...)
Stop/Go Decision Making at Roundabouts for Autonomous Vehicles
Our contribution towards public health during the COVID-19 Pandemic:
Join our team at the Institute for Transport Studies, Ranked 12th in the world, as one of the most advanced research centres in the interdisciplinary field of Autonomous Vehicles, Self-driving Cars, Driver Behaviour Monitoring, and Human factors.
Talented prospective PhD students, Postdocs & Researchers with relevant background are welcome to apply here and join our multideciplinary team at Institute for Transport Studies (ITS)*.
* Funded positions will be advertised publicly.
Honours, Awards, Grants:
- MaVis – EPSRC, AI Visualisation 2023-2026 – (COI, £ 713,438.00)
- EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) 2022-2023 – (PI, £287,295.00)
- Hi-Drive – EU funded 2021-2025 – (COI, £ 1,508,785.00)
- Converted UDRIVE Dataset – DLR, German Aerospace Centre – (PI, £6,000.00)
- L3Pilot – EU Horizon 2020 Driving Automation 2017-2021 – (COI, € 877,500.00)
- Research England - World Class Laboratories Fund 2020-2021 – (COI, £54,852.00)
- New Zealand Spark Idead Challenge, $100,000.00 Qualifiers Award, 2011.
- Marsden Grant, 2012. Faculty grant for going to the final round of Marsden competition- the most challenging research grant in New Zealand, by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
- 3 x Best Paper Awards: ( IEEE Conference SensorCOMM (2007) | CVPR paper, University of Auckland (2014) | Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns (2019)
- 2 x Akira Nakamura Awards and Grant: 2011 and 2014. provided by Akira Nakamura, professor emeritus of Hiroshima University. (PI, $60,000.00)
- Best PhD Thesis Award, 2014. the University of Auckland
- Honorary Academic, 2017-2020. Dept. of Computer Science, Auckland University of Technology.
- Honorary Academic, 2014-2016. Dept. of Computer Science, the University of Auckland, Researcher at ‘.enpeda..’ research group
My current Postdoc, PhD, and MSc Students:
- Tanveer Hussain (Postdoctoral Research Fellow) – 2022
- Vishnu Radhakrishnan (Postdoctoral Research Fellow) – 2022
- Mohsen Azarmi (PhD Student) – 2022
- Yiming Hou (PhD Student) – 2020
- Navid Raeesi (PhD Student) – 2019
- Mahsa Shahidi (MSc, Graduated) – 2018
- Dr Noor Saleem (PhD, Graduated) – 2019
Professional Engagements:
Editor and Organiser:
- Journal of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). Switzerland, Impact Factor: 5.0
- Journal of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220), 5-year Impact Factor: 3.275
Reviewer:
- IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
- IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technologies
- International Journal of Applied Science
- International Journal of Computer and Robotics
- International Journal of Sensors
- International Conference on Pattern Recognition
- Asian Conference on Pattern Recognition
- International Conference of Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns
- Pacific-Rim Symposium on Image and Video Technology
Panel Member / Technical Program Committee (TPC):
- International Conference of Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns
- Pacific-Rim Symposium on Image and Video Technology
- RoboCup Asia-Pacific Symposium
- IEEE
Latest Publications:
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=9Z7J8ecAAAAJ&hl=en
Responsibilities
- Research, lecturing, and supervsion of postdocs, PhDs, and postgrad students
Research interests
- Computer Vision
- Artificial Intelligence
- Machine Learning
- Autonomous Vehicles | Driver Behaviour Monitoring | Pedestrian Detection and Tracking
- Traffic Science Segmentation and Understanding
- Human Factors
A short video spotlight on my monograph book published by Springer International Publishing:
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Computer Vision for Driver Assistance
Professional memberships
- IEEE
- Computer Vision Foundation
- CerV Research Group
Student education
For your questions and any further information feel free to email me via m.rezaei@leeds.ac.uk

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