Restrictions on travel and on congregating during the COVID crisis have resulted in an explosion of the use of video conferencing for business, socializing and education. Leveraging decades of development, video conferencing became nearly universal over the period of a few weeks. As we rely on internet, cellular, and wireless networks to connect us, it is critical to explore upcoming challenges.

How resilient are our systems to the surge in video traffic? What pressure points may cause the system to fail? Are both technology and policy innovation needed? What can we learn from our recent experiences to improve future systems? Can we continue to reduce the distinction between video communication and face-to-face interactions? Purdue Engineering faculty and corporate leaders will discuss these questions and more in this webinar.

Panelists

Ed Delp, Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University

Edward J. Delp is the Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He received the B.S.E.E. (cum laude) and M.S. degrees from the University of Cincinnati, and the Ph.D. degree from Purdue University.

He is currently the Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

His research interests include image and video processing, image analysis, computer vision, image and video compression, multimedia security, medical imaging, multimedia systems, communication and information theory. He has published and presented more than 500 papers.

Dr. Delp is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the SPIE, a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T), and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

In 2004, Dr. Delp received the Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society for his work in image and video compression and multimedia security.

In 2008, Dr. Delp received the Society Award from IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS). This is the highest award given by SPS and it cited his work in multimedia security and image and video compression.

Alex Eleftheriadis, Chief Scientist & Co-Founder of Vidyo

Dr. Alexandros Eleftheriadis is a partner at Big Pi Ventures and the Chief Scientist at Enghouse. Enghouse in 2019 acquired Vidyo, a videoconferencing systems company that he co-founded in 2005. Prior to Vidyo, he was an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. He has also held an appointment as an Associate Professor at the University of Athens, in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications.

Dr. Eleftheriadis has been involved in video compression and communication research and standardization for nearly 30 years. His team at Vidyo introduced the architecture of the “Selective Forwarding Unit” (SFU), which is now at the heart of practically all modern multi-point video communication systems, and he actually coined the term ‘SFU’ as a differentiator from the traditional MCU.

Most recently, Dr. Eleftheriadis served as Co-Chair of the Real-Time Communications Subgroup of the Alliance for Open Media (2016-2020), which developed the new AV1 codec. He has more than 100 publications, holds more than 140 patents internationally, and his inventions are used in the H.264 AVC and H.265 HEVC video coding standards, the Blu-ray DVD standard, the ATSC US digital terrestrial television standard, and the ARIB Japan digital television standard.

Dr. Eleftheriadis awards include a WebRTC Pioneer Award (2014), a Marie Curie Chair from the European Commission (2007) and the ACM Multimedia Open Source Software Award (2004). He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 1995 and his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 1990. He is also a certified offshore skipper and sailing instructor of the American Sailing Association, and an avid musician.

Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Co-Founder and CTO of Six Feet Up

Calvin Hendryx-Parker is the co-founder and CTO of Six Feet Up, a Python development and Cloud consulting company established in 1999. At Six Feet Up, Calvin establishes the company's technical vision and leads all aspects of the company's technology development. He provides the strategic vision for enhancing the offerings of the company and infrastructure, and works with the team to set company priorities and implement processes that will help improve product and service development. Calvin is the driving force behind LoudSwarm, a truly immersive virtual event platform that debuted in June 2020.

Calvin is the co-founder of the Python user group IndyPy, the largest tech meetup in Indiana with 1,900+ members. In 2017, he also founded IndyAWS, now the fastest growing cloud meetup in the state with 800+ members. In 2019, he got recognized as an AWS Community Hero by AWS experts.

Outside of work, Calvin spends time tinkering with new devices like the AWS DeepRacer, CircuitPython and Raspberry Pi. Calvin is an avid distance runner and ran the 2014 NYC Marathon to support the Innocence Project. Every year he and the family enjoys an extended trip to France where his wife Gabrielle, the CEO of Six Feet Up, is from. Calvin holds a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University.