Dr. Alexandra Branzan Albu

Biography

Alexandra Branzan Albu studies computer vision, a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with visual perception. She is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Victoria. Branzan Albu applies theory to interdisciplinary collaborative projects that address a variety of societal needs, particularly in the context of climate change. Her work in underwater environmental monitoring plays a crucial role in informing and enabling conservation efforts, governmental policies, and sustainable fisheries. Currently, she collaborates with ASL Environmental Sciences to develop deep learning-based systems that identify marine life and physical phenomena using acoustic backscatter time series data, which aims to build automatic tools for ecosystem assessment. Another ongoing collaboration with Ocean Networks Canada focuses on developing algorithms to analyze hours of underwater video footage to extract events of interest, such as animal motion, especially under low-light conditions. Her graduate students engage in research on medical document image analysis with industrial collaborators. In her classroom, Branzan Albu emphasizes problem-based solving and experiential learning techniques through hands-on projects rather than traditional tests. Her primary goal in teaching is to provide students with a solid foundation for future progress in the discipline and to encourage critical thinking by making connections between seemingly unrelated topics.

Research Interests