Brief Bio

Hi, I’m Akbar Ali. I am a Ph.D. researcher in Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar, working under the guidance of Prof. Shanmuganathan Raman. My research focuses on computer vision, generative models, image restoration, and hyperspectral imaging, with particular interest in generative priors, latent-space optimization, Gaussian splatting, image restoration, and hyperspectral image denoising and super-resolution.

Before joining IIT Gandhinagar, I worked as a Project Associate at IIT Ropar, where I worked on computer vision and interdisciplinary sensing problems. I completed my M.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from Aliah University, Kolkata, graduating second rank overall, and my B.Tech. from the same university, graduating first rank overall. I also hold a UAV Pilot Licence for platforms up to 25 kg.

During my Ph.D., I have worked on a range of computer vision and computational imaging problems, with a focus on developing robust methods for real-world image restoration and understanding. My research explores generative models, latent-space optimization, Gaussian splatting, and hyperspectral image processing, with applications in image denoising, deblurring, inpainting, spectral reconstruction, and super-resolution. I also spent six months at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg through the Research Lab Abroad Fellowship, where I further worked on computer vision and imaging problems involving real-world data.

Research Interests

• Generative priors for image restoration (denoising, deblurring, inpainting)
• Latent inversion in StyleGAN and diffusion models
• Zero-shot and training-free image restoration
• 2D/3D Gaussian splatting for hyperspectral imaging
• Aerial and hyperspectral data acquisition and processing

News