PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

David Casasent

Also known as David P. Casasent, David Paul Casasent

David Casasent was a Carnegie Mellon electrical engineering professor whose research covered optical processing, pattern recognition, and neural networks. He joined Carnegie Mellon in 1969, became the George Westinghouse Chair in 1980, and coedited Optical Data Processing: Applications in 1978. His research applied neural networks and support vector machines to target and biometric recognition, including a 2005 hierarchical target classifier with Yu-Chiang Wang. He served as president of SPIE and the International Neural Network Society and received the SPIE President's Award in 1996. He died in 2015, and Carnegie Mellon alumni established an endowed fund in 2016 to honor his research.

Works
872
Citations
9,179
h-index
41
Rankings
#7 by first-author papers
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1969–1980

    Joining Carnegie Mellon

    In 1969, Casasent earns a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois and joins Carnegie Mellon. He becomes the George Westinghouse Chair in 1980. With Nils H. Abramson, he coedits Optical Data Processing: Applications in 1978.

  2. 1993

    SPIE president

    In 1993, Casasent serves as president of SPIE.

  3. 1995

    A shift-invariant classifier

    In 1995, Casasent and Leonard Neiberg publish “Classifier and shift-invariant automatic target recognition neural networks.”

  4. 1996

    The SPIE President's Award

    Casasent receives the SPIE President's Award in 1996.

  5. 1999

    President of INNS

    In 1999, Casasent serves as president of the International Neural Network Society.

  6. By 2005

    A target-recognition classifier

    By 2005, Casasent is a professor in Carnegie Mellon's Electrical and Computer Engineering department and directs the Laboratory for Optical Data Processing. His research applies support vector machines and neural networks to automatic target and biometric recognition. In 2005, he and Yu-Chiang Wang publish a hierarchical classifier for automatic target recognition.

  7. 2015–2016

    An endowed research fund

    Casasent dies in 2015. Carnegie Mellon alumni establish an endowed fund in 2016 to honor his research and contributions to the university.

Career

  1. 1993SPIEPresident
  2. 1972–2012Carnegie Mellon UniversityProfessor

Education

  1. 1969University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignPhD

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Minimum average correlation energy filters1987 · Applied Optics · 598 citationsWith B.V.K. Vijaya Kumar
  2. Position, rotation, and scale invariant optical correlation1976 · Applied Optics · 520 citations
  3. Multivariant technique for multiclass pattern recognition1980 · Applied Optics · 385 citations
  4. Unified synthetic discriminant function computational formulation1984 · Applied Optics · 292 citations
  5. Spatial light modulators1977 · Proceedings of the IEEE · 191 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. 14% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes David Casasent. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after their doctorate, and how the timing changed across cohorts.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. The median h-index is 53 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. The median h-index is 53 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, citations and moves to estimate how universities and frontier labs contribute to AI research.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Casasent Outstanding Research Award engineering.cmu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. David Casasent en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. David P. Casasent csauthors.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Board of Governors Archive inns.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. David Casasent users.ece.cmu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.