Thirimachos Bourlai
The University of Georgia Innovation District announced its inaugural cohort of Faculty Innovation Fellows, selecting seven faculty members across campus, including College of Engineering professor Thirimachos Bourlai.
The Innovation Fellows Program is a university-wide initiative to provide the UGA community with improved, peer-delivered access to information, training, and assistance related to innovation and entrepreneurship. The program recruited faculty members from select colleges to act as peer-liaisons and ambassadors between researchers and innovation programs across campus. Fellows apply and are selected by their representative college dean and the leadership of the Innovation District.
An expert in multispectral imaging and biometrics, Bourlai is the founder and director of the Multispectral Imagery Lab at UGA. The primary focus of his research is designing and developing technology for supporting, confirming and determining human identity in challenging conditions using primarily face images, captured across the imaging spectrum (including ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, short-wave IR, mid-wave IR and long-wave IR) and secondarily, other hard or soft biometrics including iris, fingerprints, ears and tattoos.
Additionally, he has worked on liveness detection problems using face and pupil dynamics; mobile biometrics; multi-spectral eye and pupil detection; and matching mugshots from government ID documents (e.g. passports or driver’s licenses) to live face images, which includes the development of image restoration techniques to recover the original mugshot behind the watermarks. Bourlai has collaborated with experts from academia, industry and the government on projects that involve the collection of various biometric data (including multi-spectral face images, irises and tattoos) and the design and development of biometric- and forensic-based algorithms that can support law enforcement and military operations. Recently, he has been working on applications of ML and DL algorithms on NASA- and AFRL-related projects.
“I am honored to join the inaugural cohort of Faculty Innovation Fellows and look forward to working alongside six outstanding colleagues to advance UGA’s mission of fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, while helping my peers connect with resources to bring their ideas to life,” said Bourlai.
The inaugural cohort of 2025-26 Innovation Fellows will engage in a pilot project and build a strategic plan for how their school, college, unit, or department will engage with the Innovation District, beginning this fall with a six-week bootcamp.
Writer: Lillian Ballance
