MIT professor and CSAIL principal investigator Ted Adelson recently received the Kurt Koffka Medal from The University of Giessen for his impact on the visual perception field. The award recognizes scientists’ standout work in perceptual and developmental psychology.
The German school noted his “outstanding contributions” in an official press release. Working at MIT since 1987, his accomplishments include contributing to multiscale image representations, building the first plenoptic camera, and developing the motion energy model. After Adelson received the medal, he gave a presentation on "Scientific and Unscientific Methods for Studying Vision" based on his research.
Adelson’s breakthroughs have enhanced robots’ artificial touch capabilities. His work on GelSight exemplifies this, with its recent “Fin Ray” iteration utilizing touch sensors that can exceed the tactile sensitivity of human skin. The autonomous gripping device resembles human fingers, which astounded crowds at the IEEE 5th International Conference on Soft Robotics earlier this year.
The Kurt Koffka Medal is yet another recognition of Adelson’s innovations. He also won the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics in 1992, the IEEE Computer Society’s Longuet-Higgins Award in 2005, and the Ken Nakayama Medal in 2020. Adelson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and a National Academy of Sciences member.
