Picture of Wassim Bouachir

Wassim Bouachir is a Professor of computer science and the Canada Research Chair in artificial intelligence for suicide prevention. He is a founding member of the Data Science Laboratory (DOT-Lab) and a researcher at the Centre for Research and Intervention on Suicide (CRISE). He holds a Ph.D. in computer engineering from Polytechnique Montréal and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Moncton, both specializing in Artificial Intelligence. His research focuses on machine learning and computer vision, addressing fundamental problems such as object tracking, activity recognition, and signal classification. In applied research, he is interested in implementing fundamental advancements across various fields, including suicide prevention, physical and mental health, and environmental applications.

Education

  • Postdoc, École de Technologie Supérieure
  • Ph.D., Polytechnique Montréal
  • M. Sc., Université de Moncton
  • B. Sc., Université de Tunis - El Manar

Research Interests

  • Artificial intelligence
  • AI for suicide prevention
  • Intelligent video surveillance
  • Medical decision support

Teaching

Research

NSERC Discovery research program

We focus on the development of novel methods to improve decision making abilities of intelligent video surveillance systems. By intelligence, we mean to assist humans and reduce cognitive overload by automatically extracting relevant information and detecting suspicious events in security applications. Our long-term goal is thus to develop solutions to better understand monitored scenes, through the efficient exploitation of computer vision methods and visual acquisition technology.

Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence for Suicide Prevention

We aim to develop new methods of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance our ability to predict suicide. We are working to put in place new AI-based intervention techniques and deepen our understanding of the complex phenomenon of suicide. Our findings could have applications in suicide prevention in a range of social and cultural contexts in Canada and globally. In addition, the AI methods and techniques we develop could be put to use in other fields of inquiry and to solve other problems.

Publications & Presentations

This section shows the documents (if any) that are available in R-libre, TELUQ's open access research publication repository.

Journal articles (refereed)

Naimi, Safwen, Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2024). 1D-Convolutional transformer for Parkinson disease diagnosis from gait. Neural Computing and Applications. 10.1007/s00521-023-09193-6

Jemaa, Hela, Bouachir, Wassim, Leblon, Brigitte, LaRocque, Armand, Haddadi, Ata et Bouguila, Nizar (2023). UAV-Based Computer Vision System for Orchard Apple Tree Detection and Health Assessment. Remote Sensing, 15. 10.3390/rs15143558

Zgaren, Ahmed, Bouachir, Wassim et Bouguila, Nizar (2023). Automatic counting of planting microsites via local visual detection and global count estimation. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, 1-15. 10.1109/TETCI.2023.3272004

Li, Zhenxi, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (2021). Multiple Convolutional Features in Siamese Networks for Object Tracking. Machine Vision and Applications, 32 (3), 59.

Ihou, Koffi Eddy, Bouguila, Nizar et Bouachir, Wassim (2020). Efficient integration of generative topic models into discriminative classifiers using robust probabilistic kernels. Pattern Analysis and Applications. 10.1007/s10044-020-00917-1

El Maachi, Imanne, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (2020). Deep 1D-Convnet for accurate Parkinson disease detection and severity prediction from gait. Expert Systems with Applications, 143. 10.1016/j.eswa.2019.113075

Correia, David LP, Bouachir, Wassim, Gervais, David, Pureswaran, Deepa, Kneeshaw, Daniel D et De Grandpré, Louis (2020). Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Large-Scale Plant Phenology Studies From Noisy Time-Lapse Images. IEEE Access, 8, 13151 - 13160. 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2965462

Bouachir, Wassim, Ihou, Koffi Eddy, Gueziri, Houssem-Eddine, Bouguila, Nizar et Bélanger, Nicolas (2019). Computer Vision System for Automatic Counting of Planting Microsites Using UAV Imagery. IEEE Access, 7, 82491 - 82500. 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2923765

Ghazal, Sam, Sauthier, Michael, Brossier, David, Bouachir, Wassim, Jouvet, Philippe et Noumeir, Rita (2019). Using machine learning models to predict oxygen saturation following ventilator support adjustment in critically ill children: A single center pilot study. PLoS ONE, 14 (2). 10.1371/journal.pone.0198921

Rehouma, Haythem, Noumeir, Rita, Bouachir, Wassim, Jouvet, Philippe et Essouri, Sandrine (2018). 3D imaging system for respiratory monitoring in pediatric intensive care environment. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 70, 17-28. 10.1016/j.compmedimag.2018.09.006

Bouachir, Wassim, Gouiaa, Rafik, Li, Bo et Noumeir, Rita (2018). Intelligent video surveillance for real-time detection of suicide attempts. Pattern Recognition Letters, 110. 10.1016/j.patrec.2018.03.018

Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2015). Collaborative part-based tracking using salient local predictors. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 137, 88-101. 10.1016/j.cviu.2015.03.010

Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2015). Exploiting structural constraints for visual object tracking. Image and Vision Computing, 43, 39-49. 10.1016/j.imavis.2015.09.002

Papers in conference proceedings (refereed)

Naimi, Safwen, Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2024). HCT: Hybrid Convnet-Transformer for Parkinson’s disease detection and severity prediction from gait. In Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2023). IEEE. 10.1109/ICMLA58977.2023.00119

Nfissi, Alaa, Bouachir, Wassim, Bouguila, Nizar et Mishara, Brian (2024). Unlocking the Emotional States of High-Risk Suicide Callers through Speech Analysis. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing (IEEE ICSC 2024). IEEE. 10.1109/ICSC59802.2024.00012

Anwar, Noreen, Philippe, Duplessis-Guindon, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (2023). VisiTherS: Visible-Thermal Infrared Stereo Disparity Estimation of Human Silhouette. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshops (p. 394-402).

Jemaa, Hela, Bouachir, Wassim, Leblon, Brigitte, LaRocque, Armand, Haddadi, Ata et Bouguila, Nizar (2023). Tree health assessment from UAV images: Improving object detection and classification using hard negative mining and semi-supervised autoencoder. In 2023 20th Conference on Robots and Vision (CRV) (p. 312-319). IEEE. 10.1109/CRV60082.2023.00047

Naimi, Safwen, Koubaa, Olfa, Bouachir, Wassim, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre, Jeddore, Gregory, Baines, Patricia, Correia, David LP et Arsenault, André (2023). Automating lichen monitoring in ecological studies using instance segmentation of time-lapse images. In Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2023). IEEE. 10.1109/ICMLA58977.2023.00022

Nfissi, Alaa, Bouachir, Wassim, Bouguila, Nizar et Mishara, Brian L. (2023). Iterative Feature Boosting for Explainable Speech Emotion Recognition. In Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2023). IEEE. 10.1109/ICMLA58977.2023.00081

Zgaren, Ahmed, Bouachir, Wassim, Bouguila, Nizar et Hammoud, Riad I. (2023). MoundCount: A Detection-Based Approach for Automatic Counting of Planting Microsites on UAV Images. In Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshops (p. 497-506).

Nfissi, Alaa, Bouachir, Wassim, Bouguila, Nizar et Mishara, Brian (2022). CNN-n-GRU: end-to-end speech emotion recognition from raw waveform signal using CNNs and gated recurrent unit networks. In Proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2022). IEEE.

Nikougoftar Nategh, Majid, Zgaren, Ahmed, Bouachir, Wassim et Bouguila, Nizar (2022). Automatic counting of mounds on UAV images: combining instance segmentation and patch-level correction. In 2022 21st IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA) (p. 375-381). IEEE. 10.1109/ICMLA55696.2022.00060

Dimitri Nguyen, Duc Minh, Miah, Mehdi, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (2022). Transformers for 1D signals in Parkinson’s disease detection from gait. In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR 2022). IEEE. 10.1109/ICPR56361.2022.9956330

Jemaa, Hela, Bouachir, Wassim, Leblon, Brigitte et Bouguila, Nizar (2022). Computer vision system for detecting orchard trees from UAV images. In The International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Copernicus GmbH. 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B4-2022-661-2022

Li, Zhenxi, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (2020). MFST: Multi-Features Siamese Tracker. In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR). IEEE. 10.1109/ICPR48806.2021.9412032

Zgaren, Ahmed, Bouachir, Wassim et Ksantini, Riadh (2020). Coarse-to-Fine Object Tracking Using Deep Features and Correlation filters. In Advances in Visual Computing : 15th International Symposium, ISVC 2020, San Diego, CA, USA, October 5-7, 2020, Proceedings. Cham, Suisse : Springer, coll. « Lecture Notes in Computer Science », vol. 12509. 10.1007/978-3-030-64556-4_40

Elforaici, Mohamed El Amine, Chaaraoui, Ismail, Bouachir, Wassim, Ouakrim, Youssef et Mezghani, Neila (2018). Posture recognition using an RGB-D camera : exploring 3D body modeling and deep learning approaches. In IEEE Life Sciences Conference (LSC) (p. 69-72). Montreal, Canada : IEEE. 10.1109/LSC.2018.8572079

Riahi, Dorra, Bouachir, Wassim, Ouakrim, Youssef et Mezghani, Neila (2018). Depth imaging system for human posture recognition. In IEEE Middle East Conference on Biomedical Engineering (MECBME 2018) (p. 177-181). IEEE. 10.1109/MECBME.2018.8402429

Li, Zhenxi, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (2018). Multi-Branch Siamese Networks with Online Selection for Object Tracking. In Bebis, Georges; Boyle, Richard; Parvin, Bahram; Koracin, Darko; Turek, Matt; Ramalingam, Srikumar; Xu, Kai; Lin, Stephen; Alsallakh, Bilal; Yang, Jing; Cuervo, Eduardo, & Ventura, Jonathan (Ed.), Advances in Visual Computing : 13th International Symposium, ISVC 2018, Las Vegas, NV, USA, November 19-21, 2018, Proceedings. Cham, Suisse : Springer, coll. « Lecture Notes in Computer Science », vol. 11241. 10.1007/978-3-030-03801-4_28

Li, Bo, Bouachir, Wassim, Gouiaa, Rafik et Noumeir, Rita (2017). Real-time recognition of suicidal behavior using an RGB-D camera. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Image Processing Theory, Tools and Applications (IPTA 2017). Montréal, Canada : IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

Rehouma, Haythem, Noumeir, Rita, Jouvet, Philippe, Bouachir, Wassim et Essouri, Sandrine (2017). A computer vision method for respiratory monitoring in intensive care environment using RGB-D cameras. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Image Processing Theory, Tools and Applications (IPTA 2017). Montréal, Canada : IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

Bouachir, Wassim et Noumeir, Rita (2016). Automated video surveillance for preventing suicide attempts. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Imaging for Crime Detection and Prevention (ICDP). Madrid, Espagne : IET Digital Library.

Bouachir, Wassim, Torabi, Atousa, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Blais, Pascal (2016). A Bag of Words Approach for Semantic Segmentation of Monitored Scenes. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Signal, Image, Video and Communications. Tunis, Tunisia : IEEE.

Chen, Gengjie, St-Charles, Pierre-Luc, Bouachir, Wassim, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bergevin, Robert (2015). Reproducible evaluation of Pan-Tilt-Zoom tracking. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP). IEEE.

Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2015). Part-based tracking via salient collaborating features. In Proceedings of the IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) (p. 78 - 85). IEEE. 10.1109/WACV.2015.18

Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2014). Structure-aware keypoint tracking for partial occlusion handling. In Proceedings of the IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) (p. 877 - 884). IEEE. 10.1109/WACV.2014.6836011

Bouachir, Wassim et Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre (2013). Visual face tracking: a coarse-to-fine target state estimation. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV) (p. 45 - 51). IEEE. ISBN 9781467364096 10.1109/CRV.2013.18

Bouachir, Wassim, Kardouchi, Mustapha et Belacel, Nabil (2010). Fuzzy indexing for bag of features scene categorization. In Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on I/V Communications and Mobile Network (ISVC). IEEE. ISBN 978-1-4244-5996-4 10.1109/ISVC.2010.5656164

Bouachir, Wassim, Kardouchi, Mustapha et Belacel, Nabil (2010). Improving bag of visual words image retrieval: a fuzzy weighing scheme for efficient indexation. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Signal-Image Technology and Internet-Based Systems (SITIS) (p. 215 - 220). IEEE. ISBN 978-1-4244-5740-3 10.1109/SITIS.2009.43

Conference presentations (refereed)

Gueziri, Houssem-Eddine, Bouachir, Wassim, Gouiaa, Rafik, Djafri, Ikram et Bélanger, Nicolas (Aug 2018). Estimating the number of planting microsites using UAV and computer vision. Paper presented at The Montreal Artificial Intelligence Symposium, Montréal, QC, Canada.

Li, Zhenxi, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bouachir, Wassim (Aug 2018). Multi-Branch Siamese Networks with Online Selection for Object Tracking. Paper presented at The Montreal Artificial intelligence Symposium, Montréal, QC, Canada.

Other non refereed contributions

Chen, Gengjie, St-Charles, Pierre-Luc, Bouachir, Wassim, Joeisseint, Thomas, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Bergevin, Robert (2015). Reproducible evaluation of Pan-Tilt-Zoom tracking (extended version of the 2015 ICIP paper) (rapport de recherche présenté à IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP))..

Whiten, Chris, Bouachir, Wassim, Bilodeau, Guillaume-Alexandre et Laganière, Robert (2012). The current state of face tracking for video surveillance (rapport de recherche). Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).