Vuong Dustin Nguyen Receives Dan E. Wells Outstanding Dissertation Award

Congratulations to Dustin for being awarded the 2025 Dan E. Wells Outstanding Dissertation Award. Dustin’s dissertation, titled “Towards Robust Person Re-Identification: Learning Invariant Features Under Clothing Changes and Occlusions,” addresses a major challenge in modern surveillance and forensic applications: consistently identifying individuals in visual data when appearances change or when people are partially obscured. His research developed generative machine learning models capable of detecting invariant characteristics by analyzing both physical features and individual mannerisms. The models improve the ability to match individuals in video footage despite variables such as altered clothing or visual obstructions.

Dustin is now working as an AI research scientist at Autodesk, Inc., where he will contribute to advancements in generative artificial intelligence for 3D and computer-aided design (CAD) models within the Autodesk AI Lab.