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What is Pattern Recognition?

Pattern recognition is a branch of machine learning that focuses on the recognition of patterns and regularities in data. Traditional pattern recognition applications range from automatic speech recognition, classification of text into several categories (e.g., spam/non-spam email messages), the automatic recognition of handwritten postal codes on postal envelopes, to sophisticated Deep Learning based systems for person identification / authentication and license plate recognition. In recent years, Pattern Recognition applications have emerged across various disciplines including Medicine, Agriculture, and Trade Management.
Pakistan Pattern Recognition Society aims at bringing together Pakistani experts from various theoretical and application domains of Pattern Recognition to highlight recent research in this fascinating area and discuss possible future directions and collaborations. A particular emphasis is placed on stimulating activities related to Pattern Recognition in Pakistan to strengthen and grow the local community.

History

The idea of PPRS was born in 2015 when several Pakistani researchers attended ICDAR, an IAPR sponsored conference in France, and had discussions with IAPR member organisations. Prof Simoni Marinai (IAPR Vice President), Prof Apostolos Antonacopoulos (IAPR Treasurer), Prof Jean-Marc Ogier (IAPR Membership Committee) and Prof Andreas Dengel (Fellow IAPR) strongly encouraged the formation of a Pakistan Pattern Recognition body as there was much interest in the area in Pakistan.
The society was launched at a Special Interest Group meeting at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad in October 2015. A constitution was drafted a month after and 20 members joined the society initially. The society has consistently grown since then, and currently has 65 members, out of whom 49 are PhD degree holders.