James Elder

James Elder is a Professor at York University, holding a joint Lassonde School of Engineering/Faculty of Health Tier I Chair. He is affiliated with the Centre for Vision Research, the VISTA program, and the Centre for AI & Society.

• Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
• Psychology

His research integrates computer vision and biological vision studies, focusing on developing algorithms through understanding human visual processing. Key areas include computer vision, 3D shape perception, and AI applications in urban mobility. He leads projects like AttentiveVision and Agile AI-Powered Robotics.

Recent publications reveal critical differences between human and AI visual processing, including Monocular Depth Estimation and Shape Frequency Analysis studies. His work has been recognized with the Premier’s Research Excellence Award and Young Investigator Award from the Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society.

• York Research Chair
• CFI Exceptional Opportunities Grant recipient
• ORF Research Excellence Grant recipient

Professor Elder supervises graduate students including Maria Koshkina, Kumar Vaibhav Jha, and Nizwa Javed. His lab collaborates with institutions like Justus Liebig University Giessen and the Vector Institute for AI, with applications in hockey analytics and autonomous systems.