Biography

Joyce Farrell is a senior research associate in the Stanford School of Engineering and the Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Image Systems Engineering (SCIEN). Her research focuses on simulation, design and evaluation of imaging systems with applications in consumer photography, autonomous driving and medical imaging.  As Executive Director of SCIEN, Joyce is responsible for developing and supporting research relationships between Stanford and industry partners in the area of imaging systems.

Joyce graduated from the University of California at San Diego in 1976 with a B.S. in Experimental Psychology. In 1980 she was an ITT/IEEE Fellow at Copenhagen University in Copenhagen, Denmark. And in 1981, she earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in psychology, specializing in visual perception and psychophysics. From 1981 to 1983, she was a postdoctoral fellow, first at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and then at New York University in New York City.

From 1983 to 1985, Joyce was a research associate in the Stanford Psychology Department where she conducted research on the visual perception of motion. During this time, Joyce was also a research consultant at the XEROX Palo Alto Research Center where she developed models for human computer interaction, including window-usage and Unix expertise.

In 1985, Joyce joined the Hewlett Packard Company where she was responsible for research on visual human factors. During this time, she invented a method for predicting the visibility of display flicker that was incorporated into the display standards of the International Standards Organization (ISO). In 1987, Joyce joined the Hewlett Packard Research Laboratories where she developed psychophysical methods and computational metrics for image quality evaluation and algorithms for estimating spectral reflectance of surfaces from digitally scanned images. In 1995, Joyce was promoted to manage the research and development of image quality evaluation tools within HP. She also initiated a collaborative research project between HP and the National Gallery in London that still remains active today.

In 2000, Joyce joined Shutterfly, a startup company specializing in online digital photo-finishing, where she was part of the engineering team that developed the Shutterfly image processing and printing pipeline referred to as VividPics.   In 2001, Joyce formed ImagEval Consulting, LLC, a consulting company specializing in the development of image systems simulation software for the evaluation of image quality.

In 2023, Joyce was awarded the honor of Fellow of the Society of Imaging Science and Technology.