Behind EagleOneAI.

Two decades of biometrics research at Carnegie Mellon.

Dr. Marios Savvides is the Bossa Nova Robotics Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Carnegie Mellon University and the Founder and Director of the CMU Biometrics Center, with a tenured appointment in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

He has authored or co-authored more than 250 journal and conference publications, including 22 book chapters, and served as area editor of Springer's Encyclopedia of Biometrics. His research has produced over 100 invention disclosures, leading to more than 80 patent applications.

Notable contributions include the world's first 40-foot stand-off distance iris recognition system and robust face detection and recognition under extreme occlusions and masks — work that earned him an award for "Outstanding Contributor in AI" from the U.S. Secretary of the Army in 2020. His latest research focuses on large foundation models for zero-shot enrollment in robust object recognition.

His work has been presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos and featured in more than 100 news outlets, including CNN, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, and a CBS 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl.

Awards & honors.

• 2025 Fellow, National Academy of Inventors (NAI) December 2025
• 2022 Inventor of the Year Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association (PIPLA)
• 2020 Outstanding Contributor to AI U.S. Secretary of the Army
• 2020 Gold Award, Edison Awards — Retail Innovations Autonomous Data Capture & Analysis of On-Shelf Inventory
• 2020 AI Excellence Award — Theory of Mind Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards
• 2020 Stevens J. Fenves Award for Systems Research Carnegie Mellon University
• 2018 Global Pittsburgh Immigrant Entrepreneur Award Technological Innovation
• 2015 Gold Award, Edison Awards — Applied Technologies Biometrics
• 2009 Outstanding Research Award CMU Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT)