People

MelvynProf. Melvyn L. Smith PhD, MSc, BEng, CEng, MIEE

Professor of Machine Vision

Tel: +44(0)117 32 86358
E-mail melvyn.smith@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Melvyn L. Smith is Professor of Machine Vision and Director of the Machine Vision Laboratory (MVL) at UWE. He received his B.Eng. (Hons) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath in 1987, M.Sc. in Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing Systems from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1988 and Ph.D. from the UWE in 1997. He acts as associate editor for four leading international journals, including Computers in Industry, for which he is currently guest editing a special issue on 3D imaging. He has published a book on computer vision for surface inspection together with numerous book chapters, patents and journal / conference papers in connection with his work. He has been a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College since 2003 and is currently a programme and evaluator / review / monitoring expert for the EU Framework 7 Programme. Professor Smith is a Chartered Engineer and an active member of the IET.

LyndonDr. Lyndon N. Smith PhD, MSc, BSc(Hons)

Reader in Computer Simulation and Machine Vision

Tel: +44(0)117 32 82009
E-mail: lyndon.smith@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Lyndon Smith is Reader in Computer Simulation and Machine Vision and Co-director of the Centre for Intelligent Manufacturing and Machine Vision Systems (CIMMS) at UWE. Following a BSc(Hons) in Physics in 1986, he went on to obtain an MSc in Automation in 1988 and a PhD in computer simulation of a manufacturing process in 1997. In 1998 and 1999 Dr. Smith was Director of Computer Simulation at a research laboratory at The Pennsylvania State University in the USA . His research activities have resulted in the publication of over eighty technical papers and a book, as well as frequent refereeing of journal papers and the chairing of international research conferences in the USA and Europe . A major and on-going area of interest is research into novel vision based devices for skin analysis for providing indicators of the presence of melanoma. This has involved collaboration with a consultant plastic surgeon and has resulted in a successful DPhil and two on-going PhD supervisions. He has also authored successful grant applications from numerous organisations, including the EPSRC and the European Commission; and is on the editorial board of a number of international journals.

SagarDr. P. Sagar Midha PhD, BSc Eng(Mech), CEng, MIEE

Senior Research Fellow

Tel: +44(0)117 32 82629
E-mail: sagar2.midha@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Sagar Midha is currently working in a part time role as senior research fellow. Prior to this he was a reader and research leader in the Faculty Computing Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (now part of the Faculty of Environment and Technology) and a Principal Engineer at PERA International at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. He received his BSc Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Punjab University in India and his PhD from Loughborough University in 1975. He has edited two books and published numerous journal and conference papers. Sagar developed several successful research proposals for funding and was a coordinator for two EU funded research projects. His pioneering work for collaborative links for postgraduate courses with India led to the development of Faculty's present international collaborative programmes.

AbdulDr. Abdul R. Farooq PhD, MSc(Dist), BSc(Hons), CEng MIET

Research Fellow

Tel: +44(0)117 32 83879
E-mail: abdul2.farooq@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Abdul Farooq is a research fellow and a visiting lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at the UWE, Bristol. His research is focused on developing new vision based techniques for the inspection of complex surfaces in real time and in the research, design and manufacture of medical imaging devices. He graduated from Cardiff University in 1990 with a first degree in Electronics and subsequently successfully completed an MSc in Systems Engineering (Robotics and Automation) in 1992. He then worked for a number of years as a Systems Engineer at a leading edge high-volume board manufacturing plant. His role involved elements of R & D, troubleshooting and PLC programming. Following this, Abdul was drawn back to academia and completed (with distinction) a further Masters degree followed by a successful PhD involving machine vision. Abdul has been and involved with a number of successful projects within the group and is currently leading a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. Other projects in which Abdul is currently involved include Application of Photometric Stereo in Dermatology. Abdul is an honoury research fellow with the North Bristol NHS Trust, a member of the IET and a Chartered Engineer.

JiuaiDr. Jiuai Sun

Research Fellow

Tel: +44 (0)117 32 82069
E-mail: Jiuai2.Sun@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Jiuai Sun joined the Machine Vision Laboratory in 2003, where he commenced work on a DPhil degree which he completed in 2007. His work was based on the fundamental methodology of photometric stereo and its application to skin surface inspection. Jiuai Sun also holds a PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, China. His interests are broad and include electronics, optics and computing techniques applicable to healthcare and industry. Currently, his work mainly concerns genuine recovery methods on skin conditions for purposes ranging from dermatology to cosmetics.

GaryDr. Gary A. Atkinson PhD, MSci, MInstP

Research Fellow

Tel: +44(0)117 32 86361
E-mail Gary.Atkinson@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Gary Atkinson completed an MSci degree in physics at the University of Nottingham in 2003. Upon graduation, he moved to the University of York to study for a PhD degree in the Department of Computer Science, under the supervision of Edwin Hancock. His research was concerned with improving shape recovery algorithms and reflectance function estimation for computer vision. Most of his work involved the exploitation of the polarising properties of reflection from surfaces.

In 2007, Gary moved to the UWE Machine Vision Laboratory to work on face reconstruction and recognition research in collaboration with Imperial College London. Gary also has ties with the University of Bath, the University of York, the University of Central Lancashire and several industrial partners. He supervised Mark Hansen's PhD in face recognition to completion in March 2012. In addition to his computer vision research, for which he has published eight major peer-reviewed international journal papers, Gary has worked in the medical field to develop a new means of assessing head deformations in babies affected by plagiocephaly.

In 2010, Gary acted as the editor and UK and Europe co-convener for the International Conference and Exhibition on Biometrics Technology in Coimbatore, India. Gary teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Computer Vision and Engineering.

Dr. Khemraj EmrithKhem

Research Associate

E-mail: Khemraj.Emrith@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Khem joined the Machine Vision Lab in April 2010 to work on the design and development of 4D Vision technologies. He is also carrying out research on Scene Analysis. Prior to this, Khem worked as a Research Associate at the Heriot-Watt University where he worked on texture perception and surface texture representation, analysis and retrieval methods.  He has a cross-disciplinary PhD degree (2008) from Heriot-Watt University obtained for his work on researching and applying dimensionality reduction techniques to map high-dimensional feature spaces to low dimensional perceptual texture spaces for the purpose of robust surface texture retrieval. Khem also obtained an MRes (MSc) in 2001 from Sherbrooke University, QC, Canada, with focus on Relevance Feedback techniques for image retrieval. He completed a B.Eng (Hons) in Computer Science and Engineering from University of Mauritius in 1998. In between he also worked as a Lecturer at Sherbrooke University and University of Mauritius.

PilarDr Pilar Sepulveda, PhD MBA BEng

Senior Research Development Manager

E-mail: pilar.sepulveda@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Pilar Sepulveda has been a Senior Research Development Manager at the MVL since January 2010, where she has been working to boost the MVL's successful collaborative research portfolio, especially in medical applications.

Pilar received an MBA from the Warwick Business School in 2010, a PhD from the University of Nottingham in 1996 and a BEng in Materials from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Paulo state, Brazil in 1992. Pilar brings a wide knowledge of the UK public funding environment gained through eight years of work at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and strong project management experience including accreditation in OGC Management of Risk (MoR®) and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®).

Prior to this, Pilar carried out a successful portfolio of research in porous ceramics and biomaterials for bone and tissue engineering at Imperial College London, Institute of Nuclear and Energy Research/University of São Paulo (IPEN) and Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). Pilar's research led to numerous journal and conference publications, book chapters, invited talks and a patent on foamed sol-gel glass.

Dr. Mark F. Hansen PhD, MSc, BSc(Hons)Mark

Research Associate

E-mail: Mark.Hansen@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Mark obtained his BSc Psychology (1997) and MSc Computer Science (1999) from the University of Bristol and worked as a software developer for just under a decade. Using a photometric stereo technique developed as part of the PhotoFace project at UWE, he gained his PhD in 2012 by bridging the gap between psychology and machine vision to develop novel face recognition algorithms inspired by human processes such as caricaturing.

Highlights of his research include demonstrating that the overall geometry of reconstruction of faces can be improved by replacing the flashguns on the Photoface device with near infrared LEDs and showing that large amounts of common data in faces can be discarded with only a small impact on recognition accuracy. Accuracies of over 95% at a False Acceptance Rate of 1 in 1,000 were achieved using only 10x10 pixel surface normal representations.

He is currently a Research Associate on the Photoskin project which aims to improve 3D face reconstruction by using per capture reflectance data. It is envisaged that this will improve recognition rates as well as having the potential to be an additional, novel biometric. It also has obvious applications for the computer graphics and gaming industries.


Shahzad AnwarShahzad

Research Student

E-mail: shahzad.anwar@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Shahzad joined the MVL in October 2009 as a researcher. His project is an investigation of 3D texture analysis for visual texture pattern analysis and to research into innovative machine vision techniques for capturing and analyzing three-dimensional (3D) skin surface texture, in order to provide an additional indicator of the presence of skin cancer. The project started with colour (albedo) texture and plans to extend to 3D data. New photometric stereo methods will be used for capturing the 3D surface data and advanced artificial neural network techniques will be employed for pattern recognition and modelling. He has worked in image processing specifically on texture analysis for segmentation and classification. This research was to investigate a different filter and wavelet packet based feature extraction technique, both in the compressed and the uncompress domain. Shahzad's interests are in image and signal processing and renewable energy.

 

Laurence BroadbentLaurence

Research Student

E-mail: Laurence.Broadbent@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Laurence completed a BEng in Robotics and Automated Systems in 2007 and went on to undertake a KTP with Composite Integration where he was to run a project developing a machine for the processing of advanced composite materials. During this period Laurence was responsible for the development of the mechanical, electrical and computational control systems of a Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) injection machine. Early in 2010 Laurence decided to return to academia and has since been studying for a PhD focussing on the real-time capture and analysis of deformable 3D geometric surfaces.

Zhao LiuLiu

Research Student

E-mail: Zhao.Liu@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Liu completed a B.Eng in Measuring Control Technology and Instrumentation at Tianjin University, China in 2006. Upon graduation, she had the opportunity to work as an assistant engineer at the China National Academy of Nanotechnology for a year, where she worked on the driving circuits of red lasers and DFB lasers. In 2007, she started her M.Sc in Vision and Robotics under the European Erasmus Mundus program at Heriot-Watt University UK, Universitat de Girona Spain, and Université de Bourgogne France. Liu joined the MVL at UWE in 2009, and the focus her research is on computer-aided diagnosis of skin cancers.

Ali SohaibAli

Research Student

E-mail: Ali.Sohaib@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Ali graduated from Air University Islamabad with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering in 2006 and attended the University of Liverpool, UK where he received a Master of Science degree in Microelectronic Systems and Telecommunication in 2008. He also worked in collaboration with Proudman Oceanographic Lab during his Master’s project on real time visualisation of oceanographic data.

At UWE he is specialising in skin reflectance modelling and his research interests include computer vision, medical imaging and analysis, 3D surface imaging and real time vision systems.

Jahanzeb AhmadJahanzeb

Research Student

E-mail: jahanzeb.ahmad@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Jahanzeb completed his Bachelors of Science in 2005 in the field of Computer Engineering from COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Abbottabad Pakistan. Upon graduation, He had the opportunity to work as a research assistant at CIIT for a year, where he worked on fusion techniques for face recognition. He then moved to Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and completed his Masters in Communication Engineering in 2009. Before moving back to Pakistan, he worked in Sweden for six months, where he developed FPGA based JPEG graphic processing unit. In June 2009 he joined Iqra University (IU) in Karachi, Pakistan as a Lecturer. He left IU to join the Machine Vision Laboratory in September 2010. His current research interest is in fusion of 3D/2D technologies to improve the 3D modelling of human skin and internal organs.

Katy TarritKaty

Research Student

E-mail: katy.tarrit@uwe.ac.uk

Biography

Katy Tarrit successfully completed a Bachelor of Physical Chemistry in 2007. She then went on to gain a Double Diploma in 2010, completing two degrees in parallel. The first Diploma was an ESTIA Engineering degree with the following options: MPA (Control of the Automated Processes) and Intensification Mechatronics (the use of image processing to control a robot). The second degree was a Master of Science in Software Techniques for Computer Aided Engineering at Cranfield University (United Kingdom), specialising in Digital Signal and Image Processing.

Then industry beckoned and Katy took up an internship with Telerad. The project involved the design of an algorithm for the detection of simultaneous transmissions during a conversation between pilot and air traffic controller. After finishing her six months internship, Katy continued to work for the company for a further three months adding to her two other internships done thus accruing fourteen months of industrial experience.

In 2011 Katy was offered a PhD studentship at the Machine Vision Laboratory (University of the West of England, UK) which she duly accepted. Her area of research is concerned with 3D Scene Understanding for Visual Surveillance. The project is in collaboration with a well established security company.

Visiting Staff

Dr. Yijun XiaoYijun

Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associate, Aralia Systems

E-mail: yxiao@aralia.co.uk

 

Biography

Dr. Xiao joined the machine vision laboratory in July 2011 to work on a knowledge transfer project to extract demographic information from video and assess viewer behaviour of cinema audiences. The work is carried out jointly with Aralia Systems Ltd. Prior to this, he worked as a postdoc at the University of Glasgow, the University of Edinburgh and University College London. He obtained a PhD in Computing Science in 2006 from the University of Glasgow. His interests include computer vision, graphics, psychophysics, image processing, signal processing and machine learning.

Prof. John Henderson MD, ChB(Manc), FRCPJohn

Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, University of Bristol

E-mail: a.j.henderson@bristol.ac.uk

 

Biography

Prof. Henderson has been Professor and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the University of Bristol since March 1995. Prior to this he was a Consultant Paediatrician at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. He has had a distinctive, extensive and accomplished medical career and since 1981 has been a co-applicant on funding bids with a total value in excess of £21 million. He has an unusual combination of both a clinical and academic skill base and has achieved significant advances in various aspects of research and teaching in paediatric respiration. Professor Henderson is co-director of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which has studied 14,000 children and their parents. ALSPAC’s important findings are a premier resource in the field of child breathing and asthma. Professor Henderson has been a co-investigator on a number of collaborative MVL projects and funding bids.

Mr. Robert P. Warr BM MD FRCS FRCS(plas)Rob

Consultant Plastic Surgeon / Visiting Senior Research Fellow
 

E-mail: robert.warr@nbt.nhs.uk

Biography

Robert Warr is a consultant plastic surgeon at Frenchay Hospital Bristol. He also holds the position of honorary senior lecturer at the University of Bristol and visiting senior research fellow at UWE. His primary research interest is in the application of novel cutaneous imaging modalities in medicine. His MBBS was gained from Southampton University on 1989. One of his clinical interests is skin cancer and at Frenchay he runs an early diagnostic service for malignant melanoma. In 2001 he was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Bristol entitled “The Detection of Minimal Residual Disease in Malignant Melanoma Using Biological and Molecular Markers”.

Lynn WilliamsLynn

Research Nurse

Biography

Lynn has been a Registered nurse for 18 years and has worked both clinically and in research and audit. Her main experience is in the field of gastroenterology where she has been a specialist nurse, ward sister, research nurse and database nurse.

She currently works part time for the MVL on the PhotoDerm project recruiting, consenting and imaging participants via clinics at North Bristol NHS trust and keeps the data acquired up to date and securely maintained according to relevant regulations.

Lynn also works as a research nurse in the field of dementia with an honorary contract via the University of Bristol.

Page last updated 14 May 2012

Copyright 2012 © UWE better together