Bio. : Toby Breckon
Bio in < 200 words - [TXT]
Toby Breckon is a Senior Lecturer (UK Assistant Professor) in the Applied Mathematics and Computing Group of the School of Engineering at Cranfield University. He is primarily responsible for delivery of elements of the Digital Signal and Image Processing option of the MSc in Computational and Software Techniques in Engineering in addition to ongoing research interests in computer vision, image processing, visualisation and robotic sensing.
In addition he is a visiting member of faculty at, ESTIA (Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées), based in Bidart (Bayonne, Nr. Biarritz), South-West France where he is responsible for image processing in the joint ESTIA-Cranfield MSc programme. He has also held positions as visiting assistant professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University (Xi'an, China), Waseda University (Kitakyushu, Japan) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Shanghai, China).
Before joining Cranfield in 2006, he held a lecturing post at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Prior to this he worked as a mobile robotics engineer with the UK MoD (DERA) and QinetiQ as well a previously working for the schools inspectorate Ofsted, the Scottish Language Dictionaries organisation and dot-com software house Orbital Software.
He holds a PhD in Informatics (Computer Vision) from the University of Edinburgh where he investigated automated 3D visual completion, as an aspect of 3D computer vision, in the School of Informatics. Before his PhD he studied Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science as an undergraduate (B.Sc. (Hons.)).
His key research interests, in the domain of applied computer vision & robotics, are as follows: 3D sensing and reasoning, automotive vision, vision in built environments, sensor fusion, visual surveillance and sensing for autonomous robotics. He has a range of publications and leads several funded research projects in these areas.
In 2008 he led the development of image-based automatic threat detection for the the Stellar Team's SATURN multi-platform robot system in the MoD Grand Challenge. The team went on to win the challenge and were awarded the R.J. Mitchell Trophy for innovation by the UK MoD (2008) and later the Finmeccanica Group Innovation Award (2009). The ongoing achievements of this innovative work were also recognised by an IET Award for Innovation (Team Category, 2009)
His research work is recognised by the Royal Photographic Society Selwyn Award (2011) for a significant early career contribution to imaging science.
He is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist, a member of the IET (IEE), the British Science Association and a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS). In addition, within robotics and vision, he holds membership of the BARA (British Automation and Robot Association), the BMVA (British Machine Vision Association), the Applied Vision Association (AVA), as an associate research member of the UK IVA (Industrial Vision Association) and is a member of the EU Cognition network for researchers in artificial cognitive systems. He is an Accredited Imaging Scientist (AIS) and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society (Imaging Science Group) (ARPS). Additionally he is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
In 2008 he was appointed as a business fellow of the London Technology Network in recognition of his ongoing contribution to academic-industrial partnership technology projects. From 2010 he has been a member of the executive committee of the BMVA (British Machine Vision Association).
In addition to teaching and research activities he is an elected member of the Cranfield University court and the university senate. Outside of the university he acts as a STEMNET Science & Engineering Ambassador within Bedfordshire .
Post-nominals :
BSc (Hons.)
PhD
CEng
CSci
PGCHE
AIS
ARPS
MIET
FBCS
FHEA
Peer Review / Programme Committee:
New Scientist,
J. of Computers & Industrial Engineering,
IEEE CVPR, IEEE ICPR,
J. Pattern Recognition,
Pattern Recognition Letters,
J. Optics & Laser Technology,
IEEE Trans. Aerospace and Electronic Systems,
IEEE Trans. Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence,
IEEE Trans. Visualization and Computer Graphics,
IEEE Trans. on Instrumentation and Measurement,
IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Transportation Systems,
EPSRC, ESRC, BBSRC, STFC,
IET J. Computer Vision,
J. of Machine Vision & Applications,
J. of Computer Aided Geometric Design,
Int. Conference on Computer Vision,
Int. Journal of Computer Vision,
Int. Conf. on Imaging for Crime Detection and Prevention.
Advisory / Review Panels: EPSRC Peer Review College (2010 onwards),
STFC IPS Assessment Panel (2011-2014).
International Standardisation - Common Interface Protocol (CIP) (UK MoD Draft Def. Stan.).