7月9日学术报告会：Speaker: Prof. Bryan Scotney

Abstract. We examine computational approximation and its transition from a tool for scientific and industrial research and development to a methodology that supports increasingly many applications that require the processing of data for which the sampling is sparse and irregular. In particular, within the field of digital image processing, we consider some ways in which computational algorithms for feature extraction can be extended to handle sparse and irregular image data. We also show how these techniques may be specialised to specific sampling regimes or may be used to enhance performance for some well known image processing tasks. Some illustrative applications arising from research projects at the University of Ulster’s Computer Science Research Institute are discussed.

Speaker Bio: Bryan Scotney is currently Professor of Informatics at the University of Ulster and Director of the University’s Computer Science Research Institute. He joined the University of Ulster in 1984 as a Lecturer in Mathematics after completing a BSc in Mathematics at the University of Durham, UK, and a PhD in Mathematics at the University of Reading, UK. His research interests are in mathematical computation, especially digital image processing and computer vision, pattern recognition and classification, statistical databases, reasoning under uncertainty, and applications to healthcare informatics, official statistics, biomedical and vision sciences, and telecommunications network management. He has published widely in these areas, with over 160 publications in total. He has collaborated with academic, government and commercial partners in a sequence of projects to develop techniques and prototypes for solving the problems of integration of heterogeneous data from distributed sources, particularly where the information available is imprecise and / or uncertain. Much of this work has been supported by funding from four European Union Framework projects to address issues of harmonisation of Official Statistics. Most recently, he is Co-Investigator on the EPSRC NETWORK in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services - Enablers for the Digital Economy (EP/F030118/1), the EPSRC–DST funded India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC) of Excellence in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services (EP/G051674/1), and an ESRC funded project on Design for Ageing Well (RES-353-25-0004). He is currently President of the Irish Pattern Recognition and Classification Society, and a Member of Council of the International Federation of Classification Societies.