Dr Tom Heseltine
CEO
Dr Tom Heseltine
CEO
Tom has been with Aurora for over 15 years, becoming CEO in 2016 and guiding Aurora’s transition from a face-rec centric company to a successful AI specialist. With a deeply technical background, he mentors and tutors Aurora’s Core Technology team of PhDs, assisting on the most difficult challenges, training new staff and drawing on his network of academic contacts.
Tom introduced Deep Learning and AI to Aurora’s technology portfolio, establishing Aurora’s AI Framework and instigating a step-change in face recognition accuracy. Despite his role in company management, his ongoing interest in the field means he maintains a critical role with customer liaison, acting as the lead AI consultant to ensure the optimal application of the technology.
Key Qualifications
- PhD in Biometric Face Recognition, University of York, UK. 2001-2004.
- Thesis: “Face Recognition: 3D and 2D Techniques” BSc in Computer Science, 1st Class with Honours, University of York, UK. 1997-2001
Dr Nick Whitehead
Executive Head of Business Development
Dr Nick Whitehead
Executive Head of Business Development
Nick joined in May 2017, following more than 10 years’ engagement with Aurora Face Recognition whilst at W.S. Atkins, the integrator of the passenger processing system (PASS2) at Heathrow.
Since becoming part of the Aurora team, Nick has supported the continued efforts to diversify the product base, including helping to secure the single source supply of infrared face recognition to Heathrow for the largest biometrics roll out in the world.
Nick’s professional experience spans more than 30 years, predominantly on IT projects. His skills include development, project management, business management and consultation, and these have been deployed for clients both in private and public sectors.
Key Qualifications
- PhD in Semiconductor Physics, University of Guildford.
- BTech Hons First Degree in Applied Physics, University of Bradford.
- Member – Cranfield School of Management.
Dr Przemyslaw (Shamek) Szeptycki
Executive Head of Research & Development
Dr Przemyslaw (Shamek) Szeptycki
Executive Head of Research & Development
Shamek joined Aurora in 2012 and has been leading the AI research team since 2016. Shamek has over 14 years of experience in both Machine Learning and programming. His extensive software engineering skills and an in-depth understanding of the Deep Neural Network technology play a key role from the beginning of the conceptual design, right through to the deployment. As the Head of R&D, he oversees team efforts in the development of the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems used to solve complex, challenging tasks. His current focus is on the novel application of Reinforcement Learning, replicating the way that humans learn to automate decision processes.
Key Qualifications
- PhD in Face Recognition, University of Lyon, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France. 2007-2011. Thesis: “Processing and analysis of 2.5D face models for non-rigid mapping based face recognition using differential geometry tools”.
- MSc in Computer Science (programming techniques), Technical University of Szczecin, Poland. 2005 – 2007.
- Engineer Degree in Computer Science (programming techniques), Technical University of Szczecin, Poland. 2001 – 2005.
Richard McLaughlin
Executive Head of IT & Operations
Richard McLaughlin
Executive Head of IT & Operations
Richard joined Aurora in 2004 as a software support analyst and has held several positions, before being promoted to the Executive team in 2019.
He has over 20 years’ experience in service delivery, systems administration, networking and project management as well as 16 years working in the design and deployment of Facial Recognition solutions for multiple industry sectors. As Head of IT and Operations, Richard oversees our Internal IT Systems, Customer Support and Service delivery.
Key Qualifications:
BSc Hons (Leeds)
Ahmad Amer
AI Research and Software Engineer
Ahmad Amer
AI Research and Software Engineer
Ahmad began his AI journey during a placement involving Human Activity Recognition using ML algorithms. Eagerness to learn more about AI led him to publish “Human Locomotion Activity Recognition using Spectral Analysis and CNNs” in IJMR. He also participated in the FS-UK-AV competition working on a simulation environment for self-driving race cars. Extending his master’s research, he trained an uncertainty ML model, integrated with GANs for real-time adaptive learning, for AVs to detect road potholes.
Key Qualifications
- BEng (Card.), MSc (Sheff.), MIET
Dr Panagiota Antonakaki
Senior AI Research Engineer
Dr Panagiota Antonakaki
Senior AI Research Engineer
Giota obtained her PhD in Computer Vision from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has a passion for image analysis and computer vision, which she first explored working on video processing at NCR Demokritos. After a successful career in academia, she took this to the next level on joining Aurora, where she now relishes the challenge of finding new areas to apply her AI knowledge and experience.
Chris Butler
Senior Software Engineer
Jenny Edwards
Office Manager
Jenny Edwards
Office Manager
Jenny has a wealth of management experience gained in various industries and ensures the smooth running of day to day operations. Since joining Aurora-AI, she has particularly enjoyed getting involved with the various research projects by assisting with data capture and classification.
Dr Jan Girovsky
AI Research Engineer
Dr Jan Girovsky
AI Research Engineer
Jan has a PhD in experimental physics from University of Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining Aurora AI, he was studying quantum topological defects in 2D and 3D spaces. Jan’s passion for advanced algebra has dragged him towards research on Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning here at Aurora AI.
Andy Harmer
Senior Developer
Andy Harmer
Senior Developer
Andy has over 15 year’s experience in software design and development across products and services in both the public and private sector, with particular expertise in Microsoft .NET and Test Driven Development. He takes pride in developing robust, scalable and performant solutions.
Key Qualifications
- MCSA/MCTS: Web Applications
George Akerman
Junior Software Engineer
George Akerman
Junior Software Engineer
George has a BSc in Mathematics from University of York. His passion for programming began whilst working on a research team looking at Hamiltonian paths on Virus Capsids. At Aurora, he is turning his passion into a career.
Key Qualifications
- BSc Hons (York)
Gary James
Head of Sales & Marketing
Gary James
Head of Sales & Marketing
Gary began his career in Technical Support at The Home Office, when the CCTV cameras he worked with were the size of shoeboxes. He’s always been involved with new technology in the field of security and surveillance, including video transmission and early digital recording, specialising in face recognition over the last decade.
Dr Conny Ruiz
Senior AI Research Engineer
Dr Conny Ruiz
Senior AI Research Engineer
Conny holds a PhD in Face Recognition from the University of Surrey. She also graduated with an MRes in Computer Vision from UCL where she was the leading researcher on the 3D virtual dressing room project. Before joining Aurora, Conny worked with augmented reality systems deepening her knowledge in Computer Vision and 3D data understanding. Conny is one of our longest serving researchers and has successfully delivered AI systems for numerous challenging projects.
Dr Catriona Yeoh
Research Engineer
Dr Catriona Yeoh
Research Engineer
Catriona holds a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge, where she also studied for her undergraduate degree.
During her time at university she participated in research into solar cells and low temperature superconductors, but it was the data processing and analysis for her PhD thesis in Electron Tomography that brought her to the field of Machine Learning.
Xiaowan Yi
AI Data Scientist
Xiaowan Yi
AI Data Scientist
Xiaowan started her data science journey by modelling her favourite drummer’s solos as time series data and is drawn to the cross-disciplinary possibilities of deep learning. Before joining Aurora-AI, Xiaowan was collaborating with an experimental psychology lab investigating attentional mechanisms in CNNs. She looks forward to exploring more.
Key Qualifications
- BSc (Man.), MSc (UCL)