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
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
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.
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.