George N.
"Surrey’s Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) is the number one department in the UK for Computer Vision. There was no doubt in my mind that amazing research is done here at the university and that's something I wanted to be a part of."
Research project
Individuals with visual impairments regularly navigate intricate environments for daily tasks like commuting to work. Traditional aids like white canes and guide dogs, while available, may not always meet individual needs or be easily accessible. My research centres on advancing assistive technology through the development of egocentric video navigation and guidance. This innovative approach aims to create an agent-based “sighted guide” capable of safely guiding visually impaired users through dynamic settings, including crowded environments.
Choosing us
I chose Surrey because it’s well-known for its cutting-edge research particularly in Computer Vision. The campus is also a lovely place to work and has lots of amazing facilities.
My impression of Surrey is that it has a vibrant campus atmosphere and is seriously committed to academic excellence. The diverse community and state of the art modules resonated with me, making it an exciting place to pursue my academic aspirations.
Your studies
I completed my undergraduate degree in Cybernetics with a year in industry and after gaining industry experience, I pursued a Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Robotics MSc at Surrey before starting on my PhD.
I love AI and one of my greatest passions has always been to help people which is how I got into the assistive field. For me, I believed that by doing a PhD, I could not only add something new to the field but also, hopefully, make a difference that could positively impact people's lives.
I'm driven by the potential to contribute meaningfully to advancements that can positively influence society and make a lasting difference. I think computer vision and robotics has the real potential to do that as we are seeing more and more of AI being adopted into our lives.
Support
My supervisor has been supportive and has guided me through my PhD, I can always rely on his guidance in my weekly meetings.
I have had 1:1 conversations with the postgraduate research careers team which helped me align what I need to do now for my future career. I’ve taken lots of training courses provided by the doctoral college as well. I also had the opportunity to be a research assistant on another project here and support the Robotics module, demonstrating in the labs.
Most rewarding moment
My best moment so far would have to be doing the internal doctoral college conference where I got to present my work and introduce people in the university to the Boston Dynamics Dog Spot, as well as getting to meet lots of postgraduate research students.
George taking Spot out for a walk around Stag Hill campus.
Looking forward
My goal is to continue research in the Assistive AI domain, and I would love to see it taken further into the market for people to be able to use.
