Tom's specialism is developing navigation techniques for mobile robots using computer vision.

'I develop systems that allow a robot, with a single digital camera attached, to position itself as it moves through the world. My system infers the robot's motion as its view changes, recognises previously-visited locations, and recognises objects and uses their known size to improve the robot's motion estimate.'

Originally from England, Tom was attracted to Canterbury for its outdoor activities and to UC in particular because of the work being undertaken by the Geospatial Research Centre. He worked at the Centre while completing his PhD in Computer Science.

Tom has recently been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship based at UC, which sees him working on the Vision-based Automated Pruning Project, developing the computer vision software for a grape vine pruning robot.

As he builds his career in robotics and computer vision, Tom says he feels well prepared by his studies at UC.

'I chose areas to specialise in that I believe have huge potential for growth. In addition, I gained technical, writing and networking skills, while also acquiring knowledge that I could never get from a regular job. Software from my PhD research is already being used by other researchers and in several commercial products.'