I have completed both my BSc Mathematics and Statistics and MSc Data Science with Statistics at Newcastle University before joining the CDT.
The CDT appeals to me because of its cohort aspect in a collaborative setting, the interdisciplinary projects, and also the opportunities to work with institutes outside the University. I am hoping to establish long-term professional networks with the CDT and the research community during my PhD.
Outside of studying, I enjoy playing piano and badminton, also workout in the gym.
PhD title
Automatic recognition of primate natural behaviours using deep learning
Nonhuman primates are crucial models in toxicology and the study of human cognition, neurobiology and neuropathology. Measurement of their behaviour is crucial in a variety of fields, including animal welfare and neuroscience.
Video recording is commonly used to quantify complex behaviours in an accurate and reproducible manner, but manually analysing those recordings are time-consuming and difficult to standardise. There are various algorithms of pose estimation that have been developed to discriminate simple behaviours (e.g. sitting and walking), but a tool able to automatically interpret the kinematic information into complex, ethologically relevant behaviours is missing.
My goal for this project is to use deep learning models to develop and validate a new computational tool that not only identifies and tracks individual primates housed in a complex physical and social environment, but also recognises and quantifies a comprehensive list of natural behaviours that the animals spontaneously display.
