Professor Nigel Crook

BSc (Hons), PhD, PFHEA

Associate Dean: Research and Knowledge Exchange (ADRKE)

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Nigel Crook

Role

As ADRKE I lead and manage the implementation of the University Research and Knowledge Exchange strategy throughout the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment. I develop and implement research and knowledge exchange initiatives, policies and systems which are designed to increase research capacity, the percentage of research judged externally as ‘world leading’, the interactions of research and knowledge exchange activities, and the exploitation and dissemination of our research for the benefits for our communities.

 

Teaching and supervision

Supervision

  • Solomon, B. 2015 – 2020, A Framework for Modelling Social Media Collaborative Work MPhil Awarded 2020
  • Sturgess, P. 2014 – 2016, Holistic Street Scene Understanding as a Higher Order Labelling Problem with Associative Hierarchical Random FieldsPhD awarded 2016.
  • Singh, G. 2015 – present, Continuous human action detection and future action prediction.
  • Saha, S. 2014 – present, Online Multiple Human Action Detection from Videos Submitted Jan 2018
  • Lee, M. 2014 – present, 3D action recognition in a real-time online environment, transferred to University of Oxford
  • Lidegaard, M. 2013-2014, Computer Vision and Natural Language to Help the Partially Sighted, transferred to University of Oxford.
  • Barker, S. 2011-present (part-time), Design, build and experimentation with a humaniod head and neck robot. PhD awarded 2017.
  • Sheasby, G. 2009-2013, Beyond Controllers: Object Detection and Human Pose Estimation as Game Input Mechanisms, PhD awarded 2013
  • Rihan, J. 2006–2011, Computer Vision for Computer GamesPhD awarded 2011
  • Goh, W.J. 2003–2008, Some Computational properties of Chaotic Neural Networks,PhD awarded 2008.
  • Howarat, M., 2001–2007, Adaptive Chaotic Neural NetworksPhD awarded 2007.
  • Tator, S.,1998 - 2001, Supporting Adaptive Continuous Media over Packet Switched NetworksPhD awarded 2002.
  • olde Scheper, T. 1997–2000, Chaos and information in Dynamic Neural NetworksPhD awarded 2002.
  • Howes, P. 1995 - 1999, Automated Explanation Facilities for Neural NetworksPhD awarded 1999.
  • McQuoid, M.R.J.,1992-1995, A Neural Architecture for Emergent Serial BehaviourPhD awarded 1996.
  • Howes, P. 1990-1993, The Application of Expert Systems to Forecasting with Time Series DataMPhil awarded 1993.

Research

My research interests include Ethical Artificial Intelligence, autonomous moral machiens, biologically inspired machine learning, embodied conversational agents and social robotics. In my most recent research I have been exploring how it might be possible to equip robots with a degree of moral competence. This would enable robots to recognise the moral consequences of their actions and be able to predict what kinds of behaviours are acceptable in a given situation. I am also working on other aspects of ethical AI, including developing systems that can explain the decision of trained machine learning models and automatic personality typing. I am founder of the Ethical AI institute at Oxford Brookes University (formal launch summer 2019). My work on robotics has attracted some media attention, including 16 appearances on regional, national and international television channels.

Research group membership

  • Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence (Founding Director)
  • Cognitive Robotics Laboratory
  • Artificial Intelligence and Vision.

Research grants and awards

  • "Improving legal services productivity and accessibility with Artificial Intelligence" - Innovate UK - (PI:N. Crook , Partners - Moorcroft Ltd, awarded 2019)
  • WEKIT – "Wearable Experience for Knowledge Intensive Training" - EU H2020 – (PI: F. Wild – 13 Partners - transferred to OBU 2015).
  • TCBL – "Textile & Clothing Business Labs" - EU H2020: (PI: F. Wild – transferred to OBU 2015).
  • "Application of computer vision robotic welds" - Innovate UK (TSB) KTP (Lead Academic: N.T. Crook, Academic Supervisor: F. Cuzzolin, Partner: Meta Vision Systems. Awarded March 2015.

Centres and institutes

Groups

Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution

  • GenEthics (02/05/2023 - 13/10/2023), funded by: Technology Strategy Board (Innovate UK), funding amount received by Brookes: £54,993
  • Get strong to fight childhood cancer: an exercise intervention for children and adolescents undergoing anti-cancer treatment (FORTE-e) (led by UNIVERSITAETSMEDIZIN DER JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAET MAINZ) (led by HLS) (01/03/2021 - 31/08/2026), funded by: European Commission, funding amount received by Brookes: £19,472

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Member of IEEE
  • Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Consultancy

Areas of expertise

  • Ethical AI (Autonomous Moral Machines, Explainable AI), Social Robotics, Machine Learning.

Further details

Press, publicity and reviews

  • BBC Radio Oxford 26th February 2018 – Howard Bentham – 1st public road testing of CAV to be in Oxfordshire
  • BBC Radio Oxford 9th February 2018 – David Prever show – Comments on Autonomous moral vehicles
  • Premier Radio – 23rd January 2018 - Video interview for Unbelievable program – to be made public in May 2018
  • BBC South Today – 24th January 2017 – with Stephen Metcalfe MP (chair Commons Science & Tech com) visit
  • BBC Word News – 14th September 2015 – Cognitive robotics research
  • BBC World News, Global programme – 6th November 2014 – Realistic humanoid robots and computer graphics
  • BBC Radio Oxford – 24th June 2014 – Robot Sumo Competition
  • BBC Radio Oxford – 27th June 2014 – Robot Sumo Competition
  • BBC South Today – 27th June 2014 – Robot Sumo Competition
  • CNBC Squawk Box – 1st May 2014 – RoboThespian the Humanoid Robot
  • BBC South Today – 14th March 2014 – Artie at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
  • ITV Meridian News – 13th March 2014 - Artie the talking robot delights students at Oxford Brookes University
  • BBC Radio Oxford – 12th March 2014 – Artie the humanoid robot
  • BBC Breakfast – 10th March 2014 – RoboThespian joins BBC Breakfast
  • CBBC Newsround – 10th March 2014 – Newsround chats with robot expert

Further information

https://ethical-ai.ac.uk/