Christopher K. I. Williams Explained

Christopher K. I. Williams
Nationality:British
Fields:Machine learning, Computer vision
Workplaces:
    Alma Mater:
      Thesis Title:Combining deformable models and neural networks for handprinted digit recognition
      Thesis Year:1994
      Doctoral Advisor:Geoffrey Hinton
      Known For:Gaussian processes
      Awards:FRSE (2021)

      Christopher Kenneth Ingle Williams (born 1960) is a professor at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, working in Artificial intelligence, and particularly the areas of Machine learning and Computer vision.

      Education

      Williams received a BA in Physics and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge in 1982, followed by Part III Mathematics (1983). He did a MSc in Water Resources at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, then worked in Lesotho on low-cost sanitation. In 1988, he studied at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Toronto under the supervision of Geoffrey Hinton. He obtained his MSc and PhD both in computer science, in 1990 and 1994, respectively.[1]

      Career and research

      In 1994, Williams moved to Aston University as a Research Fellow. He became a Lecturer in August 1995. He moved to the University of Edinburgh in July 1998 and became Reader in 2000. He obtained a Personal Chair in Machine Learning in 2005 in the School of Informatics.

      Williams has been a Fellow of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) since 2019.[2]

      Williams' research interests are in machine learning and computer vision. He has worked on new models for understanding time-series and images, and for finding structure in data. He is best known for his work on Gaussian processes and for the book Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning, co-authored with Carl Rasmussen.[3] The book received the 2009 DeGroot Prize of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.[4]

      Williams was an organizer of the PASCAL Visual Object Classes (VOC) project (2005–2012) along with Mark Everingham, Luc van Gool, John Winn, and Andrew Zisserman.[5] [6] [7]

      Awards and honours

      In 2021 Williams was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).[8]

      References

      1. Web site: Christopher Williams . 2024-01-05 . University of Edinburgh Research Explorer . en.
      2. Web site: Williams . Chris . Fellows . 2023-12-22 . European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems . en.
      3. Book: Rasmussen . Carl Edward . Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning . Williams . Christopher K. I. . 2005-11-23 . The MIT Press . 978-0-262-25683-4 . en . 10.7551/mitpress/3206.001.0001.
      4. Web site: DeGroot Prize International Society for Bayesian Analysis . 2023-12-22 . en-US.
      5. Web site: The PASCAL Visual Object Classes Homepage . 2023-12-22 . host.robots.ox.ac.uk.
      6. Everingham . Mark . Van Gool . Luc . Williams . Christopher K. I. . Winn . John . Zisserman . Andrew . 2010-06-01 . The Pascal Visual Object Classes (VOC) Challenge . International Journal of Computer Vision . en . 88 . 2 . 303–338 . 10.1007/s11263-009-0275-4 . 1573-1405. 20.500.11820/88a29de3-6220-442b-ab2d-284210cf72d6 . free .
      7. Everingham . Mark . Eslami . S. M. Ali . Van Gool . Luc . Williams . Christopher K. I. . Winn . John . Zisserman . Andrew . 2015-01-01 . The Pascal Visual Object Classes Challenge: A Retrospective . International Journal of Computer Vision . en . 111 . 1 . 98–136 . 10.1007/s11263-014-0733-5 . 207252270 . 1573-1405. 20.500.11820/bb32678e-cd9b-4bc2-96dd-558806cda288 . free .
      8. Web site: Professor Christopher Williams . 2023-12-22 . Royal Society of Edinburgh .