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Academic Background
I did my doctoral research in Oxford on NLP (Natural Language Processing) with a focus on the application of machine learning to endangered languages. From there I trained as a neuroscientist at University College London and in Oxford. I then made a strategic move into robotics, with the aim of creating working neural prosthetics. I am now a Principal Investigator at the Oxford Robotics Institute where I lead the Parker Jones Neural Processing Lab (PNPL). We develop large-scale machine learning methods for neural data, also as part of Information Engineering. I am pleased to be an honorary fellow in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. My research spans the fields of computer science and engineering, neuroscience, language and speech.
Undergraduate Teaching
I lecture on Unsupervised/Generative Deep Learning in the Department of Engineering science, and have supervised a number of undergraduate projects for the Department of Engineering Science in machine learning and robotics. I also accept occasional tutorials in machine learning, neuroscience, linguistics and phonetics. I was previously a stipendiary lecturer in neuroscience at St Peter’s College and also taught neuroscience to medical students at Oriel College.
Postgraduate Teaching
I currently supervise about half a dozen DPhil projects in PNPL, as well as occasional master’s projects in Engineering, Computer Science, and Neuroscience. I previously supported about a dozen DPhil projects in machine learning and robotics within the Department of Engineering Science, as part of the Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab and Oxford Robotics Institute.
Research Interests
My primary research interest is in the development of a neural speech prosthetic. This includes basic research on speech and language in the brain, including work on clinical populations. It also includes the innovation of powerful new deep learning methods for smaller data regimes (e.g. generative and hybrid models).
Hobbies
In my free time I write about Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages (e.g. Māori and Maritime Polynesian Pidgin). I enjoy surfing.
Other Information
My first name is Hawaiian and pronounced [ˌʔoː.ˈi.vi]. It sounds like naming each of the letters ‘O.E.V.’. My surname is Parker Jones (no hyphen).