Researcher (Assistant Professor) in Computer Vision at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). Stuart's research focus is on Visual Reasoning to understand the layout of visual content from Iconography (e.g. Sketches) to 3D Scene understanding and their implications of methods of interaction. He is involved in the coordination and implementation of the MEMEX EU H2020 project for increasing social inclusion with Cultural Heritage. Stuart has previously held PostDoc positions at IIT, University College London (UCL) and the University of Surrey. Also at the University of Surrey Stuart was awarded his PhD. Stuart continues to hold an honorary position at UCL and UCL Digital Humanities and collaborates with researchers across universities and institutes, reviewing and organising workshops.

Stuart James

PhD Call: Theme F - "Visual Reasoning with Knowledge and Graph Neural Networks for scene understanding"

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About

Researcher (Assistant Professor) in Computer Vision and Machine Learning (2019). Stuart’s research focus is on Visual Reasoning to understand the layout of visual content from Iconography (e.g. Sketches) to 3D Scene understanding and their implications of methods of interaction.

Prior to Stuart’s current appointment, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher position also at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) working on 3D scene understanding with Dr Alessio Del Bue (2017). Before which Stuart worked at University College London (UCL) as a Research Associate working with Prof. Tim Weyrich (2015) working on 3D reconstruction of large relief art. While at the University of Surrey he worked as a Research Fellow working on Charting the Digital Lifespan (2013) – a big social data classification task through the fusion of social image and comments while exploring the social implications.

Stuart’s PhD completed in 2015, also at the University of Surrey, explored how Visual Narratives (Free-Hand sketched storyboards) can be used for Video Retrieval and Synthesis. Contributions involved approaches for Sketch-based Video retrieval and Dance Choreography Synthesis. He also holds a BSc in Computer Science with Games development from the University of Hull.

During 2013 he visited INESC-ID (IST), Portugal for an internship. The research project looked at expanding prior work and integrating the user into the process of choreographic video synthesis. This work focused on Human Computer Interaction developed and interactive process.

During his PhD and Post-doc positions at University of Surrey and UCL, Stuart has enthusiastically engaged with students through teaching opportunities. By working as a lab assistant or marking student work. He has assisted in Computer Vision, Robotics, Research Methods and Programming (C, C++) modules.

Stuart is a member of several professional bodies including ACM, IEEE, BCS; additionally part of specialist groups in research related fields. Stuart regularly peer reviewers for: CVPR, ECCV, AAAI, BMVC, ICIAP, ACH, EADH, GCH conferences and workshops. As well as Computers & Graphics and IEEE Transaction on MultiMedia, RA-L, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities journals.

Additionally, Stuart has worked at JCS Technology for over ten years as IT Manager. Organising the lab infrastructure and services while making informed purchasing decisions. This experience has broadened Stuart’s interaction with industrial technologies and given an understanding which in turn has been used to guide research infrastructure.

PhD Students

  • Supervisor of Mohamed Dahy Abdelaher Elkhouly

    Visual scene understanding through geometry

    with Dr Alessio Del Bue (IIT)

  • Collaborative supervisor of Daniele Giunchi

    How we can sketch in Virtual Environments

    with Prof. Anthony Steed (UCL)

Looking to do a PhD?

We are always looking for good PhD candidates, so if you are interested in doing a PhD in Visual Reasoning please contact me to discuss the options. We have yearly calls in the Italian education system and other options depending on the type of PhD. Areas of research include:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Vision
  • Information Retrieval
  • Digital Humanities
  • Cultural Heritage

Latest call in collaboration with University of Genova under cycle XXXVI (2020)

Contact Information

Latest Blog Post

18 May 2020 . research . New PhD Position Available in Visual Reasoning! Comments

Image from Unsplash (Suad Kamardeen)

Exciting news, for me and possibly for you! This post marks my first PhD call where I will be leading the research direction of the successful candidate in collaboration with Alessio Del Bue (IIT) and Sebastiano Vascon (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). So, we are looking for someone with interest in pursuing a PhD in Visual Reasoning to join the Pattern Analysis and Computer Vision Department of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). The University of Genova are the awarding body of this PhD, so please be careful of the details which can be found on...

Previous posts

newsfeed

  • August 2020

    Organising VISART V: Vision for Art

  • December 2019

    Coordinating and Implementing MEMEX EU Project

  • December 2019

    Rejoined Visual Geometry and Modelling Lab of IIT

  • January 2019

    Researcher (Assist. Prof) in Cultural Heritage in IIT

  • April 2017

    Moved to Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)

  • April 2017

    Became Honorary Research Associate at UCL

  • October 2016

    Joined UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

  • April 2016

    Invited to Rank Prize Symposium on Computer Vision and Video Effects

  • April 2016

    Graduated as Doctor of Philosophy

  • October 2015

    Research Associate at UCL with Prof. Tim Weyrich

  • September 2015

    Defended PhD Thesis

Latest Publication

2020 Machine Learning for Cultural Heritage: A Survey

The application of Machine Learning (ML) to Cultural Heritage (CH) has evolved since basic statistical approaches such as Linear Regression to complex Deep Learning models. The question remains how much of this actively improves on the underlying algorithm versus using it within a ‘black box’ setting. We survey across ML and CH literature to identify the theoretical changes which contribute to the algorithm and in turn them suitable for CH applications. Alternatively, and most commonly, when there are no changes, we review the CH applications, features and pre/post-processing which make the algorithm suitable for its use. We analyse the dominant divides within ML, Supervised, Semi-supervised and Unsupervised, and reflect on a variety of algorithms that have been extensively used. From such an analysis, we give a critical look at the use of ML in CH and consider why CH has only limited adoption of ML.

Accepted at Pattern Recognition Letters (PR-L) in Elsevier.

@article{FiorucciPRL20ml4ch, title = "Machine Learning for Cultural Heritage: A Survey",
journal = "Pattern Recognition Letters",
volume = "133",
pages = "102 - 108",
year = "2020",
issn = "0167-8655",
doi = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patrec.2020.02.017",
url = "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167865520300532",
author = "Marco Fiorucci and Marina Khoroshiltseva and Massimiliano Pontil and Arianna Traviglia and Alessio [Del Bue] and Stuart James",
keywords = "Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cultural Heritage, Digital Humanities",
abstract = "The application of Machine Learning (ML) to Cultural Heritage (CH) has evolved since basic statistical approaches such as Linear Regression to complex Deep Learning models. The question remains how much of this actively improves on the underlying algorithm versus using it within a ‘black box’ setting. We survey across ML and CH literature to identify the theoretical changes which contribute to the algorithm and in turn them suitable for CH applications. Alternatively, and most commonly, when there are no changes, we review the CH applications, features and pre/post-processing which make the algorithm suitable for its use. We analyse the dominant divides within ML, Supervised, Semi-supervised and Unsupervised, and reflect on a variety of algorithms that have been extensively used. From such an analysis, we give a critical look at the use of ML in CH and consider why CH has only limited adoption of ML."}

See full publication index

Contact

To find out more about our research you can find me at...

Visual Geometry and Modelling Lab

Center for Human Technologies - Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Via Enrico Melen, 83, 16152 Genova GE