Profile |
Biography
I am a Professor of Cognitive Robotics at the University of Sheffield and Director of Sheffield Robotics an inter-disciplinary research institute across both Universities in Sheffield. This is my departmental home-page. I also maintain profiles on ResearchGateand Linkedin, and a Youtube Channel with links to online interviews, talks and movies about our robots and research.
Qualifications
MA Psychology (Edinburgh), MSc Applied Artificial Intelligence (Aberdeen), PhD Machine Learning (Sheffield). CPsychol FBPsS.
2017 Highlights
2017 Invited talks
- The development of the self: a robotics perspective, University of Bangor, Department of Psychology, 8th December.
- Are Friends Electric?, Robot: Lates, Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, 25th October.
- Towards multimodal perception and social cognition for co-botics, IROS 2017 Human-In-The-Loop Workshop, Vancouver, Canada, 23rd September.
- Assistive and Companion Robot Technologies. AAATE Conference, Sheffield, 13th September.
- The Integration of Sensing, Attention and Memory in Robots, The 10th Barcelona Summer School on Cognition Brain and Technology, 6th September.
- The evo-devo of living machines. Living Machines VI Workshop on Evolution and Development, Stanford, USA, 25th July.
- Assistive and companion robot technologies. Technology and Dementia (AAIC 17 Satellite Meeting), London, 15th July.
- Robots and the future of work. York, Festival of Ideas: Re-imagining Work. 16th July.
- Could a robot be a person? Science in Public Conference, Sheffield, 10th July.
- Interdependence: We need to talk (panel discussion). Guardian Live and Manchester International Festival. 8th July.
- Robotics and autonomous systems for social care. UK RAS Network Showcase, 30th June.
- Are friends electric? Could we one day have personal relationships with robots? Pint of Science, Sheffield, 17th May.
- Designing Robots For Human Physical and Social Interaction, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group, International Technology Conference, Microsoft Research Centre, Reading, 17th May.
- Robots in the Water Sector: A View from Sheffield Robotics, TWENTY65 Annual Conference 2017, Manchester, 5th April.
- From animism to vitalism in children's perceptions of robots, Workshop on Child-Robot Interaction at the 2017 ACM/IEEE Human-Robot Interaction Conference in Vienna, 14th March.
- Autonoetic consciousness and sense of self in humans and robots, Human Brain Project Workshop on Consciousness, Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience, Paris, 10th March.
- Through a glass, darkly; then face to robot face, Public Symposium in Honour of the Artist Jordan Wolfson at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, February 18th.
Activities and Distinctions
- Fellow of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS), 2011–
- Co-founder of the University of Sheffield spin-out company Consequential Robotics, 2016–
- Editor of Connection Science, 2014-
- Co-founder of the "Living Machines" International Conference Series, 2012-
- Co-organiser of the European Union FP7 Co-ordination Action Convergent Science Network for Biomimetics and Neurotechlog
- Co-founder and Director of the Sheffield Robotics, 2011-
- Partner in the "Robot Companions for Citizens" FET Flagship pilot project and leader of a working group on Societal Impacts and Ethical Issues in Robotics, 2011-12
- Cofounder and co-organiser of the annual Barcelona Summer School on Cognitiion, Brain & Technology, 2008-
- Co-ordinator of the EU FP7 BIOTACT project, 2008-12
- Visiting Research Fellow at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, 2003-
- Founder and co-director of the Adaptive Behaviour Research Group, 1996-
- My research has been covered by the BBC One Show, Radio 4 Material World & Costing the Earth, Discovery Channel, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Observer, The Economist, Science Magazine, New Scientist, Focus Magazine and American Scientist.
Earlier Plenary and Invited Talks
- Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, 6th October 2016 (Invited talk)
- Battle of Ideas, London Barbican Centre, 22nd October 2016 (Debate)
- IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2016, 22nd September 2016 (Plenary talk)
- Tencent "Way to Evolve" Conference, November 2015 (Invited talk, live streamed)
- Institute of Contemporary Art "Fear of Missing Out", 30th May 2015 (invited talk)
- SPIE Biomimetics, San Diego, USA, March 2014 (Opening talk)
- 'Socially-responsible research in Cognitive Systems: A no-win or a win-win'. EU Cognition III Annual Meeting, Brighton, UK, December 2013 (Plenary talk)
- IEEE World Haptics, Daejeon, South Korea, April 2013 (Opening talk)
- European Conference for Complex Systems, Warwick, 2009 (Opening talk)
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Grants |
Research grants
- Human Brain Project: EU Future Emerging Technologies Flagship. T.J. Prescott (Sheffield PI): The Human Brain Project (2016-). Project value to Sheffield €774,000 (over four years).
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). T. J. Prescott (PI): Cyberselves in Immersive Technologies (2014-2015). Project value £50,000.
- EU Framework 7 Cognitive and Robotics Systems. T. J. Prescott (PI): What You Say Is What You Did (WYSIWYD) (2014 - 2017). Total project value €3,500,000 (€575,000 to Sheffield).
- EU Framework 7 Cognitive and Robotics Systems. T.J. Prescott (PI): Expressive Agents for Symbiotic Education and Learning (EASEL) (Nov 2013 - 2016). Total project value €2,910,000 (€595,000 to Sheffield).
- UK Technology Strategy Board. T.J. Prescott (PI): IntelliTable (Sept 2013 -14). Total project value £100,000 (£27,000 to Sheffield).
- EPSRC Capital for Great Technologies. T.J. Prescott (PI): Human-Machine Cooperation In Robotics And Autonomous (July 2013 -14). £1,000,000.
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): Convergent Science Network for Biomimetics and Neurotechnology (Mar 2013-2016). Total project value €950,000 (€172,711 to Sheffield).
- Weizmann – UK Joint Research Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI): Development of motor-sensory strategies for vibrissal active touch (Oct 2012-2014). Total project value $100,000 ($50,000 to Sheffield).
- EPSRC. T.J. Prescott (Co-Investigator): Bio-inspired Control of Electro-Active Polymers for Next Generation Soft Robots (Jan 2012-2015). Total project value £359,094 (~£170,000 to Sheffield).
- EPSRC/UoS. T.J. Prescott (PI): A wearable active sensing device using tactile displays (Sept 2011-2012). £49,998.
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): CA-RoboCom: Coordination Action for the design and description of the FET Flagship candidate Robot Companions for Citizens (May 2011-2012). Total project value €1,500,000 (€90,000 to Sheffield).
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): Experimental Functional Android Assistant (EFAA) (Jan 2011-2014). Total project value €2,858,000 (€517,000 to Sheffield).
- UoS Proof of Concept. T.J. Prescott (PI): Virtual Whiskers for Navigation in Hazardous Environments (Nov 2010-May 2011). £10,000.
- European Union Framework 7 Programme. T.J. Prescott (PI for Sheffield component): Convergent Science Network for Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems (Jan 2009-2012). Total project value €520,000 (€108,000) to Sheffield).
- European Union Framework 7 ICT Project 215910. T. J. Prescott (Co-ordinator and PI): BIOmimetic Technology for vibrissal ACtive Touch (BIOTACT) (2008-). (Jan 2008-Dec 2011). Total project value €7.8M (~€1.4M European Union contribution to Sheffield).
- European Union Framework 6 Cognitive Systems Project ST-027819-IP. T.J. Prescott (PI): Integration Cognition, Emotion, and Action (ICEA). (Jan 2006–Dec 2009). €8.08M (~€0.9M to Sheffield).
- EPRSC EP/C516303/1. Collaboration between 5 UK Universities. K. Gurney (PI) and TJ. Prescott: REVERB: Reverse Engineering the VERtebrate Brain (April 2005-March 2010). £1.8M (~£0.7M to Sheffield).
- EPRSC GR/S19639/01. Collaboration with Bristol Robotics Laborator. TJ. Prescott (PI): WhiskerBot: A Robot Whisker System Modelled on the Rat Mystacial Vibrissae (September 2003-August 2006). £430k (~£150k to Sheffield).
- EPRSC GR/R95722/01 T. J. Prescott (PI), K. Gurney, P. Redgrave: Robot control using a model of central structures in the vertebrate brain (Sept 2002–August 2005). £161k.
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