Toby Breckon

Professor Toby Breckon is Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life and professor of machine vision in the Departments of Computer Science and Engineering at Durham University, UK. Toby is known for his research in the fields of computer vision, image processing and robotic sensing, and AI-based deep machine learning and pattern recognition techniques. His team work with a number of major vehicle manufacturers on future automative sensing systems (2011 – 2024) – a field in which fundamental questions of how to recognise objects in physical space extend beyond engineering and computer science and into the social world. Within aviation security, Toby’s work on X-ray security image understanding pioneered the use of automated detection algorithms, a system now used globally in major aviation transportation hubs. Toby is the sciences lead for the Leverhulme Centre and co-convenes the thematic programme on Image and Language.