Ross Harper

Ross Harper

London, England, United Kingdom
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About

Doctor of AI and Neuroscience. Founder & CEO of Limbic. Strong believer that AI can…

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Experience

  • Limbic Graphic

    Limbic

    London, United Kingdom

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    London, United Kingdom

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    Greater Atlanta Area

Education

  • UCL Graphic

    UCL

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    PhD at the intersection of AI and neuroscience. Theoretical research conducted at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (supervised by Prof. Peter Dayan) focused on statistical modeling of brain networks using probabilistic machine learning techniques. The work involved extracting meaningful patterns from complex neural and behavioral datasets, developing computational methods to understand how biological networks process information. Additional experimental work was conducted at UCL's…

    PhD at the intersection of AI and neuroscience. Theoretical research conducted at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (supervised by Prof. Peter Dayan) focused on statistical modeling of brain networks using probabilistic machine learning techniques. The work involved extracting meaningful patterns from complex neural and behavioral datasets, developing computational methods to understand how biological networks process information. Additional experimental work was conducted at UCL's Cell & Developmental Biology department and Ear Institute, providing hands-on experience with biological data collection and analysis.

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    CoMPLEX (The UCL Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology). CoMPLEX is UCL's centre for interdisciplinary research in the medical and life sciences. Launched in 1998 as a virtual centre, CoMPLEX is now part of the Computer Science department in the Faculty of Engineering. UCL Computer Science department is a global leader in research in experimental computer science. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) evaluation UCL was ranked in…

    CoMPLEX (The UCL Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology). CoMPLEX is UCL's centre for interdisciplinary research in the medical and life sciences. Launched in 1998 as a virtual centre, CoMPLEX is now part of the Computer Science department in the Faculty of Engineering. UCL Computer Science department is a global leader in research in experimental computer science. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) evaluation UCL was ranked in first place for Computer Science, out of 89 Universities assessed, and considerably ahead of other Institutions. 61% of its research work is rated as world-leading (the highest possible category) and 96% of its research work is rated as internationally excellent.

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    Academic modules: Neuroscience, Organic Chemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biology of Cells, Evolutionary Biology, and History and Philosophy of Science.

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Licenses & Certifications

Publications

  • A Bayesian Deep Learning Framework for End-To-End Prediction of Emotion from Heartbeat

    arXiv

    Automatic prediction of emotion promises to revolutionise human-computer interaction. Recent trends involve fusion of multiple modalities - audio, visual, and physiological - to classify emotional state. However, practical considerations 'in the wild' limit collection of this physiological data to commoditised heartbeat sensors. Furthermore, real-world applications often require some measure of uncertainty over model output. We present here an end-to-end deep learning model for classifying…

    Automatic prediction of emotion promises to revolutionise human-computer interaction. Recent trends involve fusion of multiple modalities - audio, visual, and physiological - to classify emotional state. However, practical considerations 'in the wild' limit collection of this physiological data to commoditised heartbeat sensors. Furthermore, real-world applications often require some measure of uncertainty over model output. We present here an end-to-end deep learning model for classifying emotional valence from unimodal heartbeat data. We further propose a Bayesian framework for modelling uncertainty over valence predictions, and describe a procedure for tuning output according to varying demands on confidence. We benchmarked our framework against two established datasets within the field and achieved peak classification accuracy of 90%. These results lay the foundation for applications of affective computing in real-world domains such as healthcare, where a high premium is placed on non-invasive collection of data, and predictive certainty.

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  • How Many Clocks, How Many Times? On the Sensory Basis and Computational Challenges of Circadian Systems

    Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

    A vital task for every organism is not only to decide what to do but also when to do it. For this reason, “circadian clocks” have evolved in virtually all forms of life. Conceptually, circadian clocks can be divided into two functional domains; an autonomous oscillator creates a ~24 h self-sustained rhythm and sensory machinery interprets external information to alter the phase of the autonomous oscillation. It is through this simple design that variations in external stimuli (for example…

    A vital task for every organism is not only to decide what to do but also when to do it. For this reason, “circadian clocks” have evolved in virtually all forms of life. Conceptually, circadian clocks can be divided into two functional domains; an autonomous oscillator creates a ~24 h self-sustained rhythm and sensory machinery interprets external information to alter the phase of the autonomous oscillation. It is through this simple design that variations in external stimuli (for example, daylight) can alter our sense of time. However, the clock’s simplicity ends with its basic concept. In metazoan animals, multiple external and internal stimuli, from light to temperature and even metabolism have been shown to affect clock time. This raises the fundamental question of cue integration: how are the many, and potentially conflicting, sources of information combined to sense a single time of day? Moreover, individual stimuli, are often detected through various sensory pathways. Some sensory cells, such as insect chordotonal neurons, provide the clock with both temperature and mechanical information. Adding confusion to complexity, there seems to be not only one central clock in the animal’s brain but numerous additional clocks in the body’s periphery. It is currently not clear how (or if) these “peripheral clocks” are synchronized to their central counterparts or if both clocks “tick” independently from one another. In this review article, we would like to leave the comfort zones of conceptual simplicity and assume a more holistic perspective of circadian clock function. Focusing on recent results from Drosophila melanogaster we will discuss some of the sensory, and computational, challenges organisms face when keeping track of time.

    Other authors
    • Jason Somers
    • Joerg T Albert
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  • Light Dominates Peripheral Circadian Oscillations in Drosophila melanogaster During Sensory Conflict

    Journal of Biological Rhythms

    The circadian clock is a singular entity in name and concept only. In reality, clock functions emerge from multiple processes and anatomical substrates. One distinction has conventionally been made between a central clock (in the brain) and peripheral clocks (e.g., in the gut and the eyes). Both types of clock generate robust circadian oscillations, which do not require external input. Furthermore, the phases of these oscillations remain exquisitely sensitive to specific environmental cues…

    The circadian clock is a singular entity in name and concept only. In reality, clock functions emerge from multiple processes and anatomical substrates. One distinction has conventionally been made between a central clock (in the brain) and peripheral clocks (e.g., in the gut and the eyes). Both types of clock generate robust circadian oscillations, which do not require external input. Furthermore, the phases of these oscillations remain exquisitely sensitive to specific environmental cues, such as the daily changes of light and temperature. When these cues conflict with one another, the central clock displays complex forms of sensory integration; how peripheral clocks respond to conflicting input is unclear. We therefore explored the effects of light and temperature misalignments on peripheral clocks. We show that under conflict, peripheral clocks preferentially synchronize to the light stimulus. This photic dominance requires the presence of the circadian photoreceptor, Cryptochrome.

    Other authors
    • Peter Dayan
    • Maite Ogueta
    • Joerg T Albert
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  • "Time Flies" Multisensory Processing by Circadian Clocks in Drosophila melanogaster

    University College London

    Periodic changes of environmental signals are sufficient to synchronise circadian rhythms across species. Circadian time, then, is a concept tethered to a diverse spread of different sensory modalities. In spite of this fact, circadian systems have historically been studied in a unimodal fashion investigating the processing of singular cues, while keeping others constant. My research sought to challenge this dogma via exploration of multisensory cue combination in the circadian clock of…

    Periodic changes of environmental signals are sufficient to synchronise circadian rhythms across species. Circadian time, then, is a concept tethered to a diverse spread of different sensory modalities. In spite of this fact, circadian systems have historically been studied in a unimodal fashion investigating the processing of singular cues, while keeping others constant. My research sought to challenge this dogma via exploration of multisensory cue combination in the circadian clock of Drosophila melanogaster. Systematic behavioural analysis in wild type flies showed that misalignments between light and temperature (two potent environmental cues) produced abnormal profiles of circadian locomotor activity. Further molecular investigation revealed this behavioural disruption was associated with a breakdown of molecular rhythms in central clock neurons. Both the behavioural and molecular phenotypes observed during sensory conflict depended on the circadian photoreceptor, cryptochrome. Outside the central clock network, the circadian system of fruit flies forms an extensive network of peripheral oscillators. A luciferase reporter assay showed that photic signals play a more prominent role in peripheral clocks, compared to the core clock network in the brain. Here, molecular rhythms displayed continued light preference during sensory conflict, which again depended on cryptochrome. Finally, a statistical model of the circadian clock was developed using a novel graphical architecture based on the hidden Markov model framework. This model was capable of inferring the phase of an underlying clock from both simulated and experimental locomotor datasets. More broadly, learning the parameters of this model from the data produced a probabilistic representation of the system, including its phase response dynamics.

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  • Sensory Conflict Disrupts Activity of the Drosophila Circadian Network

    Cell Reports

    Periodic changes in light and temperature synchronize the Drosophila circadian clock, but the question of how the fly brain integrates these two input pathways to set circadian time remains unanswered. We explore multisensory cue combination by testing the resilience of the circadian network to conflicting environmental inputs. We show that misaligned light and temperature cycles can lead to dramatic changes in the daily locomotor activities of wild-type flies during and after exposure to…

    Periodic changes in light and temperature synchronize the Drosophila circadian clock, but the question of how the fly brain integrates these two input pathways to set circadian time remains unanswered. We explore multisensory cue combination by testing the resilience of the circadian network to conflicting environmental inputs. We show that misaligned light and temperature cycles can lead to dramatic changes in the daily locomotor activities of wild-type flies during and after exposure to sensory conflict. This altered behavior is associated with a drastic reduction in the amplitude of PERIOD (PER) oscillations in brain clock neurons and desynchronization between light- and temperature-sensitive neuronal subgroups. The behavioral disruption depends heavily on the phase relationship between light and temperature signals. Our results represent a systematic quantification of multisensory integration in the Drosophila circadian system and lend further support to the view of the clock as a network of coupled oscillatory subunits.

    Other authors
    • Joerg Albert
    • Peter Dayan
    • Ralf Stanewsky
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  • A Prescription for Antibiotic Resistance: A Rare Vantage Point in the Fight Against Bacteria

    British Society for Cell Biology

    From the Black Death in the Middle Ages to the Victorian scourge of cholera, bacterial epidemics travel the globe, leaving devastation in their wake. Times were bleak in the nineteenth century; many battles were lost. And then, in 1928, humanity crafted a weapon. We stepped out of the darkness and into a new era: one of antibiotics. In a monumental stroke of luck, Alexander Fleming fell upon a fungus that produced a curious bacteria-killing substance. We now call it penicillin.

    It’s easy…

    From the Black Death in the Middle Ages to the Victorian scourge of cholera, bacterial epidemics travel the globe, leaving devastation in their wake. Times were bleak in the nineteenth century; many battles were lost. And then, in 1928, humanity crafted a weapon. We stepped out of the darkness and into a new era: one of antibiotics. In a monumental stroke of luck, Alexander Fleming fell upon a fungus that produced a curious bacteria-killing substance. We now call it penicillin.

    It’s easy to dramatize the history of antibiotics. While we can’t know exactly how many lives have been saved since their discovery, the figure is estimated to be in excess of 200 million. The world would certainly be a gloomier place without them, which begs the question: what will we do if they run out?

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Projects

Honors & Awards

  • The Duke of York New Entrepreneur of the Year

    Lloyd's Bank

    The New Entrepreneur of the Year award celebrates the potential that exists within leaders of the UK’s most promising start-ups and new SMEs. Focusing on the market opportunity identified, the model to capitalise on it, and how it has been executed within the first 18 months of trading, judges looked at how initial targets and KPIs have been exceeded, the vision for growth, innovation and the founder’s understanding of key challenges, customers and the competitive landscape. This national award…

    The New Entrepreneur of the Year award celebrates the potential that exists within leaders of the UK’s most promising start-ups and new SMEs. Focusing on the market opportunity identified, the model to capitalise on it, and how it has been executed within the first 18 months of trading, judges looked at how initial targets and KPIs have been exceeded, the vision for growth, innovation and the founder’s understanding of key challenges, customers and the competitive landscape. This national award recognises those demonstrating the entrepreneurial aptitude, commercial acumen, vision, ambition and drive to build a successful enterprise.

  • Bogue Fellowship

    University College London by bequest from James Yule Bogue

    The Bogue Fellowship supports visits to carry out research in laboratories in the USA and Canada in order ‘to enrich the research experience and help develop the scientific career of the Fellow’. This grant was awarded to conducted novel research in machine learning at Emory University/Georgia Institute of Technology. The Fellowship was used either to support the full costs of the visit.

Languages

  • German

    Limited working proficiency

  • English

    Native or bilingual proficiency

Organizations

  • Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing (AAAC)

    Member

    - Present

    The AAAC is a professional, world-wide association for researchers in Affective Computing, Emotions and Human-Machine Interaction. It also manages the bids and the organisation of the International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII) - the premier international forum for interdisciplinary research on the design of systems that can recognize, interpret, and simulate human emotions and related affective phenomena.

  • IEEE

    Member

    - Present

    IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. IEEE is the trusted “voice” for engineering, computing and technology information around the globe. There are more than 421,000 IEEE members in more than 160 countries. The IEEE…

    IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. IEEE is the trusted “voice” for engineering, computing and technology information around the globe. There are more than 421,000 IEEE members in more than 160 countries. The IEEE publishes a third of the world’s technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics and is a leading developer of international standards that underpin many of today's telecommunications, information technology and power generation products and services.

  • British Neuroscience Association

    Member

    - Present

    The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is the largest UK organisation representing and promoting neuroscience and neuroscientists.

  • British Society for Cell Biology

    Member

    - Present

    The BSCB was founded 1965 in order to promote the advancement of research in all branches of cell biology and to encourage the interchange of information. The Society organises a large annual conference each Spring and supports a number of other meetings across the UK relevant to cell biology.

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