Professor Michael Milford

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PhD (University of Queensland)

I conduct interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and am a multi-award winning educational entrepreneur. My research models the neural mechanisms in the brain underlying tasks like navigation and perception to develop new technologies in challenging application domains such as all-weather, anytime positioning for autonomous vehicles. I am also passionate about engaging and educating all sectors of society around new opportunities and impacts from technology including robotics, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. I currently hold the positions of Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics (acting), Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.

I have or am leading or co-leading projects totalling more than 45 million dollars in research and industry funding for fellowships and team grants from organizations including the Australian Research Council, Microsoft and US Air Force. My papers have won (6) or been finalists (9) for 15 best paper awards including the 2012 ICRA Best Vision paper. My citation h-index is 37, with 7747 citations as of March 2021. I have dual Australian-US citizenship and have lived and worked in locations including Boston, Edinburgh and London. I have collaborated with organizations including Harvard University, Boston University, Oxford University, MIT, Google Deepmind, Caterpillar, the US Air Force and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

As a lifelong educational entrepreneur, I have created innovative educational resources for students for 20 years, with customers across 35 countries. My company Math Thrills combines mass market entertainment and STEM education to create math-filled young adult fiction and movie-inspired education. Math Thrills has received funding from Kickstarter, QUTBluebox and the AMP Foundation, honours including the Queensland Young Tall Poppy of the Year Award, finalist at the Reimagine Education awards, a TedXQUT talk and a World Science Festival event. We have over 20 titles including The Complete Guide to AI for Kids, the STEM Storybook and Rachel Rocketeer.

Additional information

Experience

I conduct interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and am a multi-award winning educational entrepreneur. My research models the neural mechanisms in the brain underlying tasks like navigation and perception to develop new technologies in challenging application domains such as all-weather, anytime positioning for autonomous vehicles. I am also passionate about engaging and educating all sectors of society around new opportunities and impacts from technology including robotics, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. I currently hold the positions of Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics (acting), Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.

I have or am leading or co-leading projects totalling more than 45 million dollars in research and industry funding for fellowships and team grants from organizations including the Australian Research Council, Microsoft and US Air Force. My papers have won (6) or been finalists (9) for 15 best paper awards including the 2012 ICRA Best Vision paper. My citation h-index is 37, with 7747 citations as of March 2021. I have dual Australian-US citizenship and have lived and worked in locations including Boston, Edinburgh and London. I have collaborated with organizations including Harvard University, Boston University, Oxford University, MIT, Google Deepmind, Caterpillar, the US Air Force and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

As a lifelong educational entrepreneur, I have created innovative educational resources for students for 20 years, with customers across 35 countries. My company Math Thrills combines mass market entertainment and STEM education to create math-filled young adult fiction and movie-inspired education. Math Thrills has received funding from Kickstarter, QUTBluebox and the AMP Foundation, honours including the Queensland Young Tall Poppy of the Year Award, finalist at the Reimagine Education awards, a TedXQUT talk and a World Science Festival event. We have over 20 titles including The Complete Guide to AI for Kids, the STEM Storybook and Rachel Rocketeer.

Awards

Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2019
Details
2019 Batterham Medal for Engineering Excellence awarded by the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
Type
Fellowships
Reference year
2013
Details
Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, $110,000
Type
Membership of Review Panels on Prestigious Grant Applications
Reference year
2016
Details
Australian Research Council for Discovery Projects and Discovery Early Career Outstanding Researcher Fellowships
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2013
Details
Best Paper Finalist "Towards Condition-Invariant, Top-Down Visual Place Recognition," Michael Milford, Walter Scheirer, Eleonora Vig and David Cox
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2013
Details
Ray Jarvis Best Paper Award "Towards Bio-inspired Place Recognition over Multiple Spatial Scales," Zetao Chen, Adam Jacobson, Ugur Murat Erdem, Michael Hasselmo and Michael Milford
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2016
Details
Best Paper Finalist Robotics Science and Systems Conference: Milford, M., "Visual Route Recognition with a Handful of Bits", Sydney, Australia, 2012.
Type
Membership of Review Panels on Prestigious Grant Applications
Reference year
2013
Details
Israeli Ministry of Science & Technology reviewer for Brain Research Infrastructure program grant reviewer
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2012
Details
Best Robot Vision Paper Award at the 2012 International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Type
Membership of Review Panels on Prestigious Grant Applications
Reference year
2012
Details
Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Reviewer for Discovery Grants
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2006
Details
Queensland Young Achiever of the Year (Science and Technology) The aims are objectives of the program are to: Acknowledge & highlight the achievements of young Australians. Educate the general public with examples of youth achievement. Encourage & motivate young Australians at all levels in their chosen field of endeavour. Develop a sense of pride in being an Australian. Build self-confidence through rewards for excellence. Provide role models & mentors for our youth by highlighting their achievements and the pursuit of excellence. Develop and encourage leadership and life skills in young Australians.

Publications

Research Projects

Title
ARC Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision (ACRV)
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
CE140100016
Start year
2014
Keywords
Robotic Vision;Robotics;Computer Vision
Title
Superhuman Place Recognition with a Unified Model of Human Visual Processing and Rodent Spatial Memory
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
FT140101229
Start year
2015
Keywords
Place Recognition;Spatial Memory;Bio-Inspired Robot Navigation
Title
Visual Navigation for Sunny Summer Days and Stormy Winter Nights
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
DE120100995
Start year
2012
Keywords
Vision-Based Navigation;Robot Navigation;Change-Invariant
Title
ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
IC190100020
Start year
2020
Keywords

Current Supervisions

Completed Supervisions (Doctorate)