Jack Collins

Roboticist

Researcher

Tutor

ML Researcher

Jack Collins

Hi! Jack here. I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Robotics Institute within the Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab. My research is at the intersection of machine learning and robotics, in particular, looking at modelling the world for agents, task planning for long horizon tasks and machine introspection. I look to apply my work to real-world robots with the intention of enabling robots to interact and manipulate their environment, much like people can.

I completed my PhD at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) whilst closely collaborating with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). My research focused on the simulation of robots and how we could traverse the ‘Reality Gap’ using sim-to-real methods. The broad applicability of this work allows me to draw upon it today to transfer policies trained on simulated data to real-world platforms.

I also have a strong interest in Evolutionary Robotics. Instead of manually designing robots and controllers, Evolutionary Robotics investigates how we can apply evolutionary biology to evolve both a robot’s morphology and control.

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What I Do

Robotics Research

Conducting fundamental and applied research into the field of robotics with an emphasis on manipulation and an interest in bimanual and mobile manipulation. Experience in all aspects of research including academic writing, grant application, supervision and management.

ML Research

Understanding of machine learning fundamentals and recent advances of state of the art. Applied knowledge in geometric deep learning including graph neural networks and generative models with an interest in task planning and world models.

Tutoring

Experience lecturing and tutoring subjects taught as part of engineering, robotics and computer science bachelor or masters degrees. Subjects that have been taught are found throughout the continuum from first year subjects to final year specialisations.

Resume

Experience

2021 - Current

University of Oxford

Postdoctoral Researcher

Postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Robotics Institute in the Applied AI lab (A2I).
Research activities in areas including generative modelling, world models, manipulation (mobile, bimanual, dexterous), learning from demonstration, task planning, sim2real, deployment of robots to care homes and more.
Supervision of DPhil students and other lab responsibilities.

2024

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Academy

Lecturer

Lecturer of KAUST Academy Advanced AI Course covering the foundations of convolutional neural networks and their application to computer vision, including image classification, segmentation, and object detection.

2022 – 2023

University of Oxford

Tutor

Tutor for C19 Machine Learning, a 4th year subject within the Masters in Engineering Science degree.

2022 – Current

Oxford College – Lady Margaret Hall

Programme Tutor

Lecturer and tutor of introductory and advanced machine learning courses. Advanced courses included programs on reinforcement learning, computer vision, unsupervised learning and graph neural networks. Tutoring including running seminars and tutorials on machine learning concepts and marking assessable items.

2019 – 2020

Holovision 3D

R&D Engineer

Lead developer of cobot welding cell. Deployed in 4 months for steel fabricator, Watkins Steel.
Exploration of the use of Mixed Reality in the construction industry through visualisation and annotation within Microsoft Hololens 1 and 2, Oculus Quest and Rift headsets.
Application of additive manufacturing methods to the construction industry.

2018 – 2021

Queensland University of Technology

Sessional Academic

Supervisor and Co-supervisor of undergraduate thesis students completing research in the robotics and manipulation domain.#
Tutor for a range of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science courses including:
- Mechatronics Design 2 – Research, Design, and Implementation of an advanced mechatronic product.
- Mechatronics Design 1 – Culmination of a product requiring mechanical design, electrical design, and embedded software.
- Building IT Systems – Foundation unit taught in Python with topics including APIs, Databases, search patterns and GUIs.