Christopher Hollitt

Christopher Hollitt is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of Electrical Engineering & Mechatronics at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on developing autonomous mobile robots capable of interacting with dynamic environments through advanced visual perception systems.

Dr. Hollitt holds a BE(Elec), BSc(Hon), and PhD from the University of Adelaide, Australia. His academic journey has led him to specialize in machine perception and robotic control systems.

Dr. Hollitt's research interests center on machine perception, particularly machine vision, and the control of robotic and space systems. He aims to develop artificial robot 'minds' capable of perceiving and modeling the world in real time. His specific expertise includes active vision with time constraints, statistical underpinnings of active perception, vision-based estimation of robot pose, and multi-modal active perception systems. His work bridges the gap between theoretical computer vision and practical robotic applications, with emphasis on real-world implementation challenges.

His publication record shows a clear progression from fundamental visual attention models to sophisticated context-aware object detection systems. Early work focused on color spaces and basic feature extraction, while recent research explores top-down contextual information integration and uncertainty modeling for improved target object detection. His approach increasingly incorporates evolutionary algorithms and probabilistic methods to create adaptive visual systems that can handle the complexities of real-world environments.

Dr. Hollitt actively supervises graduate students, with current doctoral projects examining 'Low cost analysis of milk contaminants' and 'Droplet evaporation of complex fluids.' He previously supervised Jane, Celine's Master's research on spacecraft magnetic disturbance rejection. His grant history includes the 'Generic Shoulder Relief Appliance' project funded by the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service.

Within the university, Dr. Hollitt contributes significantly to the academic community through his role as Programme Director and his teaching of advanced engineering courses, helping to shape the next generation of engineers and computer scientists.