معرفی
Jonathon Hare is a Professor in the School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He holds a BEng degree in Aerospace Engineering and PhD in Computer Science, both from the University of Southampton. His research is centered around representation learning with the goal of developing techniques that allow machines to understand and utilize data to fulfill human information needs.
His research spans three main areas: Novel representation techniques including differentiable neural architectures for counting and working with unordered sets; Understanding representations through biological inspiration, exploring how neural architectures relate to biological systems; and Applications of representation in geospatial intelligence and document analysis. He has made a strong commitment to open science, with many projects having open-source implementations, including the OpenIMAJ software that won the prestigious 2011 ACM Multimedia Open Source Software Competition.
His recent publications (2024-2025) show a strong focus on hardware-efficient neural networks, representation learning, and explainable AI. His work addresses critical challenges in neural network memory configuration, FPGA acceleration, and stable algorithm learning using mathematical constraints. His research shows growing emphasis on practical implementation challenges and the intersection of theoretical neural network concepts with real-world hardware constraints.
- Vice Chancellors Teaching Award (2015)
- Faculty award for innovative teaching (2013-14)
- 2011 ACM Multimedia Open Source Software Competition winner
- Shortlisted for Blackboard and VLE Awards (2016, 2017, 2020)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Senior Member of IEEE (SMIEEE)
As Doctoral Programme Director, Professor Hare supervises over 150 PhD students across multiple disciplines including Computer Science, Geography, Engineering, and the MINDS interdisciplinary program. He leads undergraduate Computer Vision and postgraduate Differentiable Programming/Deep Learning modules, and has been instrumental in developing new machine learning curriculum including modules on Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning Technologies. His teaching excellence has been widely recognized through multiple awards and nominations. He also serves on the editorial board of IET Image Processing journal since 2020.
Professor Hare is actively involved in several research groups including Vision, Learning and Control; International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research; Centre for Machine Intelligence; and Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute. His current projects include SemanticNews, JASH – AYURDA (Fish for Life), International Centre for Spatial Computational Learning, and various marine and geospatial research initiatives.
