معرفی
Yuanbo Hou serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the Machine Learning Group at the University of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science, based at the Oxford-Man Institute. His research bridges artificial intelligence and acoustics, focusing on deep learning applications for sound analysis and emotional recognition in real-world contexts such as healthcare and environmental monitoring.
Hou earned his PhD from Ghent University (2020-2024) under Prof. Dick Botteldooren, following a short-term research assistantship at University College London in 2022 supervised by Prof. Jian Kang. His doctoral work earned him the 2023 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (A Category).
His research spans AI-driven sound processing for practical applications including broiler health monitoring, emotional regulation for elderly care residents, and road surface condition assessment. Hou specializes in developing robust deep learning models that interpret acoustic data while accounting for human perceptual responses, with emphasis on deployable solutions for industrial and healthcare settings. His methodological innovations frequently integrate graph neural networks, transformers, and contrastive learning to address challenges in noisy environments.
Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals consistent focus on acoustic scene classification, anomaly detection, and emotion-aware sound analysis. His work demonstrates increasing sophistication in modeling temporal and relational aspects of audio data, with growing application in human-robot interaction and healthcare domains since 2023.
His scientific recognition includes:
- 2023 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad (A Category)
Hou collaborates extensively across international institutions including Ghent University, University College London, and the Alan Turing Institute. While no formal advising roles are documented, his collaborative projects involve interdisciplinary teams addressing real-world challenges in environmental acoustics and assistive technologies. His research is supported through institutional frameworks at the Oxford-Man Institute, which facilitates cross-departmental work in machine learning applications.
Based at the Oxford-Man Institute for Quantitative Finance, Hou contributes to the Machine Learning Group's mission of applying advanced AI techniques to complex systems. His current work extends into human-robot interaction through speech adaptation and tactile gesture recognition, while maintaining strong connections to environmental sound analysis through ongoing projects in urban soundscape assessment.
