With an interest in research and a desire to understand the principles behind things, Jianyu Zhao chose to study a PhD at the University of Central Lancashire.
Currently, Jianyu is in the final year of his PhD studies and his PhD Supervisor, Professor Bogdan Matuszewski had the following to say about Jianyu’s research: “For his project, entitled ‘Deep Models for Objects Real-Time Characterization and Manipulation’, he is investigating and developing new, state-of-the-art computational methods for describing objects based on their appearance in images and videos.”
Bogdan continued: “We as humans, can characterise objects we see; for example, in terms of their weight, brittleness, surface finish, geometry, position and orientation, so we can grasp and handle them safely. We can do all these things in an instant, apparently without thinking. Replicating such functionality of a vision system on machines is extremely difficult, and yet essential for applications in robotics or augmented reality. Jianyu’s research is focused on making such things possible.”
The support that the School of Engineering and Computing provides for research students is what Jianyu enjoyed most about his research at the University. Alongside this, Jianyu has benefitted from the facilities and equipment available at the University, and said: “I can use the gym to exercise which helps me clear my mind. In the lab, I can access a very powerful server that helps me to accelerate my experiments.”
"Preston is a great place to study for its atmosphere, convenient transportation, and good infrastructure."
— Jianyu Zhao, PhD student
A typical day for Jianyu usually consists of reading literature in the morning, programming in the afternoon and in the evening he will either continue programming or read until night.
When asked what he enjoys most about Preston, Jianyu said: “Preston is a great place to study for its atmosphere, convenient transportation, and good infrastructure. It is also very convenient to live here, there are many restaurants and supermarkets that can meet daily needs.”
When asked what advice he would give to someone who would like to do a Postgraduate Research Degree, Jianyu commented: “First you have to like doing research, and you have to focus on it, this is a big commitment. If you would like to do research, I would advise you to do it at the University of Central Lancashire because the University provides a lot of resources for postgraduate research students.”