With a desire to pursue a career as an Academic Researcher, Edward Sanderson chose to study for a PhD (via MPhil) at the University of Central Lancashire.
During his postgraduate studies, Edward developed novel deep learning-based methods for the simulation of residential energy consumption profiles to assist in the development of sustainable energy supplies. Talking about his PhD choice, Edward said: “I am passionate about making impactful contributions and enjoy the freedom to pursue the ideas that interest me.”
After completing his PhD, Edward secured a role as a Post-Doctoral Researcher on the STFC CDN+ funded AIdDeCo project. As part of his role, Edward develops novel deep learning-based methods for computer vision tasks in colonoscopy. His outputs from this work have won prestigious awards:
- 1st place in the Digital Surgery SimCol3D Award, Task 1 of the SimCol-to-3D EndoVis challenge hosted at the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2022) conference in Singapore
- 3rd place in the Best Paper Award at the Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA 2022) conference held at the University of Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
"It usually starts with me addressing any necessary admin and communications. I will then concentrate on my focus for that phase of the project, whether that be reviewing literature, brainstorming ideas to investigate, implementing methods and experiments or writing."
— Edward talks about a typical day
Edward is a member of the CVML Group which has received funding from the University for a multi-GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) compute server. Edward said: “This has been an incredible resource for experiments and has given us a competitive edge in our field.”
Reflecting on what he enjoys most about his research, Edward said: “I love both the opportunity to work on interesting cutting-edge methods, and to contribute to the development of solutions to tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges. I also love the opportunity to work with supervisors and colleagues who share this perspective.”
Edward was born in Preston and is very proud of the city and its history which made Preston the perfect place to pursue his postgraduate studies. Talking about Preston, Edward said: “The city has become a diverse and interesting area to live and affords many of the benefits of a large city whilst maintaining easy access to open green spaces such as Preston’s many parks and the surrounding Lancashire countryside.”
Talking about his aspirations for the future, Edward revealed: “I plan to continue my pursuit of a career in academic research. I am already undertaking my first PostDoc and hope to undertake a few more similar contracts before applying for a faculty position.”
When asked about what advice he would give to anyone wanting to do a Postgraduate Research degree, Edward said: “My first piece of advice would be to ensure that you would benefit from such a programme. I would also recommend ensuring that the project you choose excites you in some way. Finally, I would suggest speaking with your potential supervisor / supervisors to ensure they are supportive of your approach to work. If that all checks out, then all that’s left is to prepare yourself for a fulfilling and rewarding experience.”