Academic Profile
I commenced a PhD research programme at the University of Bath in June 2014. My primary interests are in artificial intelligence, within the context of cognitive robotics. I am particularly interested in robots within domestic or near-domestic environments.
Commercial Profile
During my career in commercial electronics, computing and IT, I have provided technical expertise and guidance at all levels, from hands-on coding to corporate board level consultancy. As a Project Manager I have managed software projects and system deployments internationally. As a Company Director I have provided oversight to the successful growth of RWA (Robert Wortham Associates Ltd) from a fledgling software house to a major international supplier of systems to the Travel Industry. My goals have always been to deliver solutions to a truly professional standard, and to develop both processes and people as part of this. For further information see me on LinkedIn.
Education
2014 – Present The University of Bath
Degree : Ph.D Intelligent Systems
My research is being carried out at the Department of Computer Science under the supervision of Dr Joanna Bryson. See the research page for further details.
1985 – 1986 The University of Bath
Degree : M.Eng Electrical & Electronic Engineering
This year was carried out in industry. The degree was awarded on completion of a masters thesis based on my hardware/software development project.
1981 – 1985 The University of Bath
Degree : B.Sc (Hons) Electrical & Electronic Engineering (First Class)
Final year project: Developed a mathematical theory for robotic walking. Wrote the software to control a pair of robotic legs. Built a small model and developed a theory of ‘statically stable walking’ and wrote code to solve the non-linear transcendental equations that result. Wrote assembler code (MC68000) to drive stepper motors that controlled the legs.
Other Recent Courses Attended
Summer 2012
Learning from Data, Machine Learning (course at Postgraduate level). California Institute of Technology, see http://work.caltech.edu/telecourse.html
Delivered by Professor Yasser Abu-Mostafa at CalTech (see http://work.caltech.edu/library/), and included lectures on Bayesian learning, radial basis functions, support vector machines, neural networks and so on.
Professional Memberships
- Fellow, British Computer Society
- Member, Institute of Engineering & Technology (formerly IEE)
- Chartered Engineer, The Engineering Council (BCS)
Research
Papers
- Wortham, R.H., Theodorou, A. and Bryson J.J., (2016).What Does the Robot Think? Transparency as a Fundamental Design Requirement for Intelligent Systems, IJCAI-2016 Ethics for Artificial Intelligence Workshop, July 2016, New York USA
- Wortham, R.H., Gaudl, S.E. and Bryson J.J., (2016). Instinct: A Biologically Inspired Reactive Planner for Embedded Environments, ICAPS 2016 PlanRob Workshop, June 2016, London
- Wortham, R.H., Theodorou, A. and Bryson J.J., (2016). Robot Transparency, Trust and Utility, AISB Workshop on Principles of Robotics, April 2016, Sheffield UK
- Theodorou, A., Wortham R.H. and Bryson J.J., (2016). Why is my robot behaving like that? Designing transparency for real time inspection of autonomous robots, AISB Workshop on Principles of Robotics, April 2016, Sheffield UK
Other Publications
- Wortham, R. H. and Bryson, J. J. (2016). Communication. In Handbook of Living Machines {in press.}. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Wortham, R.H. (2015), Book Review – In Our Own Image by George Zarkadakis. In AISB Quarterly No143, June 2016, AISB.
Other Interests and Activities
I enjoy travel and have been fortunate to have travelled very widely on business over the years including Europe, Scandinavia, USA, South Africa, the Middle East and India. I play the guitar and have a project studio at home, which has produced several commercial CD’s over the years. Our family enjoys skiing and we make an annual pilgrimage, generally to the Alps.