Principal Investigator

Short Bio|Publication|Grant|Project|Professional Activity|Teaching|Admin

Prof. Xianghua Xie

I am currently a Professor in the Visual Computing Group at the Department of Computer Science, University of Swansea. I was holding an RCUK Academic Fellowship between September 2009 and March 2012, a Senior Lecturer between October 2012 and March 2013, and Associate Professor till February 2019. Prior to my position at Swansea, I was a Research Associate in the Computer Vision Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, working on a European Commission project, CASBliP.

I received my M.Sc. degree in Advanced Computing in 2002 from the University of Bristol, UK. Then, I continued to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the same department from the end of 2002, under the supervision of Prof. Majid Mirmehdi. Prof. Barry Thomas was also involved in cosupervision at the earlier stage. I finished my Ph.D. study in March 2006.

I have strong research interests in fundamental image processing and computer vision problems, machine learning techniques (including deep learning models and natural language processing techniques), and their applications to health, medicine, manufacturing, and finance.

Click here for some of our recent research projects.

Publications:

External Grant Capture:

  • National Edge AI Hub for Real Data, EPSRC, £739,011 to Swansea (12M total), 5 years from 05/2024.
  • A Tracking-Discriminating Deep Generative Model for Real-Time Anomaly Detection in Videos, Airbus (Endeavr Wales Group), £157,100, Co-PI, 01/05/2023 - 30/04/2024.
  • EPSRC Industrial Case award with Tata Steel (EP/V519601/1), £116,928, PI, 10/2020 - 09/2024.
  • EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Enhancing Human Interactions and Collaborations with Data and Intelligence Driven Systems, £4,986,846.00, Co-I, 01/04/2019 - 30/09/2027.
  • PARSER: Parking and AiR pollution SEnsoRs for Smart Cities, funded by InnovateUK, £319,514.40, Co-PI, 01/03/2019 – 28/02/2021.
  • Health Data Research UK - SUBSTANTIVE SITE OF THE UK INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICS RESEARCH, Co-I, £3,986,334.06, 2019 - 2023.
  • Fraud Detection in Dual use of Goods using Explainable Machine Learning and Visual Analytics, funded by InnovateUK (TS/S002766/1), £172,139.08. PI, 01/09/2018 - 30/11/2019.
  • Predictive Big Data Analytics for Human Health and Animal Wellbeing, SÊR CYMRU Cofund, £63,082.35, PI, 01/07/2018 - 30/06/2020.
  • Data Release - Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security, Co-investigator, led by Prof. Mark Jones (Swansea), funded by EPSRC (EP/N028139/1 and EP/N027825/1), £1.6M, June 2016 - 30 November 2019.
  • Biomedical Research Unit: Advanced Medical Image Analysis and Visualisation, Collaborator, led by Prof. John (Bangor University), funded by NISCHR, £312K to Swansea (£1.5M in total), 2011 - 2015.
  • Non-Invasive Quantification of Complex Heart Valve Lesions: A model-based approach using 3D echocardiography, Co-investigator, led by Dr. van Lool(Swansea University), funded by NISCHR (HS/10/13), £58K, 2011 - 2014.
  • Patient Specific Multi-view Coronary Geometry and Computational Disease Modelling, Principal investigator, funded by WORD, £144K, 2010 - 2012.
  • NISCHR Registered Research Group: Medical Image Analysis and Visualisation, Co-investigator, led by Prof. Zwiggelaar (Aber University), funded by NISCHR, £95K, 2010 - 2013.
  • Wales Research Institute on Visual Computing (RIVIC), I am leading a sub-programme on 3D Vision and Medical Image Analysis. RIVIC attracts £5M funding from WAG, 2009-2013.
  • PRINS: Prior-independent Shape Regularisation for Geometric Active Contours, Co-investigator, led by Prof. Mirmehdi ( Bristol University), funded by The Leverhulme Trust, £65K, 2006 - 2008.

Professional Activities:

  • Associate Editor: Pattern Recognition, 2022 -.
  • Associate Editor: IET Computer Vision, 2012 -.
  • Associate Editor: Journal of Numerical Methods and Biomedical Engineering, 2022 -.
  • Editorial Board: International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, 2018 -.
  • Editorial Board: Journal of Informatics, 2017 - 2024.
  • Executive Committee: British Machine Vision Association (BMVA), since 2012.
  • Steering Committee: Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA), since 2011.
  • International Advisory Committee: CMBE2015 France.
  • Organising Committee: CGA 2015 San Antonio USA, CMBE 2013 Hongkong, CMBE 2011 Washington, CMBE 2009 Swansea, PSM 2013 Cardiff.
  • General Chair: 26th British Machine Vision Conference, 7-11 September 2015, Swansea UK.
  • Programme Chair: 7th ICIGP 2024, 6th ICIGP, China 2023.
  • Programme Chair: 6th CTISC, China 2024.
  • Programme Chair: 30th British Machine Vision Conference, 9-12 September 2019, Cardiff UK.
  • Chair: 16th Conference on Medical Image Understanding and Analysis, 9-11 July 2012, Swansea UK.
  • Chair: BMVA Computer Vision Summer School 2014, 30 June - 4 July 2014, Swansea UK.
  • Chair: EPSRC Network Meeting on Patient-Specific Meeting, half-day session on "Imaging, Segmentation and Meshing", April 2011.
  • Chair: Shape Analysis and Deformable Modeling, ICPRAM Special Session 2012.
  • Chair: Segmentation and Registration for Biomedical Applications, mini-symposium in CMBE 2013.
  • Chair: Shape and Deformable Modelling in Biomedical Image Analysis, mini-symposium/special session in CMBE 2009 & CMBE2011.
  • Co-chair: RIVIC Visual Computing Graduate School 2010.
  • Co-chair: Methods of Image Processing and Analysis for Biomedical Applications, mini-symposium/special session in CMBE 2015.
  • Co-chair: Segmentation of Anatomical Soft Tissue Regions in Medical Data, BMVA Technical Meeting 2008.
  • Area Chair: BMVC2023, BMVC2022, BMVC2018, BMVC2017, BMVC2016, BMVC 2015
  • Session Chair: MIUA2013, MIUA 2009, CMBE 2009 & CMBE 2011, SITIS 2007.
  • Keynote: Gradient Leakage and Defence in Federated Learning", 17th International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology, Dubai, October 2024.
  • Keynote: "Deformable Model in Segmentation and Tracking", AMDO 2012, July 2012.
  • Conference Tutorial: SITIS December 2007.
  • Grant Referee:
    • Major research councils, including EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, NISCHR, Luxembourg National Research Fund, Canadian Research Council, and various charities such as Leverhulme.
  • External Examiner:
    • External PhD Examiner - Jinlai Ning, Feature Extraction for Tiny Object Detection, Kind College London, 2024.
    • External PhD Examiner - Mario A. Lino Valencia, Data-Driven Deep-Learning Methods for the Accelerated Simulation of Eulerian Fluid Dynamics, Imperial College London, 2023.
    • External PhD Examiner - Yang Bai, Towards Interactive-level Video Action Understanding, Durham University, 2023.
    • External PhD Examiner - Kunhao Yuan, Learning effective feature representations for image semantic segmentation, Bangor University, 2023.
    • External PhD Examiner - Tianci, Wen, Registration of 3D models to 2D X-ray images using fast X-ray simulation and global optimisation algorithms, Bangor University, 2023.
    • External PhD Examiner - Mina Jafari, Improvement of Model Performance and Generalisability of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Medical Image Segmentation, Nottingham University, June 2022.
    • External PhD Examiner - Adam D. Byerly, ANALYTICAL SUFFICIENCY OF DATA USING HOMOGENEOUS VECTOR CAPSULES, Brunnel University, May 2022.
    • External EngD Examiner - Valentin Miu, Augmented Reality with Machine Learning on Smartphones for Beauty Applications, Bournemouth University, February 2022.
    • External PhD Examiner - Yibao Sun, Computational Histopathological Analysis based on Deep Learning, Queen Mary, London, January 2022.
    • External PhD Examiner - Dimitrios Bellos, Denoising and Semantic Segmentation of 4D datasets with Undersampled micro X-ray CTs using Deep Learning, Nottingham, April 2021.
    • External PhD Examiner - Naif Alshammari, Towards Real-Time Semantic Segmentation for Automotive Sensing in Adverse Environmental Conditions via Domain Adaptation and Invariant Representation, Durham, January 2021.
    • External PhD Examiner - Jack Harri Latham, Signal Processing and Machine Learning Techniques for Doppler Ultrasound Haemodynamic Measurement, Cardiff, November 2020.
    • External PhD Examiner - Marcel Tella Amo, Efficient drift-free mosaicking of fetoscopic videos using an electromagnetic tracker, UCL, March 2019.
    • External PhD Examiner - Manu Goyal, Novel Computer Vision Techniques to Identify Diabetic Foot Ulcers and Common Diabetic Foot Problems, Manchester Metropolitan, April 2019.
    • External examiner for MSc in Computational and Software Techniques in Engineering, Cranfield University, 1 October 2013 to 30 September 2018;
    • External PhD Examiner - H. Shen, Automatic Brain Tumour Segmentation based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging using Machine Learning Techniques, Dundee University, May 2018;
    • External PhD Examiner - Ashwan Abdulmunem, Human Action Recognition using Saliency-based Global and Local Features, Cardiff University, October 2017;
    • External PhD Examiner - Mang Shao, Outlier Removal in Real-Time Object Recognition and Pose Estimation, Imperial College London, July 2017;
    • External PhD Examiner - Serkan Çimen, Reconstruction of Coronary Arteries from X-ray Rotational Angiography, PhD, Sheffield University, March 2017;
    • External PhD Examiner - Julia Dietlmeier, A Machine Learning Approach to Unsupervised Segmentation of Mitochondria in Subcellular Electron Microscopy Data, PhD, Dublin City University, August 2016;
    • External PhD Examiner - Alexandros Neophytou, Data driven models of human shape, pose and garment deformation, PhD, Surrey University, July 2015;
    • External PhD Examiner - Ningyu AN, Hierarchical Image Segmentation via Efficient Image Decomposition and Texture Characterization based Region Merging, PhD, University of Macau, April 2014;
    • External PhD Examiner - Ziming Zeng, Medical Image Segmentation on Multimodality Images, PhD, Aberystwyth University, May 2013;
    • External PhD Examiner - Bartlomiej Wladyslaw PAPIEZ, Diffeomorphic image registration with applications to deformation modelling between multiple data sets, PhD, University Central Lancashire, May 2012;
    • External PhD Examiner - Muayed S Al-Huseiny, On Analysing Deformable Moving Objects, PhD, Southampton University, November 2011;
    • External PhD Reviewer - Adolfo Martinez Uso, Unsupervised Band Selection and Segmentation in Hyper/Multispectral Images, PhD, Universitat Jaume I, Spain, June 2008;

  • Internal Examiner: PhD - 2, MPhil - 1, Research Masters - 3.
  • NISCHR Faculty Lead Researcher, since August 2013.
  • Memeber of: IEEE (Senior Member since 2013, Member 2007 - 2012, Student Member 2003 - 2006), IEE (2006-2007), and BMVA (since 2002).
  • Journal Referee: >20, including:
    • International Journal of Computer Vision,
    • IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence,
    • IEEE Transactions on Image Processing,
    • IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging,
    • IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering,
    • IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics,
    • IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics,
    • IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications,
    • IET Computer Vision,
    • Pattern Analysis and Applications,
    • Pattern Recognition Letters,
    • International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence,
    • International Journal of Image and Graphics,
    • International Journal of Numerical Methods for Biomedical Engineering,
    • Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation,
    • Journal of Image and Video Processing,
    • Journal of the Optical Society of America A,
    • Journal of Real Time Image Processing,
    • Neural Processing Letters,
  • Programme/Technical Committee:
    • BMVC 2010 - 2022,
    • IEEE SMC 2016, IEEE SMC 2014, IEEE SMC 2013,
    • ICPR2018, ICPR2016, ICPR2014, ICPR2012, ICPR 2010, ICPR 2008,
    • CVMP2013, CVMP2014,
    • ICPRAM 2019, ICPRAM 2017, ICPRAM 2016, ICPRAM 2015, ICPRAM 2014, ICPRAM 2012,
    • AVSS 2013,
    • CAIP 2019, CAIP 2017, CAIP 2015, CAIP 2013,
    • ICIAR 2017, ICIAR 2016, ICIAR 2015,
    • ICACCI 2016,
    • CMVIT 2017,
    • IASTED Technical Committee on Image Processing 2008-2011,
    • SPPRA 2009,
    • SIGGRAPH 2009 (reviewer),
    • EuroGraphics 2009 & 2011 (reviewer),
    • IWICP 2014,
    • MIUA2017, MIUA2016, MIUA 2015, MIUA 2014, MIUA 2013, MIUA 2012, MIUA 2011, MIUA 2010, MIUA 2009, MIUA 2008, MIUA 2006, MIUA 2005,
    • EMBC 2006,
    • CMVIT 2017.

Teaching:

  • CSC377/M77 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (level 3, MSc and MRes, since 2009)
  • CSC345/M45 Big Data and Machine Learning (level 3 and Masters, 2015-2021)
  • CS-M00 Research Methodology (all Master Level, since 2011, 10% contribution)
  • CS-M70 Visual Computing Project Development (MRes, since 2011)
  • CS-115 Programming 2 (level 1, 2011 -2015)
  • CS-099 Computers Unplugged (level 0, 2012, 10% contribution)
  • CS-126x Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science II (level 1, 2010)

Admin:

  • Head of Department (since 2021)
  • Departmental REF output coordinator (since 2017)
  • Department Ethics Committee Chair (2016 - 2021)
  • Programme Coordinator (incl. Recruitment and Admissions): MSc Data Science (since 2017)
  • Programme Coordinator (incl. Recruitment and Admissions): MRes in Visual Computing (since 2010)
  • Programme Coordinator (incl. Recruitment and Admissions): MSc by Research in Visual Computing (since 2011)
  • Foundation-year head (2011 - 2016)
  • Programme Coordinator: MSc with specialism in Visual Computing (2011- 2015)
  • General Teaching Management: University and Subject Statistics (2010)
  • Engagement and Impact Committee (co-opted): University and Subject Statistics (2010)
  • Departmental Seminar Coordination (2008 - 2010)
  • Visual Computing Research Away-Day 2009