Profiles
Dr Ian Howard
Associate Professor Computational Neuroscience
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics (Faculty of Science and Engineering)
Dr Ian Howard can be contacted through arrangement with our Press Office, to speak to the media on these areas of expertise.
- Human sensorimotor control
- Robotic manipulanda
- Motor learning
- Bimanual movement
- Computational modelling
- Infant speech acquisition
Email publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk to enquire.
Biography
Biography
My research covers a range of periods in brain development as well as different motor systems: from the acquisition of speech in infants to the learning of novel arm movement in adults. In addition, I have designed and built a range of novel robotic interfaces which have facilitated research both in our laboratory and in groups in the UK and internationally. I have a background in electronic and electrical engineering, speech science and motor neuroscience, which allows me to adopt a multidisciplinary approach.
Qualifications
Education/Qualifications
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering, B.Sc.(Eng.), University College London
- PhD, Speech Fundamental Period Estimation using Pattern Recognition, University College London
- PostDoc, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge
Professional membership
- Society for the Neural Control of Movement
- Society for Neuroscience
- International Speech Communication Association (ISCA)
- MIET
Key publications
(2015) 'The value of the follow-through derives from motor learning depending on future actions' Curr Biol 25, (3) 397-401 , DOI Open access
(2014) 'Learning to pronounce first words in three languages: an investigation of caregiver and infant behavior using a computational model of an infant' PLoS One 9, (10) , DOI Open access
(2013) 'The effect of contextual cues on the encoding of motor memories' J Neurophysiol 109, (10) 2632-2644 , DOI Open access
(2012) 'Gone in 0.6 seconds: the encoding of motor memories depends on recent sensorimotor states' J Neurosci 32, (37) 12756-12768 , DOI Open access
(2011) 'Modeling the development of pronunciation in infant speech acquisition' Motor Control 15, (1) 85-117 Open access
(2010) 'Context-Dependent Partitioning of Motor Learning in Bimanual Movements' JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 104, (4) 2082-2091 , DOI Open access
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching interests
Module leader for:
- ROCO351 Machine Learning for Robotics
- ROCO219 Control Engineering
- ROCO224 Introduction to Robotics
Previously module leader for:
- AINT516Z Topics in Advanced Intelligent Robotics
- ROCO222 Introduction to Sensors and Actuators
- SOFT561 Robot Software Engineering
- SOFT141 Network Programming
Research
Research
Research interests
I am actively involved in neuroscience research and the study of the human motor system, with particular emphasis on arm and hand movements. This research involves running experiments with people, developing computational models of arm movement control based on control engineering and machine learning approachesI also design and build physical robotic systems to both investigate and test theories of motor control, as well as building robots to perform useful tasks, with a particular focus on Agri-Tech robots for fruit harvesting.
In addition, I work on speech processing using deep neural networks to estimate characteristics of speech such as characteristics of voicing and estimating the presence of voice pathology.
See robotic lab facilities here:
Publications
Publications
Key publications
(2015) 'The value of the follow-through derives from motor learning depending on future actions' Curr Biol 25, (3) 397-401 , DOI Open access
(2014) 'Learning to pronounce first words in three languages: an investigation of caregiver and infant behavior using a computational model of an infant' PLoS One 9, (10) , DOI Open access
(2013) 'The effect of contextual cues on the encoding of motor memories' J Neurophysiol 109, (10) 2632-2644 , DOI Open access
(2012) 'Gone in 0.6 seconds: the encoding of motor memories depends on recent sensorimotor states' J Neurosci 32, (37) 12756-12768 , DOI Open access
(2011) 'Modeling the development of pronunciation in infant speech acquisition' Motor Control 15, (1) 85-117 Open access
(2010) 'Context-Dependent Partitioning of Motor Learning in Bimanual Movements' JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 104, (4) 2082-2091 , DOI Open access
Key publications are highlighted
Journals
Articles
(2023) 'Dual Mode Control of an Inverted Pendulum: Design, Analysis and Experimental Evaluation' Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal V 8, (6) 120-143 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
(2023) 'Design and Prototyping of a 3DOF Worm-drive Robot Arm' Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal 8, (5) 77-93 , DOI Open access
(2023) 'In silico prediction of acute chemical toxicity of biocides in marine crustaceans using machine learning' Science of The Total Environment 887, , DOI Open access
(2023) 'Prior Movement of One Arm Facilitates Motor Adaptation in the Other' The Journal of Neuroscience 43, (23) 4341-4351 , DOI Open access
(2022) 'Assessing reactive violence using Immersive Virtual Reality' PLoS One 17, (5) , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Asymmetry in kinematic generalization between visual and passive lead-in movements are consistent with a forward model in the sensorimotor system' PLOS ONE 15, (1) e0228083-e0228083 , DOI Open access
(2019) 'Alcohol, empathy, and morality: acute effects of alcohol consumption on affective empathy and moral decision-making' Psychopharmacology , DOI Open access
(2017) 'Virtual morality in the helping professions: Simulated action and resilience' British Journal of Psychology 109, (3) 442-465 , DOI Open access
(2017) 'Simulating Moral Actions: An Investigation of Personal Force in Virtual Moral Dilemmas' Scientific Reports 7, (1) 0-0 , DOI Open access
(2017) 'Active lead-in variability affects motor memory formation and slows motor learning' Scientific Reports , DOI Open access
(2017) 'Correction: Virtual Morality: Transitioning from Moral Judgment to Moral Action?' PLoS ONE 12, (1) e0170133-e0170133 , DOI Open access
(2016) 'Virtual Morality: Transitioning from Moral Judgment to Moral Action?' PLOS ONE 11, (10) 0-0 , DOI Open access
(2016) 'Adaptive tuning functions arise from visual observation of past movement' Scientific reports Publisher Site , DOI Open access
(2015) 'Creating the cognitive form of phonological units: The speech sound correspondence problem in infancy could be solved by mirrored vocal interactions rather than by imitation' Journal of Phonetics 53, 125-140 , DOI Open access
(2015) 'Enhanced cross-limb transfer of force field learning for dynamics that are identical in extrinsic and joint-based coordinates for both limbs' J Neurophysiol. Open access
(2015) 'Neural Tuning Functions Underlie Both Generalization and Interference' PLOS ONE 10, (6) e0131268-e0131268 , DOI Open access
(2015) 'The value of the follow-through derives from motor learning depending on future actions' Curr Biol 25, (3) 397-401 , DOI Open access
(2014) 'Learning to pronounce first words in three languages: an investigation of caregiver and infant behavior using a computational model of an infant' PLoS One 9, (10) , DOI Open access
(2013) 'The effect of contextual cues on the encoding of motor memories' J Neurophysiol 109, (10) 2632-2644 , DOI Open access
(2012) 'Gone in 0.6 seconds: the encoding of motor memories depends on recent sensorimotor states' J Neurosci 32, (37) 12756-12768 , DOI Open access
(2012) 'Speech Development: Toddlers Don't Mind Getting It Wrong' CURRENT BIOLOGY 22, (5) R160-R161 , DOI Open access
(2011) 'A Single-Rate Context-Dependent Learning Process Underlies Rapid Adaptation to Familiar Object Dynamics' PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY 7, (9) , DOI Open access
(2011) 'Separate representations of dynamics in rhythmic and discrete movements: evidence from motor learning' JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 105, (4) 1722-1731 , DOI Open access
(2011) 'Modeling the development of pronunciation in infant speech acquisition' Motor Control 15, (1) 85-117 Open access
(2010) 'Multiple Grasp-Specific Representations of Tool Dynamics Mediate Skillful Manipulation' CURRENT BIOLOGY 20, (7) 618-623 , DOI Open access
(2010) 'Context-Dependent Partitioning of Motor Learning in Bimanual Movements' JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 104, (4) 2082-2091 , DOI Open access
(2009) 'Statistics of Natural Movements Are Reflected in Motor Errors' JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 102, (3) 1902-1910 , DOI Open access
(2009) 'A modular planar robotic manipulandum with end-point torque control' JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE METHODS 181, (2) 199-211 , DOI Open access
(2008) 'Composition and Decomposition in Bimanual Dynamic Learning' JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE 28, (42) 10531-10540 , DOI Open access
(2008) 'The statistics of natural hand movements' EXPERIMENTAL BRAIN RESEARCH 188, (2) 223-236 , DOI Open access
(2005) 'Learning to control an articulatory synthesizer by imitating real speech' ZAS Papers in Linguistics 40, 63-78 , DOI
(2004) 'A Neuroeconomics Approach to Inferring Utility Functions in Sensorimotor Control' PLoS Biology 2, (10) e330-e330 , DOI Open access
(1990) 'Real-time portable multi-layer perceptron voice fundamental-period extractor for hearing aids and cochlear implants' Speech Communication 9, (1) 63-72 , DOI Open access
Chapters
(2018) 'Characterization of Neural Tuning: Visual Lead-in Movements Generalize in Speed and Distance' Biosystems & Biorobotics Springer International Publishing 1030-1033 , DOI Open access
Conference Papers
(2023) 'Design and Kinematic Analysis of a 3D-Printed 3DOF Robotic Manipulandum' Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems 2023 , DOI Open access
(2023) 'Training a CNN to Estimate Voice Pathology from Connected Speech Using EGG to Automatically Label the Dataset for Voicing' ESSV 2023 LMU Munich Germany 3-/-0/20233-/-0/2023Publisher Site Open access
(2022) 'Design and prototyping of a low-cost light weight fixed-endpoint orientation planar Cobot' 2022 International Conference on System Science and Engineering (ICSSE) 5-/-0/20225-/-0/2022IEEE , DOI Open access
(2022) 'Gain scheduling for state space control of a dual-mode inverted pendulum' 2022 International Conference on System Science and Engineering (ICSSE) 5-/-0/20225-/-0/2022IEEE , DOI Open access
(2021) 'A Real-time Double Emulsion Droplets Detection System using Hough Circle Transform and Color Detection' 2021 27th International Conference on Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice (M2VIP) 1-/-1/20211-/-1/2021IEEE , DOI Open access
(2021) '3D Printed Mechanically Modular Two-Degree-Of-Freedom Robotic Segment Utilizing Variable-Stiffness Actuators' Springer International Publishing 228-237 , DOI Open access
(2021) 'GLOTTAL CLOSURE INSTANT DETECTION USING ECHO STATE NETWORKS' ESSV 2021 Berlin Publisher Site Open access
(2021) 'MACHINE LEARNING ANALYSIS OF SPEECH AND EGG FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF VOICE PATHOLOGY' ESSV 2021 Berlin Publisher Site Open access
(2021) 'EtherCAT Implementation of a Variable-Stiffness Tendon Drive with Non-back-Drivable Worm-Gear Motor Actuation' Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems Springer International Publishing 381-390 , DOI Open access
(2021) 'State Space Analysis of Variable-Stiffness Tendon Drive with Non-back-Drivable Worm-Gear Motor Actuation' Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems Springer International Publishing 294-303 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Speech Fundamental Period Estimation using a Neural Network' ESSV 2020 Magdeburg Publisher Site Open access
(2019) 'A Modular 3D-Printed Inverted Pendulum' Springer International Publishing 413-424 , DOI Open access
(2019) 'MODELLING VOWEL ACQUISITION USING THE BIRKHOLZ SYNTHESIZER' ESSV 2019 Dresden Publisher Site Open access
(2018) 'USING STATE FEEDBACK TO CONTROL AN ARTICULATORY SYNTHESIZER' ESSV 2018 Ulm Publisher Site Open access
(2017) 'Robotic actuation of a 2D mechanical vocal tract' ESSV 2017 Saarbrücken Publisher Site Open access
(2012) '31.1: <i>Invited Paper</i>: Programmable Electrostatic Surface for Tactile Perceptions' Wiley 407-410 , DOI
(2011) 'MODELLING CAREGIVER TUTORED DEVELOPMENT OF PRONUNCIATION IN A YOUNG CHILD' ESSV 2011 Aachen Open access
(2011) 'THE COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF ELIJA: A MODEL OF A YOUNG CHILD THAT LEARNS TO PRONOUNCE' ESSV 2011 Aachen Open access
(2010) 'Workspace comparisons of setup configurations for human-robot interaction' 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010) 0-/-1/20100-/-1/2010IEEE , DOI Open access
(2009) 'KLAIR: a virtual infant for spoken language acquisition research' Interspeech 2009 ISCA , DOI Open access
(2008) 'Modeling motor pattern generation in the development of infant speech production' 165-168 Open access
(1993) 'NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN SPEECH PATTERN ELEMENT HEARING-AIDS FOR THE PROFOUNDLY DEAF' 124-135
(1991) 'Further developments of a neural network speech fundamental period estimation algorithm' 340-344 Open access
(1991) 'Feature extracting hearing aids for the profoundly deaf using a neural network implemented on a TMS320C51 digital signal processor' Final Program and Paper Summaries 1991 IEEE ASSP Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics 0-/-1/19910-/-1/1991IEEE , DOI
(1989) 'The implementation of a portable real-time multilayer-perceptron speech fundamental period estimator' First European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 1989) ISCA , DOI
(1989) 'AUTOMATIC PHONETIC FEATURE LABELLING OF CONTINUOUS SPEECH' 2565-2568
(1987) 'SPEECH FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY ESTIMATION BY MULTI-CHANNEL PEAK-PICKING' 1318-1321
(1987) 'SPEECH FUNDAMENTAL PERIOD ESTIMATION BY A NOVEL PARALLEL PROCESSING METHOD' 1309-1312
(1987) 'THE APPLICATION OF ADAPTIVE CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION NETWORKS TO ACOUSTIC PHONETIC ATTRIBUTE DETERMINATION' 1075-1078
(1986) 'TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE OPERATION OF REAL-TIME FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY EXTRACTORS' 172-177
(1966) 'Quantitative comparisons between time domain speech fundamental frequency estimation algorithms,' Institute of Acoustics, Windermere, 1986 Open access
Presentations and posters
'P-20 Motor imagery of linked movements enhances motor adaptation' , DOI
'P-94 Prior movement of one arm can facilitate motor adaptation in the other' , DOI
'Human Evaluation of Robotic Grippers for Berry Picking' Open access