This conference itself focuses on the important role mathematics plays in science and technology within the defence sector. It aims to bring together a wide variety of engineers, scientists and mathematicians working on defence and security applications. The work of Iain's EngD with Thales and the Visionlab produces a novel and efficient solution for object detection and classification in surveillance using long-wave infra-red and visual band sensors  The work deploys Bayesian statistics to transfer knowledge from the visible to the thermal domain, allowing thermal signatures to be classified without any extensive machine learning or training scheme. The proposed solution shows promise for Thales sensor systems and would be applicable to 24-hour surveillance problems. Iain is now focusing on new methods for deep learning of target signatures from LWIR data from Thales world-leading Catherine MP sensor. "
 
Iain commented, "It is especially pleasing for the work of this collaboration to be recognised by the defence community which has a keen awareness of the ongoing challenges in optical surveillance. It is recognition also of the good collaboration established between the Visionlab and Thales in Glasgow."