Dr Avon Huxor

I am a lecturer in the Computer Science department.

My background is diverse. After a degree in Architecture and Planning, I obtained an MA(RCA) from the Royal College of Art in Design Theory, and which led me into the field of Artificial Intelligence. After some years researching explainable AI at the European Computer-Industry Research Centre in Munich, I returned to the UK to undertake a PhD in the subject, in which I argued that AI is better understood as a medium for the communication of knowledge between people than as a mimic for human performance.

In 2000, partly as a consequence of the AI winter, I started to re-skill in an old passion of mine - astronomy. After an MSc and PhD in astrophysics from the Univesrity of Hertfordshire I spent many years as a research (observational) astronomer at the Universities of Bristol, Edinbirgh and, latterly, Heidelberg.

In 2015, I moved back to the UK, and into Data Science and Machine Learning, with an MSc in these subjects from the University of Bristol. I remained at Bristol for a few years as a research associate and data scientist working on medical texts, before moving to Exeter in August of 2020.

Details can be found on my ORCID site.