Phone number: 0121 204 4991

Email: p.weber1@aston.ac.uk

Room number: MB214N

I am a lecturer in computer science and member of the Aston Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Applications (ACAIRA), and Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL), specifically the Forensic Data Science Laboratory (FDSL).  My current research is in forensic voice comparison (which uses state of the art tools developed for automatic speaker recognition). I am also interested in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), particularly in low resource settings, and Business Process Mining. I worked in the speech group at the University of Birmingham on the former, developing parsimonious models for ASR inspired by human speech perception and production. My PhD was in the latter, with applications in business and healthcare. My general interests revolve around machine learning, data analytics and AI, with a specific focus on how to use data (effectively and efficiently) and how to be confident in results. My journey at Aston started as a member of the highly-regarded Think Beyond Data (ERDF System Analytics for Innovation) project providing free consultancy in artificial intelligence, data analytics and machine learning to SMEs in the Greater Birmingham, Black Country and Marches areas. Before academia I spent time in industry on systems integration, data analytics, systems administration and data management.

Forensic data science, forensic speech science, automatic speech recognition (ASR), automatic speaker recognition, machine learning, artificial Intelligence (AI), Business process mining, Speech Science.

Following a 1st class (hons) batchelor's degree in Computer Science from Loughborough University, I worked in several industries as an analyst programmer, systems integrator, Unix and storage systems administrator and technologist before returning to academia at the University of Birmingham in 2008 to gain an MSc (distinction) in Advanced Computer Science and a PhD for my thesis "A framework for the analysis and comparison of Process Mining algorithms" (2014).  I have since held several research fellowships, in Automatic Speech Recognition, Automated conflict resolution in clinical processes (Birmingham), ERDF-funded AI and data analytics consultancy to SMEs (Think Beyond Data, Aston), and forensic speech science. I now work as a lecturer and researcher in AI and forensic data science.

Current

CS2IS and CS4520 Information Security

CS32DF Digital Forensics

CS4700, CS4705 (MSc) & CS3IP (BSc) Project supervision

DC4000 Professional Practice (DTS)

DC4400 Individual Project (DTS)

APEC MSc Professional Engineering (supervision)

Past

LEM104 Forensic Inference and Statistics

DC4200 Data Analytics (DTS)

CS4720 AI Vision and Reality