William H.A. BEAUDOT was born in France in 1969. He received his MS degrees in
Computer Science and in Computational Modelling, both with distinction,
from the "Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble" (INPG) in 1992
and from the "Université Joseph
Fourier de Grenoble" (UJF) in 1993, respectively. He obtained his
PhD in Computer Science from INPG/UJF with the highest distinction in 1994.
Between 1991 and 1994, he was involved in the field of theoretical neurocybernetics as Research Assistant at the Laboratory of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition (TIRF) under the direction of Professor Jeanny Hérault. He investigated the neural information processing in the vertebrate retina, and proposed a new model of the retinal computation that links its biophysical, neural, and functional aspects. He emphasized more specifically the dynamical properties of the retinal processing (coarse-to-fine processing, motion analysis, light and contrast adaptation). He was also engaged in the Analog VLSI design of Silicon Retinas based on his theoretical models.
In 1995 he joined the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM SA, Neuchâtel, Switzerland) as a R&D Engineer in the field of neuromorphic systems. As a member of the Bio-Inspired Advanced Research Department of the "Integrated Circuits and Systems Division" directed by Professor Eric Vittoz, he was involved in several projects relying on the concept of "Analog VLSI for Perception" and dealing with learning (Optical Character Recognition), olfaction (Electronic Nose), ocular saccades and visual attention (Bionic Eye), and colour & motion cortical processing (Multi-Chips Based Vision System).
In 1997 he joined the McGill Vision Research Unit (Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University, Montréal, Canada) in the laboratory of Professor Kathy Mullen as Postdoctoral Fellow first and later as Research Associate. He investigated the spatial and temporal factors on colour vision from a psychophysical perspective. His training in visual psychophysics was partly funded by the French Fyssen Foundation. He also collaborated with Professor Robert Hess on the dynamics of shape perception using the contour integration paradigm.
In late 2003 he founded in Montréal (Québec, Canada) his privately-owned company "KYBERVISION Consulting, Research & Development" which specializes in visual sciences with the unique ability of providing a multidisciplinary and integrative approach for solving vision-related problems. In 2015 KyberVision was relocated in Sendai (Miyagi, Japan) and renamed "KyberVision Japan LLC". More recently he has been invited professor at Tohoku University and Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai (Miyagi, Japan) in 2013 and 2014 respectively. He is currently President & Chief Scientist at KyberVision Japan LLC in Sendai.
Dr. Beaudot's research interests involve both computational and biological vision sciences and their industrial and clinical applications, as well as neuromorphic engineering, high-performance computing and intelligent technologies applied to visionics and visual rehabilitation. He has presented his research works in numerous international conferences, and published in renowned scientific journals. He is also acting as a regular reviewer in several of these journals.