Dr Sean Holden is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, and a member of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Group in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge.
He began his career as an electronic engineer, obtaining a BSc in Electronic Systems Engineering from the University of East Anglia in 1989. While he was an undergraduate he increasingly felt drawn to the more mathematical areas of the subject, and consequently began to move in this direction, initially by joining the Signal Processing and Communications Group in Cambridge University Engineering Department, completing his PhD in Information Engineering in 1994.
He briefly did postdoctoral work in the Signals, Circuits and Systems Research Group at King's College London, before moving back to Cambridge to do further postdoctoral research in the Speech, Vision and Robotics Group, again part of the Cambridge University Engineering Department.
In 1995 he joined the Department of Computer Science at University College London (UCL) as a Lecturer, where he stayed until September 2002. While at UCL he set up and ran the advanced MSc in Intelligent Systems. Since October 2002 he has been Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in Machine Learning in his current post at Cambridge University, and a Fellow of Trinity College, where he is currently Director of Studies in Computer Science.
He is a former Junior Member of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences.
He is known for his research on both theoretical and applied machine learning, and has research interests in theoretical models for supervised learning, Bayesian inference, bioinformatics, and in incorporating machine learning into automated theorem provers.
He is the prolific author of more than 40 academic articles, and a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Artificial Intelligence Review along with numerous Program Committees. He is active in the media (for instance TEDx at Leamington Spa in 2016) and a frequently invited speaker. In his leisure time, he plays numerous instruments in the bands Underground Zero and Cruel Folk, playing regularly on the UK festival circuit, and a practitioner of Yoga.