Autonomous Vehicle Technical Advisor
2020 - 2024
Team Principal
2018 - 2020
Deputy Team Principal
2017 - 2018
Electronics & Software Engineer
2015 - 2018
I’m a research scientist specialising at the intersection of the human brain and information processing, with a strong foundation in physics, computer science, and machine learning. I am particularly interested in developing new non-invasive techniques to understand the human brain, to improve health outcomes and inform the design of new systems for efficient, scalable computation. I’m also fascinated by the science of learning, intelligence and consciousness in biological and artificial systems.
Professional Experience
University of Glasgow - Research Associate in Neurophotonics
Apr 2024 - Present
European Space Agency - Fly Your Thesis
2021 - 2022
University of Glasgow - Graduate Teaching Assistant
2020 - 2023
MBDA UK - Guidance, Control & Navigation Intern
2018
UGRacing Formula Student (FSAE) Team
2015 - 2024
Education
PhD Physics - Optimisation of Optical Neuromorphic Computing Systems
2020 - 2024
MSci Physics
2015 - 2020
Masters Thesis - MHD Analysis of Field-Aligned Plasma Flow
2020
Further Academic Activities
Machine Learning in Science - Committee
2021 - Present
Software Upskilling for Researchers - Committee
2024 - Present
Selected Scholarships, Awards & Funding
Award
SPIE Machine Learning in Photonics - Best student paper award
2024
Scholarship
Peter MacGuire Bequest (£2k)
2023
Award
Dougall Prize: Most distinguished students in Mathematics
2017
Selected Talks & Outreach
Invited Talk
Quantum Reservoir Computing Working Party - Photon Number-Resolved Quantum Reservoir Computing.
Oct 24
Talk
SPIE Photonics Europe - Optical neural networks trained in situ with reinforcement learning.
Apr 24
Selected Skills
Programming
Python, C++, CUDA, Mathematica, MATLAB, Rust, JS
Technologies
Git, Linux, JAX, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Numpy, Scipy, Keras, Deepmind ML ecosystem, Docker, ROS2, HTML, CSS, OpenCV, LaTeX, Blender
Electronics
PCB design & manufacture, embedded systems programming, ARM microprocessors
Open Source Contributions
Publications
- Nerenberg* S., Neill* OD., Marcucci G. and Faccio D., “Photon number-resolving quantum reservoir computing”, Optica Quantum 3, 201-210 (2025), 10.1364/OPTICAQ.553294
- Neill OD., Nerenberg S., Marcucci G. and Faccio D., “Quantum reservoir computing with linear photonic networks” Quantum Computing, Communication, and Simulation V, PC133910O, SPIE. (2025), 10.1117/12.3037751
- Neill OD., “Optimisation of optical neuromorphic computing systems” (2024), 10.5525/gla.thesis.84943
- Neill OD. and Faccio D., “Optical neural networks trained in situ with reinforcement learning” Machine Learning in Photonics, 13017, SPIE. (2024), 10.1117/12.3021870
- Neill OD. and Faccio D., “Gradient-Free Optimisation of Photonic Neural Networks”. International Conference on Neuromorphic, Natural and Physical Computing, (2023)