Team

After completing a PhD in computer vision (Cambridge University), Duncan established an engineering consultancy business with the goal of facilitating the commercialization of cutting-edge machine learning and computer vision technology. He has worked closely with a variety of clients such as Microsoft Research and Samsung. He has had a pivotal role in the success of high-growth technology start-ups including Metail (Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer) and TrialReach (CSO). Duncan has authored numerous patents and high-profile technical publications. He is also an active angel investor, and has invested in and advised several exciting technology businesses including HowdyHub and FlyLogix. In his free time, Duncan enjoys windsurfing, sailing, piano, art collecting, and heritage building restoration.

Having studied undergraduate Engineering Mathematics at Bristol, Ed spent a year cycling solo from Vancouver to Buenos Aires. Since then, his self-evident tenacity and initiative have been put to equally good use in the world of technology start-ups – of which he has gained considerable experience. He was a founder member of the R&D team at Metail and an engineering consultant at Redimension. His roles have spanned writing cutting edge research software to building mechanical mannequins for garment photography. He is an inventor of several patents.

Frank is an experienced automation engineer and project manager both in industry and consultancy. At The Automation Partnership (now TAP Biosystems) he led large robotics developments, including all automation for the UK Biobank’s POLAR automated sample store which contains 10M blood samples – for which he came runner up in the MacRobert Engineering Award. More recently he led the Systems Development Group at 42 Technology, developing innovative automated processes for several clients. He has a M.Eng. degree from Cambridge University, and recently completed his MBA.

Dr Nick Scott has almost thirty years experience of manufacturing and engineering. Having studied Manufacturing Engineering Tripos at Cambridge University, he gained a PhD in complex systems whilst working full time in an operations leadership role. He has spent time in both consulting and manufacturing. Starting out as a special purpose machine designer, he has worked in precision engineering manufacture of capital equipment, inkjet printing, IoT devices, medical devices and fast moving consumer goods. Trained in lean manufacturing by Shingijutsu, his lean manufacturing transformations have won three international “most improved” plant awards. Additionally, he has improved operational performance in the NHS, utilities, logistics, government and a charity. When not enjoying his work Nick runs, has an engineer’s workshop at home and stands next to football pitches and basketball courts embarrassing his sons.

Mat was awarded the highly prestigious MacRobert Engineering Award in recognition of his role within the Microsoft Research team that developed the body tracking software at the heart of Microsoft Kinect (>20M units sold). However, as well as being an extremely talented software engineer, Mat is also one of a rare breed of technologists who is equally at home in front of an electronics bench, milling machine, or welding gun. This, added to his track record of managing the development of complex engineering systems, makes him the ideal person to head up Dogtooth’s technology team.

Cat joins our Electronics Engineering department and brings to Dogtooth her experience of solving difficult EMC, CE, traceability and safety-critical problems. She combines her understanding of digital, analog, PCB layout and FPGAs with her enjoyment of process management.

Cat spent 8 years prior to Dogtooth working on engineering projects across Aerospace & Defence, Medical, Life Sciences and Industrial sectors. This includes many exciting projects that she sadly can’t tell us about, but she will talk enthusiastically about her early chartership with the IET.

She holds a Masters Degree in Electronics Engineering from Durham University.

When Cat isn’t designing, debugging and improving electronic systems and processes she likes to play badminton, bridge, board games and has a passion for chocolate. We are assured these are not all at the same time.

Tom is a mechanical engineer with experience in design and analysis of systems ranging across the consumer, medical, and industrial sectors. His mechanical engineering skills are complimented by a good understanding of surrounding areas, and he has experience designing complex, multi-disciplinary systems. His previous experience includes technical leadership for the multi-million pound development of an industrial gas valve, and management of projects developing anything from novel drinks coolers to surgical devices. Tom holds a 1st class Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered engineer with the IMechE.

Natalie joins the Dogtooth team as a Quality Engineer. She holds a 1st class Master’s degree in Physics and a PhD on the electronic structure of 2-dimensional materials, both from The University of Warwick. Prior to joining Dogtooth she worked as a technical consultant in the field of mission critical radio communications. She is excited to combine her experience of working with government regulations and her technical background in a new field.

Outside of the office, Natalie enjoys climbing, hiking, and baking (primarily to fuel the other two).

Stephen joined our Manufacturing Department as a Build Technician in February 2019 at the start of his Engineering career. Growing up in Zimbabwe, his fascination for robotics manifested in his final year in A Level during an engineering project to build an extendable mechanical arm. From there, he moved back to the UK to complete an undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Derby and then a masters in Mechatronics and Robotics at the University of Leeds.

Tom has a first class degree in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. After four years as a postdoctoral researcher working in the field of computational statistics he left academia to pursue his dream of taking research out of the laboratory and using it to develop practical technologies of more immediate benefit to society. Since then he has worked on applying cutting edge machine learning techniques in the fields of cyber security and autonomous driving and, in his current role at Dogtooth technologies, to developing the next generation of agricultural robotics.

Anders has an MSc in Electrical Engineering & Complex Adaptive Systems from Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and a PhD in Transport Engineering from TU Dresden (Germany).

Following the completion of his PhD, Anders pursued a career in academia and has held positions at ETH Zurich, UCL and the University of Bristol; his research papers have been cited over 7,000 times; he has given around 50 keynote and invited talks; and his work has appeared in the news over a 100 times.

Anders is also a serial entrepreneur with a 15-year track record of delivering transformational AI/ML-powered technology solutions to solve pressing operational and safety challenges in projects such as (i) real-time tracking of three million pilgrims in Mecca to avoid crowd crushes; (ii) real-time optimisation to keep passengers flowing safely and efficiently in the world’s largest airports; and (iii) developing and commercialising predictive crowd modelling software used to plan FIFA World Cups, Olympic games and other major events.

Before joining Dogtooth, Anders was a co-founder and CTO of Crowd Vision Ltd (London, Los Angeles, Austin, Belfast); and he is also a part-time Associate Professor in Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol.

Tom is an Electromechanical Engineer with a PhD in miniaturised wearable humanoid robotics. He specialises in system architecture, integration and implementation, delivering large multidisciplinary projects across the medical and synthetic biology areas. Before joining Dogtooth, Tom lead a team that successfully encoded data into DNA; storing Wikipedia in DNA. Tom’s background allows him to deliver in both the mechanical and electronics disciplines. Tom received both his 1st class Engineering Degree and PhD from the University of Southampton. In his spare time, Tom Captains the Cambridge water polo team.

Dan grew up in South Africa and attended the University of Johannesburg, completing a degree in Business Management, Finance and Marketing. Since then he has led sales teams in Europe and more recently run his own business in South Africa. He brings a wealth of commercial experience to Dogtooth and is excited to be a part of the growth of the business as well as playing a part in the robotics revolution in the agricultural sector.

Away from work, Dan enjoys travelling and doing things with his wife, 2 daughters and 2 dogs. He has played competitive hockey for most of his life and has run the occasional Ultra Marathon.

Ruan Kendall is a Research Software Development Engineer with more than 10 years experience developing cutting-edge machine learning and computer vision software for commercial applications. As a consultant at Redimension he worked on behalf of a wide variety of clients, ranging from large multinationals (working on Kinect at Microsoft Research) to high-growth technology start-ups including Antidote and Metail.

Helen joined us at the start of 2022 as our Business Administrator, after spending the last 8 years running her own business in addition to administrative roles. Helen enjoys being busy and having a varied working environment, which she is embracing at Dogtooth, especially as the company grows with new innovations. In her free time, Helen enjoys spending time with family and friends, which usually involves good food and the odd glass of wine (or two).

After graduating from Birmingham University with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacture and Management, Paul joined Price Waterhouse and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He then moved out into industry, working in a variety of consumer and retail areas, before moving to Belgium in 2000 with Levi Strauss & Co. After five years working in Europe, Paul moved back to the UK, continued to work in retail, and also completed his MBA in 2007, specialising in the role of the accountant in Corporate Social Responsibly and was a member of the ICAEW CSR committee.

In 2013, Paul moved to Oslo, Norway and joined Specsavers, supporting the growth of their business in the Nordic region, most recently as Business Development Director, before relocating back to the UK in 2017. During his time in Oslo, Paul became a keen cross-country skier as well as a winter cyclist – commuting to work with studded tyres on ice alongside the fjord in winter darkness! Since leaving Specsavers, Paul has focussed on hi-tech start-ups, particularly business planning & strategy and the development of Business Intelligence within the Finance function.
Paul is married with two children, two cats and a dog. He enjoys all types of self-powered outdoor activities – cycling, kayaking, snowboarding to name but a few. He volunteers through his local church with the under-3s group, and with Helping Hands, an outreach to those in need of practical support in Bedford.

Nikita has completed his Masters in Human and Biological Robotics at ICL with Distinction, proceeding to work as a Postgraduate Researcher for Imperial College. He was working on a grant from DARPA to develop an autonomous drone, mimicking sensory-motor control utilised by flies. Nikita has also worked in a recruitment startup developing recommender systems and computer vision pipelines. In his current role with Dogtooth, Nikita is looking to combine knowledge from multiple fields to develop high quality software and machine learning solutions, propelling the business forwards. Nikita loves dark comedy, evolutionary biology and going to the gym in order to preserve his sanity.

We were fortunate to have Lisa join our team in 2020, initially on a casual basis. Since then she has made significant contributions in various roles. She started in the Operations team picking fruit and running robots and quickly progressed to managing our Machine-Learning annotation team on a full-time basis. Her thoughtful, motivational management approach as well as her belief in creating a positive and encouraging work environment where everyone is recognised for their contributions, made her the perfect fit for our new People Manager role. Lisa says “Before joining Dogtooth, my aim was to work for a company not only with a supportive work culture but also with authentic, like-minded individuals. I feel so grateful to have found that here.” In her free time, Lisa loves to bake, sing and keep fit.

Chris has joined Dogtooth recently after spending over 35 years in the Aerospace industry working in the UK and USA.

Originally technician apprentice trained at British Aerospace, he has since designed numerous aircraft cabin and interior programmes, from OEM customers like Airbus and Boeing to small and major airlines alike, facilitating their needs in an ever growing hunger for an enhanced cabin experience.

Chris has contributed in anything from the VIP interiors for the original Queen’s Flight aircraft to the stairs complexes on the Airbus A380 double decker aircraft!

With him specialising in floor-to-floor cabin interiors and structures you will have bound to have been seated in or utilised many of the aircraft facilities and furnishings he has been involved with!

He takes great pride in doing things right first time and enjoys the satisfaction of seeing months of team effort and dedication coming into service.

Interests include live music, motorsports, Audi cars and Dachshunds!

It’s a privilege to have been involved with the company since the very beginning, and very exciting watching the company grow and being a part of an innovative team.

Robert joins the Dogtooth team as Head of Electronics Engineering and brings his love of solving hard problems, designing robust systems and making robots. He has previously worked across defence, security, aerospace, healthcare and automotive sectors. When not at work he can be found designing, building and driving on silly electric vehicles and combat robotics.

Jess has recently graduated with a first class Agricultural Engineering degree from Harper Adams University. Jess worked in our Operations department running robots in the field whilst studying. Growing up on a fruit farm, Jess understands the struggles that horticulture is facing and is interested in developing solutions for the challenges the industry faces.

Ollie has been drawing robots since the age of 6, and occasionally still does. But as a man matures one should move on from drawing killer death machines from outer space, to building elegant agricultural robots. So it goes. Along with drawing robots, over the years he has drawn and painted lots of other things, sometimes in comic books, often on canvas, sometimes just a pretty thing to put on a wall. He’s also spent time as a Publican, notably successful at the helm of the first newly built pub in Cambridge for 32 years. There was a period in Education working with special needs, some time coaching rowing for the Colleges, and installing the exhibits at Kettles Yard for a number of years. There was also enough time for him to read Sociology at Leeds Met University. Bridging the gap between Art and Engineering, he brings an aesthetic sensibility, mechanical sympathy and an appetite for production. In his spare time he can be found making vast amounts of noise in his band, painting, playing cricket, thinking about going rowing again and building castles with his son.

Alvin is originally from St.Lucia and has spent the majority of his career providing solutions to small businesses, community organisations, local authorities and the corporate sector. After spending the last 9 years of his career at LSE, he was recognised for his contributions to the university as the Linux Specialist. Alvin brings to Dogtooth over 29 years technical experience, his mix of public and private sector experience makes a welcome addition to the bunch at Dogtooth.

Ji is a software engineer with twenty years experience in solving challenging problems. Ji has a wide range of expertise in software architecture and design, medical devices, IoT and security, and FPAG and SoC design. During his past 16 years working on software engineering, he has developed extensive hands-on experience in embedded software design with different toolchains, CPU-FPGA hybrid system software design, and spans in a variety of industries such as medical devices, IoT, printing, and security for embedded devices. Ji has in-depth insights on all stages of software engineering, including requirement capturing, architecting, design, verification, and manufacture supporting.

Simon is passionate about building and maintaining mechanical systems. His life long enthusiasm for bicycles led him to become a professional bicycle mechanic, and he drove and maintained an old car en route from the UK to Cameroon as part of Africa Rally. He also has a wealth of horticultural experience. Having spent time learning organic farming practices and building and maintaining polytunnels at a local plant nursery, he moved into breeding Galanthus (snowdrops). The experience he gained enabled him to become a multi-award winning cider maker in his spare time. Simon is presently studying part time to obtain engineering service technician qualifications at Cambridge Regional College.

Samuel is a machine learning researcher and computer vision specialist. After completing his Mechanical Engineering degree at Durham University, Samuel gained experience at Idaho National Laboratory in the US, where became inspired by the limitless potential of artificial intelligence. In pursuit of this new-found passion, he went on to complete a master’s in Robotics with the University of Plymouth—during which time he developed a system for autonomous malaria microscopy—and a PhD in Deep Learning with Cranfield University and MBDA—where he worked on the next generation of intelligent infrared missile seekers. Beyond work, Samuel holds a black belt in judo and enjoys running, cycling, and hiking.

Jacob studied General Engineering at Milton Keynes College graduating top of his class. He was appointed Engineering Support Technician and became a multi award-winning student for consistently demonstrating originality, innovation and creative problem solving. He also gained recognition for achieving success in both academia and extra curricula STEM activities by founding the Engineering Club and Chess Club for MK College students. Jacob joined the Dogtooth build team in 2020 and has been applying his skills to robot repair, refurbishment and upgrade. Jacob has many hobbies but spends a lot of his spare time building 3D printers and working on his 1975 VW Beetle.

Adam joins the Dogtooth team as a Manufacturing Engineer. He graduated from the University of York with a Masters degree in Astrophysics and focused his dissertation on mapping radio frequency methanol MASER emissions in the W3 giant molecular cloud to investigate the growth of young star forming regions. From the macro scale to the micro, Adam then joined the R&D team in the nanocoatings company P2i and worked on the development of new plasma-physics technologies to produce liquid protection solutions for electronic products.

Before joining Dogtooth Adam was working on medical robotics at CMR Surgical and focussed on the field deployment and continuous improvement of the Versius surgical system. In his spare time Adam enjoys being noisy on the piano, attempting to draw and hiking.

Julian has an undergraduate degree in Architectural Engineering (Cardiff University) and an MA in Design and Visual Communication with Distinction (University of Leeds). He recently completed an MSc in Advanced Robotics (Queen Mary University of London) achieving a Distinction, winning the Engineering and Materials Science Prize for Outstanding Achievement.

After his MA he spent 15 years in the online marketing industry, co-owning a successful media company as its Chief Operating Officer. He wrote software for cutting-edge behavioural analytics, managed and motivated cross-disciplinary teams, lead data analysis of website traffic, and formulated high level software design. Combining these and applying the ‘scientific method’ to dramatically improve conversion flows on websites.

His passion for engineering has motivated him to pursue an exciting new challenge in the field of robotics. With particular focus on computer vision for robotics, during his MSc he built an active vision agent for object pose estimation, based on the “1000 brains” theory of intelligence.

He is interested in automation within agriculture and how it can be used to improve yields, reduce waste, mitigate labour shortages, and support food security. He is an avid pool player, challenges accepted!

Candy joined the Dogtooth team as Office Manager, following an (exhausting) 5-year career break to raise her twins.

With over a decade of experience project managing creative campaigns for renowned entertainment brands such as The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Friends and Game of Thrones, Candy was eager to apply her talents to help the (then) small engineering team at Dogtooth remain focused on their ambitious goal of creating robots capable of picking strawberries – a seemingly impossible task in her mind. Fast forward three years and 22+ new employees later, Candy is now a firm believer in the potential of intelligent robotics.

Candy’s strong work ethic, and commitment make her an exceptional member of the team. She is excited to continue developing her skills as she takes on a new role supporting the senior leadership team.

Originally from South Africa but having fully embraced British culture, Candy enjoys curry, ale and light exercise!

Rob joined the Mechanical engineering team as a Test Engineer. He graduated from Bath with a first class Masters in Mechanical engineering. He became fond of robotics during his final years conducting his dissertation in methods to model continuum robots. He grew up on a farm in mid-Wales and has been fixing farm equipment and machinery for many years. Along the way he has taught himself how to weld which has led to him making items such as bespoke equipment for holding sheep during technical operations. If he hasn’t returned to the farm he can be found in one of the many local pubs around Cambridge.