About Me

Okay, okay.

My name is Benjamin Johnston. I'm an Australian and live in Sydney. I'm 25 years old. That's my photo just to the right.

Quick Introduction

I grew up, studied and worked in Brisbane; then moved down to Sydney looking to return to university for a change from my work. Right now I'm at the University of Technology, Sydney working on a project to give robots and computers imaginations. A lot of what I do during working hours is fairly technical, but after work I love to get out and enjoy life.

Interests and Passions

I find myself interested in almost everything. I love the challenges of new problems, new experiences and new opportunities.

I love learning languages. I only speak English natively and am a long long long way off fluency in any other language. However, I love the thrill of being able to understand and be understood in a foreign language. I've studied several languages irregularly at after-work language schools, but Chinese stands out as the language that I've put most effort into (I think it is the Chinese writing system that has me so fascinated by the language). One day, I'd like to do something with it professionally - both as a speaker of a foreign language and also as a programmer writing software that uses natural language in some way - but for the time being, I'm just content with asking my Chinese colleagues if they're ready for lunch.

I love to travel. New cultures, new people, new experiences and new sights. My theory is that if you're young, you should put off buying a car or house until you've seen the world. I'm not sure at what age you stop being "young" and how much you need to have seen before you can say you've "seen the world". I certainly don't think I've got there yet on either count: the car and house will have to keep on waiting.

I love swimming. Snorkelling and body surfing are great fun, but I can't think of many better ways to relax than letting my mind wander while in the 'zone', swimming laps of a pool.

More recently, I've discovered a passion for dancing. I don't have much natural talent for it, but I've recently started Hip Hop lessons and am hooked.

School and Work

I love what I do, so my work and studies are very much a part of who I am and what excites me.

I originally studied Information Technology (IT) in Brisbane. I'm a "software guy" and a bit of a "theory guy", and my main interests are in databases, data mining and artificial intelligence. My final year project was a system that was supposed to predict arguments used by lawyers in cases (similar to how large shops can use computers to predict the behavior of shoppers and then design better product layouts), but made so many unrealistic assumptions that the contribution was mainly theoretical.

Since then, I've been employed in an IT outsourcing company, and then in a Brisbane-based biotech venture. The biotech company was full of PhD graduates and it got me thinking that "I could do that too - how hard can it be?" (silly me!). Next thing I knew, I was looking around at universities and preparing application forms.

So, in 2006 I moved to Sydney to study at the University of Technology, Sydney. I'm looking into ways of giving robots and software imaginations. The idea is that instead of just following fixed computer programs, a computer could use its imagination to visualize the different outcomes of different actions and thereby make the best choice in a context-sensitive manner. Hopefully imagination will lead to more creative software: computers will be able to transform knowledge using visual and iconic representations rather than traditional if-then-else rules, and thereby discover new relationships and associations. The benefit of enhancing software with imagination is that computer programs and robots will be able to make sense of the human world. For example, programs like Outlook might be able to know to reschedule your work appointments if you've taken a sick day, and household robots will know the difference between you wanting to 'turn on' the TV and 'turn on' your partner. My simple academic webpage can be found here.

This Website

Even though most personal websites seem a little silly and pointless, I really think that it is something important to have. I find nothing more helpful than being able to type a name into Google and get a little bit of a background on the complete stranger who I'm talking with on Usenet or email, or maybe just to discover something new about one of my friends. Maybe it is eerily close close to stalking... but hey, aren't you doing the same thing to me right now?

If you're interested, feel free to take a look at the ideas, the technology and the rationale - behind this website.

Feedback

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I can be reached by email or by a web-based email/SMS form.

To return to the homepage, click here.