AFC Lab Talk Series

Together with the Association for Independent Research (AIR) we host a virtual talk series together — typically on Wednesdays. We aim to support early-career researchers and underrepresented groups by providing a platform for their work and increasing networking opportunities. We are committed to connecting researchers with or without affiliation and promoting science outwith traditional academic and institutional conventions.

If you'd like to give a talk, drop us a message and we'll get it organised.

You can access the talks via their Teams links advertised on World Wide Neuro, or ask Meike to add you to the mailing list to be updated about upcoming events.

Wed, 02 Jul 2025
14:00
FLUXSynID: High-Resolution Synthetic Face Generation for Document and Live Capture Images
University of Twente
Synthetic face datasets are increasingly used to overcome the limitations of real-world biometric data, including privacy concerns, demographic imbalance, and high collection costs. However, many existing methods lack fine-grained control over identity attributes and fail to produce paired, identity-consistent images under structured capture conditions. In this talk, I will present FLUXSynID, a framework for generating high-resolution synthetic face datasets with user-defined identity attribute distributions and paired document-style and trusted live capture images. The dataset generated using FLUXSynID shows improved alignment with real-world identity distributions and greater diversity compared to prior work. I will also discuss how FLUXSynID’s dataset and generation tools can support research in face recognition and morphing attack detection (MAD), enhancing model robustness in both academic and practical applications.
Mon, 07 Jul 2025
10:00
Digital Traces of Human Behaviour: From Political Mobilisation to Conspiracy Narratives
University of Bath
Digital platforms generate unprecedented traces of human behaviour, offering new methodological approaches to understanding collective action, polarisation, and social dynamics. Through analysis of millions of digital traces across multiple studies, we demonstrate how online behaviours predict offline action: Brexit-related tribal discourse responds to real-world events, machine learning models achieve 80% accuracy in predicting real-world protest attendance from digital signals, and social validation through "likes" emerges as a key driver of mobilization. Extending this approach to conspiracy narratives reveals how digital traces illuminate psychological mechanisms of belief and community formation. Longitudinal analysis of YouTube conspiracy content demonstrates how narratives systematically address existential, epistemic, and social needs, while examination of alt-tech platforms shows how emotions of anger, contempt, and disgust correlate with violence-legitimating discourse, with significant differences between narratives associated with offline violence versus peaceful communities. This work establishes digital traces as both methodological innovation and theoretical lens, demonstrating that computational social science can illuminate fundamental questions about polarisation, mobilisation, and collective behaviour across contexts from electoral politics to conspiracy communities.
Wed, 16 Jul 2025
10:00
A personal journey on understanding intelligence
Google DeepMind
The focus of this talk is not about my research in AI or Robotics but my own journey on trying to do research and understand intelligence in a rapidly evolving research landscape. I will trace my path from conducting early-stage research during graduate school, to working on practical solutions within a startup environment, and finally to my current role where I participate in more structured research at a major tech company. Through these varied experiences, I will provide different perspectives on research and talk about how my core beliefs on intelligence have changed and sometimes even been compromised. There are no lessons to be learned from my stories, but hopefully they will be entertaining.