Meet the speaker: Grant Hannaford

The SILMO Academy by IOA will be taking place 12 April - 14 April in Singapore. Grant Hannaford will be speaking about Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Optics.

Grant is at the forefront of ophthalmic optics in Australia and internationally after being named the 2022 International Optician of the Year.

Grant is a physicist, lens designer and qualified optical dispenser. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in physics and pure mathematics from the University of New England. Grant holds a qualification in spectacle lens design with honours from the UK under the tutelage of Professor Mo Jalie and is the first and currently the only qualified spectacle lens designer in Australia. He has an interest in research and photonics.

Grant is a Fellow of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians and the Australasian Dispensing Opticians Association. He is also a senior lecturer at the School of Optometry and Vision Science UNSW. He is the past Chairman of the NSW Optical Dispensers Education Trust and the past Vice President of ADOA (NSW). Grant also consults for various international education projects providing resources for best practice dispensing models. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the School of Life and Health Sciences at Aston University, Birmingham England.

Ophthalmic optics has long been an area in which developments in computational techniques have found rapid applications. This talk examines core concepts and techniques in the application of big data to models implementing machine learning and artificial intelligence. From a foundation of linear regression and iterative models we discuss general cases which demonstrate a common pathway used in machine learning. This process is then developed in the context firstly of lens design optimisation, then postural integration into lens design, and the incorporation of large biometric data sets into normative sets for the application of biometric data to lens designs. Finally we will discuss some of the risks contained in the implementation of machine learning in lens design, and some of the legal and ethical framework surrounding these techniques and applications.

In this presentation the registrants will achieve the following learning outcomes:
- The core principles behind iterative machine learning models
- Observe the structure of a sample machine learning model in a medical application
- Develop an understanding of the scale of available data sets and the inability of traditional linear regression statistical modelling to provide usable outcomes
- Sample applications of AI and machine learning in lens design optimisation from industry examples - Sample applications of AI and machine learning in the application of postural and gaze modelling into lens design
- Demonstrate the application of AI and machine learning in the development of refractive error and biometric normative models
- Observe the application of these models to lens designs
- Appreciate the pitfalls in constantly updating data from AI and potential data skew and drift from outliers due to poor data
- Discuss the legal requirements for output verification and some examples of legal frameworks controlling applications of AI and machine learning in the ophthalmic lens industry

Find out more about SILMO Academy my IOA here