About

FinTech CTO | World Leading AI Researcher in Neural Network Quantisation, Pruning & Efficiency

Richard Menzies

I am a PhD student in Computing Science at the University of Glasgow and a FinTech Founder, working at the intersection of academic AI research and real-world product engineering. I am a Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS) and a Member of the IEEE (MIEEE).

Research

My research sits within the Computer Vision and Autonomous Systems (CVAS) group, supervised by Dr Nicolas Pugeault and Dr. John Williamson. My area of focus is Temporal Neural Topology Optimisation - a field related to Neural Architecture Search (NAS), but with an emphasis on optimising the topology of nodes within a neural network rather than performing a constrained search over convolutional or recurrent architectures. I aslo study pruning and quantisation and other methods of optimising a neural network architecture for hyper efficiency applied to its task.

I have recently had a breakthrough in Neural Network quantisation that enables vastly better performance than is currently possible with existing methodologies.

More broadly, I am interested in novel methods of neural network training that go beyond standard gradient descent, evolutionary, and reinforcement learning approaches - particularly methods applicable to efficiency and compression, or methods more related to human-like neural network training.

I am also interested in General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Loop Gravity, Metaphysics and the properties of Crystallographic Vacancy Defects. I study these topics when I get free time.

Industry

Alongside my academic work, I lead a FinTech company building openbook, a groundbreaking financial consumer product. I am passionate about bridging rigorous academic research with real-world product engineering - taking ideas from the lab and making them work at scale.

Education

  • PhD, Computer Science - Temporal Neural Topology Optimisation, University of Glasgow, 2022–2026
  • Research Internship - University of Glasgow, 2022
  • First Class BSc(Hons), Computer Science - University of Glasgow, 2018–2022 (Awarded for Top 5 in year)

Roles & Service

  • Openbook Analytics Ltd. Co-founder & CTO - Chess Scotland, 2025–present
  • Chess Scotland Executive Director - Chess Scotland, 2026–present
  • Chess Scotland Home Director - Chess Scotland, 2025–2026
  • PGR Student Representative - School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, 2025–present
  • Chess Scotland Council Member - Chess Scotland, 2024-2025
  • Student Member - University of Glasgow Strategic Advisory Board, 2024/2025
  • Doctoral Consortium Chair - British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC), 2024
  • Convenor - Computer Vision and Autonomous Systems (CVAS) Group, 2023–2024

Teaching

I have tutored the following courses at the University of Glasgow:

  • Deep Learning (MSci) - 2024/2025
  • Deep Learning (MSc) - 2024/2025
  • Data Fundamentals (H) - 2024/2025
  • Network Systems (H) - 2022/2023
  • Artificial Intelligence (H) - 2022/2023

Volunteering

  • Treasurer - Glasgow Polytechnic Chess Club, 2024–present
  • President - Glasgow University Table Tennis Club, 2022
  • Founding Secretary - Glasgow University Table Tennis Club, 2020–2022
  • Lead Organiser - 7 Minutes of Science, 2021
  • Secretary - Glasgow University Physics Society, 2020–2022
  • Ordinary Committee Member - Glasgow University Physics Society, 2019
  • Founding President - PMHS Chess Club, 2017

Contact