PUBLIC EVENT
The Royal Academy of Engineering held its annual regional event in the East Midlands at the University of Leicester. The event included a public lecture by Professor Nick Jennings CB FREng FRS, Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University, on the topic of "AI-powered universities". The recording of the lecture can be viewed below.
Professor Nick Jennings CB FREng FRS
Nick Jennings is the Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University. Before that, he was the VP for Research and Enterprise at Imperial College London, the UK’s first Regius Professor of Computer Science (a post created by the monarch to recognise research excellence) and the UK Government’s inaugural Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security. Nick is an internationally-recognized authority in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and cybersecurity. His research focuses on how to endow individual autonomous agents with the ability to act and interact in flexible ways and with effectively engineering systems that contain both humans and software agents. This research has saved lives in the aftermath of disasters, provided insights on climate change, helped win Olympic medals, and assisted individuals in fuel poverty. He has received a number of international awards for his research including the Computers and Thought Award, the ACM Autonomous Agents Research Award and the Lovelace Medal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the European Artificial Intelligence Association (EurAI) and a member of Academia Europaea. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 2016 for his services to computer science and national security science.
Speaker: Professor Nick Jennings CB FREng FRS
Title: AI-powered universities
Synopsis:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon power our universities, transforming the way we undertake research, educate students, and run our institutions. Early glimpses of this are evident today, but we have only just started to scratch the surface of what AI can do for the sector.
In terms of research, there is exciting activity in all areas of academic endeavour, from exploring the rights of sentient machines to using novel computational techniques to discover new drugs and materials. In terms of education, there has long been the tantalising promise that AI will personalise the learning experience, tracking individuals’ progress and presenting content and assignments tailored to their particular learning styles and abilities. This truly bespoke offering would operate at a scale far beyond that available at any university today.
Possibly the least explored question is how AI can improve the way universities operate. Turning first to students, there are significant opportunities for AI assistants to amplify (human) personal tutors by identifying relevant course options based on the millions of data points generated by their individualised learning journeys. AI could also highlight and schedule interesting extra-curricular activities and opportunities, as well as keeping an eye on mental health and well-being. For staff, AI could automate the routine administrative tasks that we all spend too much time on (think meeting-scheduling, claiming expenses, form-filling). It could also help discover and summarise relevant educational material and suggest collaborations with relevant researchers working in adjacent or complementary fields.