Transparency and Intelligibility
Making AI systems accessible, accountable, open to inspection and intelligible to diverse stakeholders.
We are a UKRI funded Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Accountable, Responsible and Transparent AI.
ART-AI trains professional experts to make the best, and safest, use of artificial intelligence (AI) and to explore the opportunities, challenges and constraints presented by the diverse range of contexts for AI. We bring together researchers from across disciplines to educate the next generation of specialists with expertise in AI, its applications and its implications.
We will recruit and train at least 60 PhD students from diverse academic and personal backgrounds to help ensure that developments in AI, and decisions on how and whether to use it, are informed and ethical. ART-AI will produce interdisciplinary graduates who can act as leaders and innovators with the knowledge to make the right decisions on what is possible, what is desirable, and how AI can be ethically, safely and effectively deployed.
ART-AI draws together a wide range of topics: from algorithms to ethics; robotics safety to computational and public policy; probabilistic machine learning to symbolic AI; provenance, transparency and uncertainty quantification to intelligibility and trust in heterogeneous intelligent systems; reinforcement learning to emotion in human-machine interaction; and many others.
Making AI systems accessible, accountable, open to inspection and intelligible to diverse stakeholders.
How to assess its risks and benefits, quantitatively and qualitatively.
How to approach diverse challenges from robotics safety to computational and public policy.
The effects of AI in public policy design as it becomes endemic in a broad range of work environments.
What innovations are needed to provide policy-driven, explainable and auditable support for human work.
How to apply AI techniques to solve real world engineering problems.
Our Vision:
To train diverse specialists with perspective that make and will make a positive change to AI and society through AI
Our Mission:
To provide an interdisciplinary research environment that allows PhD students to become independent interdisciplinary researchers in the field of AI, and:
To provide a rich environment of collaboration between students, academics and international institutions, organisations and industrial partners which creates a diverse environment required to bring a positive change to AI and its use and deliver research impact
Our Strategic Goal:
To train 5 cohorts of independent interdisciplinary AI researchers and thought leaders by developing interdisciplinary knowledge and skills within a collaborative research and industrial community where individual contribution, impact and diversity are valued
Our Values:
Husna Siddiqi
Barry Brooks
Fiona Colquhoun
Rachel Free
Matt Griffith
Gail Kent
Oliver Lanning
Clara Neppel
Chris Rees
Len Rinaldi
Phil Williams
Clive Hollick
Mark Coeckelbergh
Antony Walker
Husna Siddiqi (Platform Assurance Management Lead, KPMG International Services Ltd).
Husna Siddiqi is an Information Protection Practitioner, currently leading Cloud Assurance Management at KPMG International Services Ltd. She has over fifteen years of experience in information security, data protection, IT risk and transformation program management across a number of sectors including Oil and Gas, Energy and Utilities, Consumer Business, Manufacturing and Professional Services.
Prior to becoming a consultant, Husna was a lecturer of undergraduate Computer Science and a software engineer.
Husna is a World Economic Forum (WEF) contributor with publications in a number of reputed forums including IAPP. Husna aims to increase security and privacy awareness among diverse audiences using relatable examples. She is actively involved in global initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion and address unconscious bias.
Barry Brooks (Director, Wychcote Ltd and former IET President)
Barry read Electrical Engineering at Imperial College, sponsored by the Royal Navy, and served at sea as submarine weapon systems and nuclear propulsion engineer, in R&D, Cabinet Office, MOD long-term resource planning, restructuring of procurement and through-life support organisations. Since 2002, he has worked for IBM, Hitachi and his own company, Wychcote Ltd, providing assurance for complex, high-risk, government engineering and change programmes – e.g. HS2. Director, Field Ventilator Ltd.
Since 2001, volunteering includes – IET: President/Chairman of Board of Trustees 2013-14; Transport Sector Committee; founded Nuclear Engineering Technical Network; Professional Registration (CEng / IEng) and Fellowship Assessor. City & Guilds of London Institute: FCGI annual lecture-lunch at Imperial College. Bath University: EEE IAB (2014-). IMarEST: Council; Board of Trustees; Finance & Investment Committee (2017-). Worshipful Company of Engineers (2004-): Master (2019-2020); organises technical visits/seminars (e.g. AI / Cybersecurity) and external engagement. Engineers Trust Trustee; Coordinator Hawley Environmental Engineering Innovation Award.
Fiona Colquhoun (CTO, Engineering & Technology Directorate, Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
After completing a PhD in Psychology at Durham, Fiona worked at the NSPCC and for the Metropolitan Police, where she was Head of Technology Research. Immediately before joining the FCO as Chief Technology Officer, she was an Innovation Partner at DSTL.
Rachel Free (Patent attorney, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang)
Rachel is a partner in the patent team at International Law Firm CMS where she helps clients to protect their technology through patents. She has an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a DPhil in Vision Science. She qualified as a European and UK patent attorney in the last century and has worked on AI patent drafting and prosecution through her career.
Rachel is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on AI (APPG AI), which advises parliamentarians regarding AI, and vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) computer technology committee. She is mentioned in the 2019 legal 500 CMS entry for law firms with patent attorneys as having ‘deep technical knowledge’.
Matt Griffith (Director of Policy, Business West)
Matt is Director of Policy at Business West, the UK’s largest Chamber of Commerce covering Bristol, Bath and the West of England and a wide range of business members across all sectors. He is a specialist in economic policy and has a long history of economic and business research and work in government affairs. He has written reports for the Prime Minister on improving England’s economic performance, reports on improving city growth and several high profile housing reports. Matt also worked for several years supporting emerging market economies on trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation and in European Union bilateral negotiations and as an advisor for the G33 and G90 group of countries. He has written and been quoted in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Times and the BBC and has written articles for International Affairs and the Princeton Encyclopaedia of the World Economy.
Gail Kent (Director in DG Human Resources at the European Commission in Brussels.)
Oli Lanning (Senior Principal Research Scientist, Dstl)
Dr Oliver Lanning is a Senior Principal Scientist based in the Cyber and Information Systems Division of the Defence Science and Technology Lab (Dstl), Porton Down. Currently he leads Dstl efforts on the Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI), characterizing technical and theoretical advances that might impact future Defence operations, with a particular interest in the socio-technical challenges around AI. As part of this work, he has authored or contributed to a number of papers for UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) on AI applications, opportunities and threats. He also leads a number of engagements with Industry and Academia to deliver new and novel AI approaches.
Clara Neppel (Senior Director & Head of European Operations, IEEE)
After working with the European Patent Office (EPO), Clara joined IEEE in 2017 and serves as the Senior Director of the IEEE European office in Vienna, where she is responsible for the growth of IEEE’s operations and presence in Europe, focusing on the needs of industry, academia, and government. Clara serves as a point of contact for initiatives with regard to technology, engineering and related public policy issues that help implementing IEEE’s continued global commitment to fostering technological innovation for the benefit of humanity. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich and a Master in Intellectual Property Law and Management from the University of Strasbourg. Dr. Neppel is also a member of the Supervisory Board of European Institute of Technology Digital, the Scientific-Industrial Advisory Board of Research Studios Austria FSG and the Software Competence Center Hagenberg Strategy Board.
Chris Rees (Past President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT)
Chris Rees is Past President of the BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT. During his presidential year he took the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence as his presidential theme and gave presentations on it to BCS, professional and lay audiences in the UK, Europe, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Australia. He continues to do so as Past President.
Len Rinaldi (Founder, theTULMGroup)
Len worked at Apple for 12 years, as CFO and GM (Western Europe Sales). Before moving to Apple he spent 17 years in Telcom with AT&T and its spin off company Lucent Technologies. He is a non-executive director of Gfinity and AMAC (Apple stores in the Netherlands). In addition, Len sits on the board of the University of Notre Dame (London). He holds an MBA from FDU and Executive Leadership certificates from Wharton Business School and the University of Notre Dame. He has dual USA & UK nationality.
Phil Williams (Managing Director, Team Defence Information)
Phil joined Team Defence Information (TD-Info) – the membership organisation formerly titled ‘UKCeB’ – as its Managing Director in June 2015, having spent 20 years serving as an Aerosystems Engineering Officer in the Royal Air Force, and the last decade in various business development roles within aerospace and defence companies. He also chairs the Integrated Product Support Council on behalf the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of USA.
Clive Hollick, Lord Hollick (House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology and IAB Chair)
Founder and Trustee of Institute for Public Policy Research. Director of BMG, Honeywell, Pro Sieben and BAE Systems. Member of the Royal Society’s Advisory Board. Former member of House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. Former Governor of London School of Economics. CEO of United Business Media (1974-2005).
