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.
Our students are drawn from diverse academic and personal backgrounds and work to help ensure that developments in AI, and decisions on how and whether to use it, are informed and ethical. Our interdisciplinary graduates 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 perspectives 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 and diverse environment of collaboration among students, academics and external partners to bring positive change to AI, its use and impact
Our Strategic Goal:
To train independent interdisciplinary AI researchers and thought leaders by developing interdisciplinary knowledge and skills within a collaborative research and industrial community where individual contributions, impact and diversity are valued
Our Values:
Husna Siddiqi
Djamila Aouada
Mandy Chessell
Kish Hirani
Dalia Khader
Oliver Lanning
Clara Neppel
Elizabeth O’Driscoll
Chris Rees
Len Rinaldi
Ravinder Singh
Phil Williams
Barry Brooks
Mark Coeckelbergh
Fiona Colquhoun
Rachel Free
Matt Griffith
Clive Hollick
Gail Kent
Antony Walker
Husna Siddiqi is an Executive Director and Information Protection Practitioner 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.
Dr Djamila Aouada is Assistant Professor and Senior Research Scientist at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxembourg. She also heads the Computer Vision, Imaging and Machine Intelligence (CVI2) research group and the Computer Vision Lab, and co-heads the Zero-Gravity Space Lab.
After graduating in electronics from the École Nationale Polytechnique (ENP) in Algiers in 2005, she moved to North Carolina State University (NCSU) in the United States for her PhD in Electrical Engineering, completing in 2009. Since then, she has been based at the SnT. Her research interests encompass signal and image processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data modelling, and her publications are extensive.
Her consultancy work includes research for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Alcatel Lucent Bell Labs in New Jersey, and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has lectured for the International MSc Programme in VIsion and roBOTics (VIBOT) at the University of Burgundy (uB), and is a Senior Member of the IEEE, member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE WIE, INSTICC and the Eta Kappa Nu honor society (HKN). She served as the Chair of the IEEE Benelux Women in Engineering Affinity Group from 2014 to 2016, as the Chair of multiple workshops and conferences across her research areas, and as a member of the Algerian AI Board since 2023.
Mandy Chessell is one of the founders of Pragmatic Data Research Ltd, a consultancy specializing in accelerating digital transformations through innovative data architectures and governance. She leads the Egeria Open Source Project for metadata management and governance. She is a former IBM Distinguished Engineer and an IBM Master Inventor. She was the first woman to win a Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal and was appointed CBE in 2015 for services to engineering. Her academic appointments have included visiting professorships at the universities of Sheffield and Surrey.
Kish Hirani is the CTO of Kiss Publishing and has over 25 years of experience in the video-games industry, including 8 years at Sony PlayStation as Head of Developer Services just after the European launch of PS3 in 2007. He has worked as a technical director or equivalent at Virtua, THQ, Acclaim and BBC Worldwide, as well as for Microsoft.
Kish is the founding Chair of BiG (BAME in Games), which advocates for more underrepresented ethnicities working in the video-games industry. He was listed as one of ‘The Top 100 most influential BAME leaders in UK Tech’ 2019 in the Financial Times; awarded the first ever ‘Diversity Star Award’ at the Develop:Star Awards 2019 and listed as ‘The Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech’ by Diversity UK in 2018.
In addition to ART-AI’s advisory board, Kish has sat on the advisory boards of the Institute of Coding, the national consortium of industry and educators working to train the next generation of digital talent; the AI Centre Sweden, working towards equality, safety and security in the AI industry; and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Entertainment.
Dr Dalia Khader is the chief information security officer (CISO) for the international division of Swiss Life and a member of WomenCyberForce. She has more than 15 years of experience in the field of cybersecurity, including working in academia, during which she did extensive research in modern cryptography, working as a research associate at the University of Luxembourg (Kirchberg, Luxembourg) and working as a security architect for a telecom service provider. She won the 2021 CISO of the Year, Luxembourg award. Her work has been published by the World Economic Forum and Usenix and at RSA conferences. Her goal is to make complex cybersecurity concepts accessible to everyone.
Dr Oli 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.
After working with the European Patent Office (EPO), Dr Clara Neppel 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.
Dr Elizabeth O’Driscoll has over two decades of experience in driving innovation and leading complex change in both the public and private sector. Throughout her career, she has held various strategic and delivery positions related to the acquisition and deployment of emerging technologies, providing her with a unique perspective on the challenges to their exploitation across multiple sectors.
Currently, Elizabeth works at Deloitte within Enterprise Transformation, where she assists public sector organisations in reimagining their services by leveraging appropriate technologies and building sustainable human capability. Previously, Elizabeth established the corporate innovation lab at Govtech company Civica, delivered the collaborative Net Zero 2030 plan for Exeter City Council, and led strategic technology programs for BAE Systems.
Elizabeth lives in Bristol with her husband and two children.
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 is the Founder of theTULMGroup and 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), and 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.
Dr Ravinder Singh is a distinguished Civil Servant currently serving as the Head of the Digital and Systems Team at the Cabinet Office (GCF). He was previously Modernising Technology Programme Manager at the Cabinet Office – Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in London.
His expertise extends to diverse sectors including CMMI level 5 companies, World Bank initiatives, and collaborations with various governments globally. His impact has been felt in defence, Big-4 consulting, BFSI, software development, R&D, telecoms, and oil/utility sectors with a successful background in digital consulting/transformation, AI/ML, IoT, RPA, Blockchain, enterprise architecture, sustainability, standards, assurance and audits, cyber and information security, and program/project management with budgets up to £1.5bn.
He holds copyrights for two software solutions and has authored over a dozen research papers. He has been keynote speaker at several international conferences, and in recognition of his innovative contributions to Information Technology, he was nominated for the prestigious Shri Dewang Mehta Award in 2003 by the Indian Ministry of Communications and IT.
He is the co-author of the book “Model Driven Business Process Engineering”, published by Amazon (2016) and Bentham Science (2014). Certified as a Life-Coach, PMP, PRINCE-2 Practitioner, and an expert in Information Security ISO 27001, CMMI, ISO 9001, and IPA Reviewer, he is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS), Senior member of IEEE (USA), Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, PMI (USA), and a life member of the Computer Society of India.
Ravinder’s enriching professional journey has seen him collaborate with renowned organizations including HSBC, JP Morgan, Accenture, Shell Oil, Barclays, and many others. He has also imparted knowledge as a faculty member and board member in esteemed institutions such as King’s College London, Punjab University, Punjab Engineering College, UIET, UBS, NITTR, and IGNOU, among other universities and engineering colleges.
Phil Williams 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.
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.
Mark Coeckelbergh is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Vienna and member of the Austrian Council on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Previously he was President of the international Society for Philosophy and Technology, member of the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence for the European Commission, Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, Managing Director of the 3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology in the Netherlands, and co-Chair of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Technical Committee on Robot Ethics. He is involved in several European projects in the area of robotics and AI, and the author of numerous articles and books, including “AI Ethics” (MIT Press), “Introduction to Philosophy of Technology” (Oxford University Press), and “Growing Moral Relations” (Palgrave).
After completing a PhD in Psychology at Durham, Fiona Colquhoun worked at the NSPCC and for the Metropolitan Police, where she was Head of Technology Research. She was an Innovation Partner at DSTL before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Engineering & Technology Directorate as Chief Technology Officer in 2018.
Dr Rachel Free is a partner in the patent team at International Law Firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang 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 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.
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).
