Computer science experts from academia and industry discussed the key challenges surrounding emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies at the launch of the University of Southampton’s Centre for Machine Intelligence (CMI).

The new CMI, based within the Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), draws together researchers and practitioners in AI, machine learning and autonomous systems to develop a coherent approach to research and technology transfer to impact our future society.

Over 100 attendees from across the University and industry explored opportunities in the research themes at a CMI launch event at Highfield Campus on Thursday 1st February. The workshop, which was sponsored by Oxford Innovation, posed pressing questions around the ethical and responsible use of AI and Blockchain with a focus on its application in large scale Internet of Things (IoT) systems in the insurance and social care sectors.

Speakers at the CMI’s inaugural event included Simon Towner, CEO at KOIOS Master Data, Martin Doyle, CEO of DQ Global, and Russ Cole, Chairman of the ESL Group.

Dr Sarvapali (Gopal) Ramchurn, Associate Professor and Head of the CMI, explains, “Machine Intelligence has been at the centre of the research activities of the University of Southampton for more than 20 years and our department has generated over £50m of funding for Machine Intelligence technologies in the last 10 years across 30 medium to large research projects. The formation of the CMI is an important next step at a time of great advances in this field and we look forward to working with industry, policy makers and the general public as we address both national and global challenges.”

ECS at the University of Southampton currently has over 30 academics and researchers working on the fundamental underpinnings of AI, autonomous systems and machine learning. Research groups within the department that focus on the theoretical aspects of Machine Intelligence include the Agents, Interaction, and Complexity group, and Vision, Learning, and Control. In addition, a number of other groups across the university are increasingly applying AI and machine learning in their research areas. This includes Smart Energy Systems, Smart Manufacturing, Precision Healthcare, and Smart Cities.

In the next few months, the CMI will be ramping up its activities in order to boost PhD student numbers through funded studentships and support new research projects in collaboration with industry through focused Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), GDPs (Masters Level Group Design projects) and large grant funding bids.

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) it’s possible to conceive that every fridge could know your name and what you eat to be shared with a plethora of service providers without you actually giving your consent. As the Internet of Things grows, more and more devices in our homes and in our environments will be gathering data about us: touch a door to a building, we’re monitored; move through a subway or on a train or enter a shop, we’re being tracked. It’s not just web pages following where we go anymore to serve us ads. With the increase in scale and speed of requests for our data, we need new ways to manage these requests – and to ensure that those requests treat our data appropriately. The current paradigm of ‘see a service, lie that we have read the terms and conditions each time we hit “accept”’ won’t scale.

But what if it were possible to make consent both more meaningful and less disruptive than the current meaningless terms and conditions button-pushing?

ThatÂ’s where the research of University of Southampton Computer Scientists led by m.c. schraefel, Professor of Computer Science and Human Performance, becomes extremely useful, developing concepts to envision and shape the IoT as a consentful, human-centred space.

Professor schraefelÂ’s latest research features on the cover of the current issue of Interactions, the flagship magazine for the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)Â’s Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Working with Southampton colleagues Associate Professor, Dr Enrico Gerding, Dr Alper Alan and PhD researcher Richard Gomer, and Carsten Maple, Professor of Cyber Systems Engineering at Warwick, Professor schraefel and her team propose a radical new approach to personal data sharing that combines AI and HCI.

“Our aim is to help empower citizens and services to have a better more informed relationship about use of personal data without having to deal with these decisions constantly, personally,” says Professor schraefel. “We want to design interactions between AI and a person both to capture a person’s data sharing preferences, so that agents can negotiate with a service about the terms and conditions of data access, as well as help track that use and revise it.” Schraefel compares the approach to reviewing a bank statement with a trusted advisor: “The current model has us asking for access when our focus is on something else; terms are also all one way for the service’s benefit. HCI with AI can change this dynamic to deliver a new model of benefit to all. How we do that well is the subject of our research.”

Click here to read the full article ‘The Internet of Things: Interaction Challenges to Meaningful Consent at Scale’ in Interactions.

The University of Southampton’s MSc programme in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has attracted a surge of interest a decade on from its launch at the institution.

The one-year course, which draws upon the knowledge of world-leading experts in Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), teaches students core data analysis skills while exploring both traditional and state-of-the-art aspects of AI and machine learning.

The 2017/18 intake of over 40 students in the research-led programme represents an increase of over 130 per cent from 2016/17 and follows an 82 per cent rise in applications from the same year.

Programme Coordinator Dr Richard Watson explains, “Our MSc in AI benefits from world-leading research groups in intelligent agents, machine learning and data science - no other UK MSc can offer that. We have taken a contemporary approach with this course and cover the fundamental aspects of traditional and modern approaches.

“I’m delighted to see Southampton’s international reputation in the field being reflected in rising student numbers and am confident that we will see this trend continue as our researchers remain at the forefront of this rapidly expanding discipline.”

ECS has pioneered many of the most important advances in computer science and web technology over the course’s 10 years. Its high profile staff include Professor Dame Wendy Hall, who co-led a major Government review this year into how the UK can increase the use of AI across the economy. In it she emphasises that Universities are on the ‘front line’ to help prepare and upskill the country’s future workforce.

Students participating in the AI MSc study the fundamentals of all aspects of intelligent algorithms with the freedom to choose options and specialise where desired. Topics in the course cover a skill base which is in very high demand from industrial companies and include intelligent agents, complexity science, computer vision, robotics and machine learning techniques.

Notable MSc projects this year include skin cancer detection using machine learning and computer vision, deep learning for visual recognition of satellite imagery and real-time epilepsy prediction from brain signal analysis.

Current MSc student Sofie Debloudts chose to study AI at Southampton after spending two years as a game designer. “I looked at the programme details based on a friend’s warm recommendation and the reputation of the University in general,” she says. “I immediately felt that this was the course for me. Now I’ve started, I’m finding that the programme is structured well and the lecturers are passionate about their subject matter. I am convinced this course will further my career greatly - by my second week of study I had already been contacted by head hunters to ask about my plans after graduating.”

Jia Bi completed the AI MSc in 2015. “I chose to come to Southampton to study my MSc in AI because ECS at the University has a good reputation and is among the top ranked in the UK,” she explains. “It has great research staff, advanced experimental facilities, and I had such a good supervisor that I decided to stay here to do my PhD in Computer Science.”

Undergraduate students are also able to develop their skills in artificial intelligence through ECS' MEng Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence and it's MEng Electronic Engineering with Artificial Intelligence.