[24/10/2024] Professor Subramanian Ramamoorthy was awarded the Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowship. The £6 million grant will establish a bold new research centre that will aim to put human experience at the heart of AI and robotics research. The Centre for AI for Assistive Autonomy, based in the School of Informatics, will develop a range of AI tools for autonomous systems that are person-centred and individually adapted to each individual user. Future results Potential outcomes include developing robots that can help people with personal care and feeding, teaching robots to perform surgical tasks autonomously while coordinating with surgeons, and improving automated driving features in driverless cars. Led by Professor Ram Ramamoothy, the Centre will use a range of methods and innovations to design the robots, including large scale interactive data gathering, automated decision-making frameworks and observing human reactions and behaviours. It aims to create benefits for a wide range of communities through its engagement with industry partners, AI experts, early career researchers and the public. Turing Fellowships Professor Ramamoothy is one of three internationally renowned researchers to be awarded a UKRI Turing AI World-Leading Fellowship, which is designed to retain, attract and develop the best and brightest AI researchers. The scheme allows scientists to undertake world-leading, innovative AI research in collaboration with partners from other sectors to accelerate its impact. The £15 million UKRI fellowships – of which Professor Ramamoorthy has received five million – is delivered through the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This funding will provide a unique opportunity to establish a new mission-driven research centre focussed on human-centred AI, providing a dynamic inter-disciplinary environment to tackle the challenges of assistive autonomy. Creating AI systems that can learn to collaborate effectively is key to unlocking the true potential of robotics. We will achieve this by bringing together innovations in human skill modelling and assessment, computational models informed by cognitive neuroscience, and automated decision making for shared autonomy. Professor Ram Ramamoorthy Personal Chair of Robot Learning and Autonomy, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh This programme highlights the very best of British innovation as we back new research in areas which will deliver truly transformative innovations for people not just in the UK, but across the globe. Whether that’s new avenues for tackling climate change, improving how we diagnose horrendous diseases like cancer, or rolling out cutting edge tools in our hospitals to support our healthcare professionals, we’re leaving no stone unturned in harnessing AI to improve our health, modernise our public services, and face down some of society’s biggest shared challenges. Peter Kyle Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology To ensure that we capitalise on the enormous potential of AI and also ensure that it serves the needs of society we need to support bold thinking. That is what the UKRI Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowships are all about, allowing adventurous thinkers from the UK and across the world to thrive and develop ideas that will benefit us all. Charlotte Deane EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Related links Link to the story on the University of Edinburgh website Link to the story on the UKRI website Link to Ram’s personal website Publication date 24 Oct, 2024
