The University of Oxford is one of nine leading research universities around the world selected to deliver a new $148million postdoctoral fellowship programme to drive the innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research. The Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science programme will be supporting talented postdoctoral researchers to apply AI techniques across the natural sciences, engineering and mathematical sciences (see https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-10-26-oxford-joins-schmidt-futures-148-million-global-initiative-accelerate-use-ai).
Up to 20 fellows will be selected to join the programme at Oxford each year for the next five years, working within research groups embedded in the academic departments of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) Division. The 100 post-doctoral researchers will become Associate Research Fellows of Reuben College, joining its AI and Machine Learning cluster. Last term, Reuben College hosted a series of ‘AI for Good?’ seminars as part of its Thursday evening events in the Natural History Museum, which ranged from the use of AI for healthcare to considering the ethics of AI, and featured a live recreation of the Turing Test with a team from Google’s DeepMind.
The Associate Research Fellows will meet three times per year at a series of one-day meetings, hosted by the college, which will allow them to learn more about the research that is being undertaken by others, identify research problems that others may be able to help with, share experiences, and allow time for informal networking. Fellows will also be given the opportunity to participate (twice a term) in the flagship academic programme of Reuben College.
Professor Tarassenko, the College President, who has been working in the field of AI and Machine Learning for more than three decades, said: “I am really looking forward to welcoming the AI in Science Fellows to Reuben College. They will join a thriving community of academics and graduate students working in related fields. Reuben College will be the place where they can gather together to meet outside of their Departments, which are scattered across the University, and join not only in the intellectual life of the college but also its social activities through membership of the Graduate Common Room.”
