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The LIDA-Alan Turing Institute Partnership

The Alan Turing Institute is the UK’s national institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. In recognition of its world class academic research, the University of Leeds has been a partner of the Institute since 2018. Led by the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA), the partnership benefits from contributions from researchers and data scientists across all University faculties as well as from LIDA’s many established research connections with external partners in business, government and the third sector.

Here we have picked out a couple of highlights from 2020/21.

Data Study Group 2021

A major highlight of the last 12 months was the Data Study Group (DSG) held online across three weeks during July and August. This was the first DSG convened by LIDA and focused on urban, geospatial and consumer data. Working with six ‘Challenge Owners’, including some well-established LIDA partners as well as a number of new collaborations, six ‘data challenges’ were identified and addressed by individual challenge teams of approximately eight analytics and artificial intelligence experts. Over 70 data scientists, largely from academia but including some from the private sector, took part. The DSG was a truly international endeavour, engaging participants from across the world, from Mexico to India, from Brazil to Switzerland. Following the Institute’s model, the aim of the LIDA DSG was to provide solutions to critical business problems presented by the six Challenge Owners. The key findings, together with recommendations for future work, are soon be presented in a series of six reports produced by the Challenge Principal Investigators and their teams in collaboration with the Challenge Owners. The reports will soon be made available on both the Institute and the LIDA websites.

Turing Fellow awards 2021

Following an extremely successful call over the summer, 40 Leeds academics and researchers have been awarded a Turing Fellowship (includes 25 new appointments plus 15 reappointments), many of whom are engaged in collaborative research projects between LIDA, the Institute and other Institute partners.

Turing Fellows are established scholars with proven research excellence in data science, artificial intelligence, or a related field. They contribute to new ideas, drive collaborative projects, secure external funding and provide research expertise which is actively connected with the Turing and its network of universities and industry partners.

At LIDA, Turing Fellows range from senior University faculty to early career researchers. The broad range of disciplines covered (see table below) reflects the extent and advancement of data science and AI across LIDA and the wider University and the strength of the Leeds research in these areas.

Faculty Number
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences 16
School of Computing 13
School of Mathematics 3
Faculty of Environment 12
Institute for Transport Studies 5
School of Earth and Environment 1
School of Geography 6
Faculty of Medicine and Health 6
Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences 1
Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine 1
Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology / LIDA 1
School of Healthcare 1
School of Medicine 1
School of Psychology 1
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures 2
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies 1
School of Philosophy 1
Faculty of Biological Sciences 2
School of Biomedical Sciences 1
School of Molecular and Cellular Biology 1
Faculty of Social Sciences 2
School of Law 1
School of Politics and International Studies 1

Rosaleen McDonnell, Alan Turing Institute University Liaison Manager

 

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