The EPSRC National Edge Artificial Intelligence Hub is committed to advancing world-class fundamental research that addresses critical challenges in the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence. By fostering collaboration and engaging with stakeholders from diverse disciplines and regions, the Hub aims to pioneer innovative solutions for safeguarding the integrity of data and the robustness of learning processes within AI systems. Central to its mission is the protection of AI algorithms operating in Edge Computing (EC) environments, particularly when subjected to sophisticated cyber-attacks. As edge computing becomes increasingly integral to modern technology and our daily lives, the Hub’s research will play a vital role in ensuring secure, reliable, and high-quality data flows that underpin effective AI performance.

Join us at our London event to find out more about the Hub, our work and how  you can collaborate with us!

Agenda:

12.00-13.00 Registration and lunch
13.00-13.10 Prof Chris Day, Vice-Chancellor and President of Newcastle University, will open the event [online]
13.10-13.45 Prof Raj Ranjan: “National EdgeAI Hub and the Future of UK’s AI sustainability and cyber resilience ecosystem”
13.45-14.05 Prof Julie McCann, Imperial College: “Importance of EdgeAI for the UK Economy and beyond”
14.05-14.15 Q&A / Break
14.15-14.35 Naomi South: “UKRI and the UK AI ecosystem”
14.35-14.55 Dr Sadaf Alam:  “Sustainability Credentials of Isambard-AI Supercomputing Digital Research Infrastructure”
14.55-15.15 Prof Erol Gelenbe: “Auto-Associative Random Neural Networks Detect and Mitigate Cyber-Attacks at the Edge”
15.15-15.30 Q&A / Break
15.30-16.15 AIOT Industry Panel

• Charlie Greenwood, CEO, Sports Loft
• Per Overgaard, CTO and Executive Director ISG Lenovo
• Roy Peled, Business Partnerships, WSC Sports

16.15-17.00 Networking

Speakers

Prof Raj Ranjan, Director of the National Edge AI Hub: Professor Rajiv Ranjan is an Australian-British computer scientist, of Indian origin, known for his research in Distributed Systems (Cloud Computing, Big Data, and the Internet of Things). He is University Chair Professor for the Internet of Things research in the School of Computing of Newcastle University, United Kingdom. He is an internationally established scientist in the area of Distributed Systems (having published about 350 scientific papers). He is a fellow of IEEE (2024), Academia Europaea (2022) and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (2023). He is also the Founding Director of the International Centre (UK-Australia) on the EV Security and National Edge Artificial Intelligence Hub, both funded by EPSRC. He has secured more than $64 Million AUD (£32 Million+ GBP) in the form of competitive research grants from both public and private agencies. He is an innovator with strong and sustained academic and industrial impact and a globally recognized R&D leader with a proven track record. He serves on the editorial boards of top quality international journals including IEEE Transactions on Computers (2014-2016), IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, ACM Transactions on the Internet of Things, The Computer (Oxford University), and The Computing (Springer) and Future Generation Computer Systems. He led the Blue Skies section (department, 2014-2019) of IEEE Cloud Computing, where his principal role was to identify and write about the most important, cutting-edge research issues at the intersection of multiple, inter-dependent research disciplines within distributed systems research area including Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, and Edge Computing. He is one of the highly cited authors in computer science and software engineering worldwide (h-index=80+, g-index=250+, and 31000+ Google Scholar citations, h-index=60+ and 16000+ Scopus citations, and h-index=50+ and 10000+ Web of Science Citations).

Professor McCann, Imperial College London: Professor McCann is Head of the Adaptive Emergent Systmes Engineering (AESE) group within the Department of Computing, Imperial College London. Her work centres on highly decentralised algorithms, protocols and cross-layered solutions to wireless sensor networks – with a particular focus on low-powered sensing devices. Space, Agricultural and Infrastructure Engineering challenges lead to her work on the Internet of Things as well as Cyber-physical systems, where her interests lie in harnessing the various interactions between the cyber and physical to improve performance, resilience and security.

Naomi South, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council: Naomi is a Senior Portfolio Manager in EPSRC’s AI & Robotics team. She works closely with key EPSRC investments including the Alan Turing Institute and the AI hubs, and is keen to explore how the UK AI ecosystem can continue connecting researchers, innovators and practitioners. Naomi co-led the delivery of the hubs funding opportunity in 2023 and her role now includes oversight of the AI hub portfolio, which the National EdgeAI Hub is part of.

Dr Sadaf Alam, Director of Advanced Computing Strategy, University of Bristol: Dr. Sadaf Alam is chief technology officer (CTO) for Isambard supercomputing digital research infrastructures (DRIs), including Isambard-AI National AI Research Resource (AIRR), and director of strategy and academia in the Advanced Computing Research Centre at the University of Bristol, UK. She is responsible for digital transformation of research computing and data services. Prior to joining Bristol, Alam was the CTO at CSCS, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre. She was chief architect for two generations of the Piz Daint innovative flagship supercomputing facilities and the MeteoSwiss operational weather forecasting platforms. From 2004 to 2009, Alam was a computer scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a staff scientist at the ORNL Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). She studied computer science at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where she received her PhD. She was a founding member of the Swiss Chapter of Women in HPC.

Prof Erol Gelenbe, Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics, Polish Academy of Sciences: Erol Gelenbe FIEEE FACM FIFIP is a Professor at the Institute of Theoretical & Applied Informatics, Polish Academy of Sciences. Associated with CNRS I3S Laboratory, University Côte d’Azur, Nice, France, and Visiting Professor at King’s College London, his research focuses on QoS, Security and Energy, and is funded by the EU, UKRI and Industry. He was supported by DoD and NSF in the USA, EPSRC and MoD in the UK, and numerous EU FP5, FP6, FP7, and Horizon projects since 2003. His current work is funded by EU Horizon and UKRI. Ranked among the top 25 PhD advisors by the American Mathematical Society Math. Genealogy Project, he won the Grand Prix France Telecom 1996 (French Academy of Sciences), the ACM SIGMETRICS 2008 Life-Time Award, the 2008 Imperial College Rector’s Research Award, the 2010 IET Oliver Lodge Medal (IET Innovation Award for Information Technology), and the Mustafa Prize 2017. Holder of several honoris causa doctorates, he is a Member of Academia Europaea, Foreign Fellow of the Royal Academy of Belgium and of several other European Science Academies, Fellow of the French National Academy of Technologies and of the Turkish Science Academy.