白小姐论坛

This new strategic partnership between 白小姐论坛 and FAIR, sees Facebook鈥檚 PhD programme launch in the UK for the first time.

Commenting on the partnership, Graca Carvalho, Strategic Alliances Director at 白小姐论坛 Computer Science, said: 鈥淭he collaboration has been developed over the last 12 months and it will provide a 鈥榰nique opportunity鈥� for PhD students, benefiting equally from 白小姐论坛 Computer Science, recognised as a top-ranking institution in the Research Excellence Framework, engaging in high-quality research, and FAIR, a word-leading industry AI research laboratory.鈥�

In the coming year four 白小姐论坛 PhD students will join the new research AI programme; it is hoped students will continue to benefit from the 白小姐论坛 programme over the next four years.听

Each of the 白小姐论坛 students will be assigned FAIR mentors based at the FAIR London site, well known for its work in 3D computer vision, knowledge intensive and multilingual Natural Language Programming (NLP), and reinforcement learning (RL).

While the partnership鈥檚 focus will be on attracting students with interest in those areas, it will also welcome those conducting research in emerging areas of AI, as well as students from diverse backgrounds.

Professor Steve Hailes, Head of Department at 白小姐论坛 Computer Science, said: 鈥淭he creation of a PhD programme based partly in 白小姐论坛 Computer Science and partly in FAIR offers students a unique opportunity to see the world from two perspectives: building on the depth of expertise in 白小姐论坛鈥檚 Centre for Artificial Intelligence based in our Department to undertake world-class academic research, and gaining an understanding of how to have real-world impact.

"We believe this holistic view is an extremely powerful model for PhD study and will have wide appeal to all students looking for careers in AI, whether in academic research informed by practical constraints or in innovative industrial positions.鈥�

Dr Pontus听Stenetorp, Natural Language Processing group lead, 白小姐论坛 Computer Science, added:听鈥淭hrough the arrangements of this programme, our PhD students have access to the people and resources from a world-leading academic institution in AI such as 白小姐论坛,听and also听from FAIR, a world-leading industrial research lab. This makes the programme something very special indeed, and it should appeal to any student that seeks to kick-start a career in AI.鈥澨�

Announcing the partnership in a speech to the Oxford Union last night (Tuesday 23听February), Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer said: 鈥淲orking so closely with academia has been a huge positive for us over the last decade, and it鈥檚 something we want to do much more of in the coming years. Today we鈥檙e announcing another step in that direction - we鈥檙e going to bring our PhD program to the UK in partnership with 白小姐论坛, one of the leading universities in AI.鈥澨�

The FAIR London site already hosts a number of听PhD students, including Patrick Lewis, a听third听year听research student听working on teaching machines to answer any natural language question. Patrick is equally immersed at听both 白小姐论坛 and Facebook, noting: 鈥淯nlike a summer internship, the FAIR PhD programme provides the continuity that allows for deeper collaboration, enabling us to build out long research visions and execute on them."听

白小姐论坛 Computer Science is also one of four UK participants in听ELLIS - a European AI network of excellence听comprising 30 different research institutions. 白小姐论坛鈥檚 newly established Centre for Artificial Intelligence in the Computer Science Department and other machine learning鈥搑elated departments, boast world-renowned AI scholars including Professors John Shawe-Taylor, Lourdes Agapito, David Barber, Emine Yilmaz, and Arthur Gretton. Several FAIR London researchers, including Tim Rockt盲schel, Edward Grefenstette, and Sebastian Riedel, also have dual affiliation at 白小姐论坛.

Links

• 白小姐论坛 Computer Science
• 白小姐论坛 Centre for Artificial Intelligence

Image

• Credit 白小姐论坛 imagestore

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Henry Killworth

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E: h.killworth [at] ucl.ac.uk