Leading British artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepMind has made a generous gift in support of female graduate students studying AI at Queen Mary, University of London.
Queen Mary’s AI programme is supported by the Institute of Coding (IoC) and forms part of the AI Industrial Master’s programme that is being led by government’s Office for AI.
The significant donation from DeepMind will be used by Queen Mary to establish a new scholarship programme to support and encourage women, who are under-represented in the field compared to men by a margin of three to one[1], to pursue postgraduate education in AI.
Four DeepMind Scholarships will be awarded during the academic year 2019/2020 to women living in the UK who wish to study on the University’s MSc in AI programme.
“Queen Mary is delighted to receive this gift from DeepMind” says Isobel Bates, IoC Programme Manager at Queen Mary. “Queen Mary, in partnership with the IoC and the Office for AI, is determined to do its part to break down the barriers that discourage women from digital education and careers. The DeepMind scholarship programme will play a key role in helping us tackle the gender imbalance in the field by encouraging women to participate in the subject at graduate level.”
Queen Mary’s postgraduate AI master’s degree has been developed with the support of the IoC, a national government-supported initiative that is bringing together employers, educators, outreach groups and professional bodies to respond to the UK’s digital skills gap.
The government’s Office for AI is currently working alongside the IoC and BCS, the Chartered Institute of IT, to deliver a new Industrial Master’s programme for Artificial Intelligence (IMAI). A world-first industry and government collaboration, the programme is set to develop the next generation of AI experts in the UK. Working in partnership with universities and major corporations, the programme aims to boost the numbers of highly qualified AI experts and help give the UK’s tech industry the talent it needs to thrive in the future.
Digital Minister Matt Warman said: “The UK has a long-standing reputation for innovation. We are the birthplace of artificial intelligence and home to technology pioneers such as Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace. We are determined to see this continue.
“Today we are announcing a bumper investment in skills training to strengthen our workforce and attract, nurture and retain the best talent so we can lead the world in research and development.
“AI is already being used to improve lives by helping detect fraud quicker and diagnose diseases more accurately. With the brightest minds at the helm we will be able to explore this cutting-edge technology further."
Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO, DeepMind, said: “DeepMind is proud to be working with Queen Mary to help address the gender imbalance in our field. We believe that AI will be a transformative technology that will positively impact all sections of society, so it is essential that those developing it are representative of the population as a whole. Queen Mary, in partnership with the Institute of Coding, have put together a great MSc programme and I can’t wait to see what our scholars go on to achieve.”
[1] Global Gender Gap Report 2018, World Economic Forum
For more information:
MSc in AI programme at Queen Mary, University of London
DeepMind is a world leader in artificial intelligence research and its application for positive impact.
The Institute of Coding (IoC) is a national government-supported collaboration of employers, educators, and outreach partners, and is funded by the Office for Students.
The Office for AI is part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
The School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London.