Industry and Research Lens
Voices on AI from our DERI Seminars
Welcome to our hub for cutting-edge insights and philosophical thinking on AI and Machine Learning, a space where research will meet real-world insights. Each month we will be turning our lens on researchers and leading experts and asking them to share their perspective on how AI is transforming the way we live, work, and think. They will be diving into what is possible, exchanging ideas about AI's impact today and the potential for the future.
DERI Research Day Highlights
Watch a summary of Professors Slabaugh and John’s presentation, exploring how computer vision is being used to tackle interdisciplinary challenges and how its applications can be developed and applied across diverse domains.
DERI held its inaugural Research Day earlier this year. Different teams presented their research and the exciting projects they are working on. In this clip, we explore the Interdisciplinary Applications of Computer Vision.
The day opened with a keynote from Professor Simone Stumpf (University of Glasgow), who addressed “The Wicked Problem of Explainable AI” and the challenges of making artificial intelligence transparent and trustworthy.
This was followed by Professors Cédric John and Greg Slabaugh, who showcased how computer vision can be applied across disciplines in their talk “Pixels, Patterns, and Problems: Interdisciplinary Applications of Computer Vision.”
We also heard from Professor Gina Neff, who reflected on “How to Build the Future We Want,” considering the societal impact of technology and research.
The event featured a series of lightning pitches, spanning topics from AI-driven human motion generation and data-informed biology, to youth perspectives on GenAI and health, LLM-supported clinical reviews, photosynthesis in extreme environments, and deep learning for heart modelling.
A lively panel discussion hosted by Professor David Leslie brought together experts from academia and industry, including representatives from Adobe, to explore interdisciplinary solutions to complex problems. The programme concluded with Professor Venet Osmani, who shared insights on “Transforming Clinical Practice through a Generalist Clinical AI.”
What is solar forecasting?
Sukhil Patel from Open Climate Fix shared his enthusiasm for technology that can help reduce our climate impact. He gave us an overview of Open Climate Fix’s work and how their tech initiatives enhances the energy sector.
Open Source material available from Open Climate Fix
Quartz Solar - operational forecasting tool
Github - the organisation's github space, where their open source code lives and people can contribute
Hugging Face - link to where OCF's open source models and datasets are stored
ICLR Workshop paper on PVNet, OCF’s solar forecasting model
Open Climate Fix find out more about their work in creating AI tools for a greener grid
As a machine learning engineer in the climate sector Sukhil Patel uses his skills in AI to help reduce carbon emissions, he enjoys solving complex problems that have a postive social impact. Contact Sukh through LinkedIn
Also check out a recent interview by DERI's Professor Cédric John, Head of Data Science for the Environment and Sustainability about whether AI and sustainability can co-exist.
AI and the Financial sector
Dr Janet Bastiman is the Chief Data Scientist at Napier AI. Here we find out the challenges in using AI within this tightly regulated sector and how Napier AI are helping the industry to combat financial crime.
The Napier AI / AML Index uses GDP data, criminality data from UNODC and the Organized Crime Index, and compliance effectiveness from FATF and the Basel Index. It also includes insights from senior executives on the impact of AI on AML strategies. The Index provides insights into 35 countries, highlighting which are stronger and weaker when it comes to stopping money flowing into the shadow economy
Dr Janet Bastiman, Chief Data Scientist at Napier AI also gave us a fascinating insider’s viewpoint on the challenges of adopting AI in this area. You can connect with Dr Bastiman on LinkedIn
CVPR 2025
Amaya Gallagher-Syed is a PhD student at DERI. In this segment she walks us through her latest research on biologically explainable computational pathology, which she will present at CVPR 2025.
CVPR 2025 - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference
The IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2025 will be held in Nashville from Wed June 11th - Sun June 15th, 2025. The IEEE / CVF Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR) is the premier annual computer vision event comprising the main conference and several co-located workshops and short courses which are open to students and academics.