Data Science Institute Impact Showcase: The AI Revolution and Future of Data Science
Since its launch in 2020, the Data Science Institute (DSI) has focused on not only how to leverage data science and AI for studying the social, economic, and political world, but also how these studies can improve society and policy.
The DSI Impact Showcase explores the profound impact of data science research and AI and the ethical issues surrounding its increasingly widespread adoption. A series of panel events examines the AI revolution through discussions on ethics, health and sustainability. The event will conclude with a keynote lecture from Dr Jennifer Prendki, Head of AI Data at Google DeepMind, followed by an evening drinks reception.
This event has now passed. You can revisit all avaliable event recordings here:
Event Timings:
- 1.00pm: Arrival and registration
- 1.30pm: Welcome DSI Director Ken Benoit
- 1.45pm to 2.30pm: AI and Ethics chaired by Professor Andrew Murray, the Academic Director of LSE’s Law, Technology and Society research group and Academic Director of LSE Online.
- 30 min break
- 3.05pm to 3.55pm: AI and Health chaired by Professor Alastair Denniston, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Hon Professor at University of Birmingham.
- 15 min break
- 4.15pm to 5.00pm: AI and Sustainability chaired by Dr Aurelien Saussay from the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment
- 25 min break
- 5.30pm to 6.30pm: Keynote speech Dr Jennifer Prendki Head of AI Data at Google DeepMind
- 6.30pm to 8.00pm: Evening drinks reception
Panel Details
AI and Ethics
- Chair: Professor Andrew Murray: Andrew is Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He is the Academic Director of the LSE’s Law, Technology and Society research group and is Academic Director of LSE Online. He has been since 2014 a visiting Professor at the Amsterdam Law and Technology Institute and was in Spring 2015 and Spring 2017 a visiting Professor at the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po).
- Speaker: Alice Thwaite: Alice is Head of Ethics at OmniGOV, Omnicom Media Group. She specialises in technology ethics and creating democratic information environments. She won the 2022 CogX award for Outstanding Achievements and Research Contributions in AI Ethics.
- Speaker: Dr Chandrima Ganguly: Chandrima is a Data and AI Ethicist working in the CDAO. Their background is research in AI Ethics and Theoretical physics and they hold a PhD in the letter from the University of Cambridge.m They are also a community organiser working for many years in the gender justice space. They are passionate about discovering and collaboratively creating ways in which technology can help people come together to find ways of better existing in community with each other and wider society.
- Speaker: Risto Uuk: Risto is the EU Research Lead at the Future of Life Institute in Brussels, spearheading research efforts on EU AI policy to maximize the societal benefits of increasingly powerful AI systems. He runs the biweekly EU AI Act Newsletter and has set up a website to cover all things EU AI Act. He is also an Expert in the Working Group on Future of Work at Global Partnership on AI and contributes to the development of AI standards in CEN and CENELEC working groups. Previously, Risto worked for the World Economic Forum on a project about positive AI economic futures and did research for the European Commission on trustworthy AI. He has a master's degree in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
AI and Health
- Chair: Professor Alastair Denniston: Alastair is an NIHR Senior Investigator, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Hon Professor in the evaluation and regulation of AI health technologies, based at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and the Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation, University of Birmingham, UK. His work focuses on how we can ensure that AI health technologies are effective, safe and equitable, and improve patient care in the ‘real world’. This includes the STANDING Together initiative, which is providing guidance in how we can make the ‘data foundations of AI’ more inclusive and representative. He jointly leads the international reporting guidelines for clinical trials of AI health technologies (SPIRIT-AI and CONSORT-AI) and is a Member of the UK Government’s Regulatory Horizons Council.
- Speaker: Dr Xiaoxuan Liu (Xiao): Xiao is a Senior Clinician Scientist and Ophthalmology Doctor at University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. She co-leads the Birmingham AI & Digital Health Group, a research and policy group focused on responsible innovation and regulatory science in AI health technologies.
- Speaker: Dr Rupa Sarkar: Rupa is the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Digital Health. Since her appointment in November 2018, The Lancet Digital Health has become the leading journal in the field of artificial intelligence and digital health, with a mission to advance standards for the next generation of health care technology. Rupa is an experienced editor and scientist working across a broad range of subject areas relevant to digital health. She has delivered seminars at over 30 conferences in the USA, China, India, Europe, and UK. Her interests span all interdisciplinary areas of digital health, with a particular interest in genomics and machine learning in clinical applications and, she is experienced in the current challenges and opportunities in the field of digital health. Rupa obtained her Ph.D. in embryonic stem cell development from Imperial College London, U.K., under the guidance of Prof. Robert Winston. After her postdoctoral research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, USA, Rupa joined the Nature Research Group. Prior to her appointment at The Lancet Digital Health, Rupa was the Chief Editor of Nature Protocols.
- Speaker: Dr Bilal A Mateen: A physician by training, Bilal has an academic background in health-related applications of data science and machine learning - he holds an honorary (associate) professorial appointment at University College London and a fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute (the UK’s national institute for data science and AI). Prior to joining the Digital Square team, he served as the Clinical Technology Lead and Senior Manager for Digital Technology at the Wellcome Trust – one of the world’s largest charitable foundations. Under Dr. Mateen’s leadership at Wellcome, his team provided funding for digital public goods to address three key health challenges: mental health, the impacts of climate change on human health, and emerging and escalating infectious diseases. Bilal is now the Executive Director of Digital Square, a global market shaping initiative to support the digital transformation of health system in pursuit of global health equity.
AI and Sustainability
- Chair: Dr Aurelien Saussay: Aurélien is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow in the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. He currently holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2022-2025). His research focuses on the interaction between economic inequality and climate change mitigation policies, in order to address the social and political acceptance challenges that hamper the implementation of effective decarbonisation. He aims to estimate the impacts of climate change mitigation on economic agents empirically to help improve the design of decarbonisation policies.
- Speaker: Caroline Milliotte: Caroline is a geologist - and passionate about natural sciences. She is the Global Sustainability Lead at Ekimetrics – the Data Science and AI company; her role is to define and implement the company’s sustainability roadmap, to drive the internal transformations along the way and to reconciliate the company’s business model with its ambitious sustainability goals. Caroline started her career in 2006, as a 3D-numerical and statistical modeler for Earth Science applications. Before turning 30, she created a software and consulting company, focusing on H2 and CO2 underground storage and deep geothermal plays.After completing a master’s degree in environment and energy policies, she joined the French governmental agency for the ecological transition (ADEME) where she led the EU-sponsored “Energy Transition in the Caribbean” project, in tight collaboration with regional institutions. She graduated from Sciences Po Paris (School of International Affairs) and has a double master’s degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (ENSG Nancy - Engineering school) and Université de Lorraine.
- Speaker: Dr Michal Nachmany: Michal is the founder and CEO of Climate Policy Radar, a not-for-profit AI startup on a mission to organise, analyse and democratise data on global climate law and policy. Before founding Climate Policy Radar, she spent a decade at the Grantham Research Institute, LSE, where she led the work on the Institute’s structured datasets and tools, building evidence-based decision-making tools for national legislation and policy and low-carbon investment. She led the team at the Transition Pathway Initiative, and served as an advisor to Climate Action 100+, an investor coalition. Michal holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, as well as an MA in Energy Policy and Management, LLB in Law, and MBA specialising in finance.
Keynote speech
- Dr Jennifer Prendki: Jennifer is currently leading the development of production-grade data infrastructure for Generative AI Data at Google Deepmind. Her team focuses on a wide range of initiatives from data governance to data quality. She has long contributed to the Data-Centric AI space which she helped pioneer through many inventions and countless conference talks and podcasts. Prior to joining Google DeepMind, she was running her own AI Data startup and led data teams at Figure Eight, Atlassian and Walmart Labs. She holds a PhD in Particle Physics from Sorbonne University, is recognized as one of the top industry experts on Data Preparation, Active Learning and MLOps, and is an accomplished speaker who enjoys addressing both technical and non-technical audiences.