A University of the West of Scotland (UWS) Honorary Doctorate Masterclass has given students, staff and the public an insight into the work of the Alan Turing Institute and the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI).

Professor Mark Girolami, Chief Scientist at The Alan Turing Institute and UWS alumnus, delivered a masterclass at the University’s Paisley campus on Tuesday 9 December exploring the challenges related to the speed and unpredictability of AI developments.

During the session, which attracted around 70 attendees, Mark spoke about his early career and taking an opportunity to undertake his PhD at University of Paisley (now UWS) after a ten-year career as a Chartered Engineer within IBM. He also spoke about his current work as Chief Scientist at The Alan Turing Institute, and its vision of ‘Changing the world for the better with data science and AI’.

Mark has held the Sir Kirby Laing Professorship of Civil Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge since 2019, where he also holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Data Centric Engineering.

Prior to joining the University of Cambridge, Mark held the Chair of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London.

He has been the Chief Scientist of The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s National Institute for data science and artificial intelligence, since October 2021. He was one of the original founding Executive Directors of the Institute and previous to his role as Chief Scientist, he led the Turing’s Data-centric Engineering programme.

A UWS alumnus, Mark undertook a PhD in statistical signal processing whilst working at the University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University during our Winter 2024 Graduation.

The session is part of the University’s ongoing series of Honorary Doctorate masterclasses, which celebrate the achievements of distinguished figures recognised by UWS and provide students with direct access to leading voices across sectors.