The generous donation will provide five new MSc scholarships for students from under-represented groups.
The scholarships will be for students wishing to study artificial intelligence (AI) or related subjects in the Departments of Computing or Life Sciences, and two PhD scholarships in AI-related fields.
The scholarships, which will be awarded in the 2021-22 academic year, are aimed at women and people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, who are typically under-represented in this area of study.
What do the scholarships cover and what are the eligibility criteria?
Each scholarship will cover the full course costs, including living costs, and will provide additional support for attendance at academic conferences, equipment and, for international students, relocation costs. MSc awards are available for Home/UK and Overseas students.
The two PhD scholarships are also available to home-fee students and to EU-fee students applying for Spring 2021 entry at the latest. The PhD scholarships are not available to overseas students. Interested applicants should apply by the March 2021 PhD admissions deadline, to conduct their doctoral research in artificial intelligence or machine learning.
Improving representation in AI disciplines
DeepMind have supported scholarships for under-represented groups in the Department of Computing at Imperial since 2019, to improve representation in AI disciplines. These scholarships are their first to also include subjects in the biosciences, where AI is becoming an increasingly essential tool. DeepMind itself is a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, machine learning experts and more, working together to research and build safe AI systems that learn how to solve problems and advance scientific discovery for all.
These scholarships will not only address an imbalance of demographics in the disciplines but will also give great opportunities to bright students. Professor Anne Dell Head of the Department of Life Sciences
Professor Michael Huth, Head of the Department of Computing, said: “We are delighted that DeepMind have extended their valuable support of the Department with these new scholarships. The Department is committed to addressing the under-representation of women and BAME students in Computing and AI. This aspiration we share with DeepMind and we are enormously grateful for their support.”
The high-value scholarships provide the opportunity to be matched with a DeepMind mentor as well as participating in events.
Obum Ekeke, Global Lead, University Relations & Education Partnerships at DeepMind, commented, “We’re delighted to have the chance to support students in both AI and biological sciences. These are our first scholarships in biology-related fields. We believe that AI has the potential to be a powerful tool for scientific discovery, and working across different disciplines is a key part of that potential.”
Professor Anne Dell, Head of the Department of Life Sciences, said: “We are thrilled that DeepMind have seen to extend their support of AI at Imperial in a new direction, towards the life sciences where there has long been under-representation of UK BAME students. AI is helping to transform bioinformatics, genetics and synthetic biology, and so these scholarships will not only address an imbalance of demographics in the disciplines but will also give great opportunities to bright students to extend their studies in these exciting fields.”
Find out more about the scholarships
More information about these scholarships can be found:
How to apply
To apply, please click here.
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