I-X: Imperial searches for 13 new leaders of the digital revolution

A new Imperial College London initiative, I-X, is recruiting 13 academic staff to lead the next wave of the digital revolution.

The initiative will harness the College’s long-standing excellence in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data sciences, and related fields.  

I-X brings together Imperial’s strengths in data, AI, computing and maths to drive the smart society of the future. Professor Ian Walmsley Provost, Imperial College London

Launching in early 2022, Imperial-X (I-X) will be housed over two floors at the Translation & Innovation Hub (I-HUB) on Imperial’s White City Campus. It will function as a ‘mixed campus’ that brings together around 500 researchers from the Faculties of Engineering, Natural Sciences, and Medicine, and Imperial College Business School. These academics will collaborate to transcend individual disciplines and tackle our greatest challenges. 

Imperial Provost Professor Ian Walmsley said: “I-X brings together Imperial’s strengths in data, AI, computing and maths to drive the smart society of the future. We will embed our research, education, and innovation mission in a multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial environment that engages external partners to help deliver new ideas, new technologies and deeper impact more effectively and rapidly.”

The coming wave of digital technologies will completely transform every single facet of our lives. Professor Eric Yeatman Chair, I-X

To do this, I-X is recruiting 13 new faculty members to join 30 new research initiatives to drive the digital revolution.

The projects cover areas such as improving healthcare with big data and AI; preparing for a future of human-AI cooperation; robotics and automation; and building ML systems that understand the real world, like self-driving vehicles.

I-X seeks to work closely with industrial partners and the 13 roles will also be made available as joint-industrial appointments. 

Chair of I-X Professor Eric Yeatman, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said: “The ultimate vision for I-X is to deliver ‘transformational’ research, teaching and innovation to build a better future by bringing together universities, business, government and the next generation of students and young people who will be most impacted by these technologies. 

“With I-X we will create a testbed for different ways of running a university and the digital sector presents a fantastic opportunity to do this.” 

Launching moonshots 

We are building an exciting new model of co-discovery and co-creation in the digital space. Professor Nick Jones Co-Director, I-X

I-X's innovative research programme aims to deliver ambitious scientific ‘moonshots’ in the next 5-10 years. This will be achieved by bringing together multi-disciplinary academic teams from across Imperial with companies and non-profit labs to identify and fix problems that they cannot solve alone.  

The scope of this programme includes ‘core fields’ like AI, ML, statistics, and data science. 

These will underpin ‘applied fields’ such as health, space, environment and economy, virtual and augmented reality, internet of things, and networking and communications. There will also be ‘foundational aspects’ that inform the manner in which technologies are developed including security, privacy, resilience and ethics.    

Co-Director of I-X Professor Nick Jones from the Department of Mathematics said: “I-X represents a huge strategic commitment for the College, harnessing our excellence in interdisciplinary, collaborative research to position us as leaders of the digital revolution. We are building an exciting new model of co-discovery and co-creation in the digital space.”

I-X aims to engage not just industry and academics but the public at large and local communities in London through the development of apprenticeships in data science. It will also engage students through new flexible Masters programmes, new courses for industry, and new industry integrated PhDs. 

Thirteen full-time academic posts are now live on the Imperial jobs website.

Main image: Shutterstock

Image 2: I-X