The Ada Lovelace Academy is a new flagship initiative consisting of an integrated suite of computational MSc programmes at ESE.

With a focus on data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, the Ada Lovelace Academy is launching today with the aim of delivering gender-balanced postgraduate education to solve the science and engineering challenges of the 21st century.

Named after Ada Lovelace – the first ever computer programmer – the Academy is committed to addressing the historical underrepresentation of women in the engineering and technology sectors by educating a gender-balanced cohort of scientists and engineers.

“To underline our commitment to gender equality, we will offer Ada Lovelace scholarships to encourage more women into computational disciplines within Earth science and engineering, as well as mentoring opportunities and access to networking events and industry placements,” said Dr Rossella Arcucci, Senior Lecturer in Data Science and Machine Learning at the Department of Earth Science and Engineering and Director of the Ada Lovelace Academy.

Creating an inclusive and diverse environment

Currently, the Department of Earth Science and Engineering (ESE) is educating 269 students across its computational MSc courses, with women making up 42% of the student body.

By 2030, the Ada Lovelace Academy aims to achieve gender equality in all its MSc programmes.

“The Ada Lovelace Academy is driven by our commitment to creating an inclusive and diverse environment. This is reflected by the fact that half of our course directors for the Academy are women,” said Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Head of ESE.

“Currently based in the Royal School of Mines, the Ada Lovelace Academy will eventually be housed at Imperial’s White City campus – an emerging hub for interdisciplinary innovation and research – and will align with the new Schools of Convergence Science for Human and Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability.”

Once fully established, ESE’s Ada Lovelace Academy will welcome additional MSc courses from across Imperial which align with the Academy's focus areas and with its commitment to achieving gender balance.

“The Ada Lovelace Academy will be instrumental in creating the pathways and support systems to ensure women and underrepresented groups feel empowered to develop the skills needed to address the complex science and engineering challenges of the 21st century,” said Professor Martin Blunt, Professor of Flow in Porous Media at ESE, and Course Director of one of the MSc programmes part of the Ada Lovelace Academy.

The Academy’s MSc courses

The founding courses of the Ada Lovelace Academy are:

• Applied Computational Science and Engineering (ACSE) – launched in 2018
• Environmental Data Science and Engineering (EDSML) – launched in 2021
• Geo-Energy with Machine Learning and Data Science (GEMS) – launched in 2022
• Renewable Energy with AI and Data Science: Geology & Geophysics (READY) – launching in 2024