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Bradford’s AI output building strong reputation

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The University of Bradford is building on its reputation for artificial intelligence (AI) with national recognition and praise from business leaders.

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Bradford is the UK’s third-placed institution for AI education, according to a study.

The University of Bradford enrolled 325 students for AI during the 2022/23 academic year, in data compiled by laptop and technology retailer Currys.

Bradford’s School of Management runs the MSc Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics which was designed in response to a shortage of AI and data analytics specialists in the UK.

Supporting the economy

The University will award 135 scholarships worth £10,000 each in MSc Applied AI and Data Analytics to full-time and part-time students by March 2025. The scholarship’s funding is part of a £1.7m investment by Office for Students (OfS), Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Office for Artificial Intelligence and industry contributions.

The University of Bradford is helping to address digital skills gaps that will support the local, regional and national economy.

Emma Suchland, PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC)’s new Regional Market Lead for the North, has praised the AI skills base output at the University.

The professional services network of firms opened an office in Bradford in 2019.

Speaking to Insider Media, she said: "I hadn't fully appreciated the depth of skills coming out of the University of Bradford.

“Its AI skills are already important and will only become more so in the future. In the context of competitiveness and employment costs, upskilling teams and our clients to use AI to deliver more at pace is going to be a real advantage.”

Forefront of AI education

Bradford will continue to be at the forefront of AI education in the UK when it launches its new BSc Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence later this year. Another course, MSc Artificial Intelligence and Space Technology, will also begin this year.

The University of Bradford is a part of the Turing University Network, which offers all UK Universities with an interest in data science and AI the chance to engage and collaborate both with the Alan Turing Institute and its broader networks.

The University hosted the ‘Digital Technologies for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’ conference in December 2024. Experts discussed the role of digital technologies in advancing science, education and society for the benefit of local communities.

Two former students sit next to each other at a table looking at a laptop on a table in front of them

Other pioneering work includes Professor of Visual Computing Rami Qahwaji, who set up the Space Weather Prediction Group, who led a team of Research Assistants and PhD students to develop the AI and Computer Vision Technologies needed for monitoring sunspot activity and predicting solar storms.

Two former University of Bradford students, Aaron Walshaw and Sania Bibi, have developed I-Diagnose, an AI chatbot which makes students’ exams quicker and cheaper to run.

Clinical evaluations known as Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) are presently often costly and difficult to organise as they require a minimum of three people. The I-Diagnose concept has been developed through the University’s Accelerated Student Entrepreneurship Programmes (ASEP), part of the Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem (BREE).

The faculty members involved in delivering the AI programmes are at the forefront of groundbreaking AI research, tackling real-world challenges across diverse areas including cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, automotive technology and space exploration. Supported by PhD students, the group is dedicated to developing AI-driven solutions to address critical issues.

Their research is regularly published in leading international journals. Students in Bradford’s MSc programs benefit from hands-on learning opportunities, exposure to pioneering research and the chance to collaborate with experts shaping the future of AI.

Professor Ciprian Daniel Neagu, Professor of Computing at the University of Bradford, presented a webinar, ‘Fundamental concepts in Artificial Intelligence for real world applications’, at an event hosted by the British Computing Society.

The webinar, held in June 2024, focused on a review of responsible AI, its key concepts, risks, and opportunities in the digital economy and Generative AI, with a focus on sustainability.