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UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Ethics and AI: tackling biases hidden in big data
21-04-2021 | @ GettyImages
How do artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms learn to predict and make decisions? Can we entrust them with decisions that affect our lives and societies? Are they neutral and as immune to societal imperfections as commonly thought? Nello Cristianini at the University of Bristol investigated challenges emerging from data-driven AI, addressing issues such as gender biases in AI algorithms, and shifts in people’s emotions reflected in social media content. 
The power of Quantum Computing
04-11-2019 | @istockphoto.com/Danor_a
Quantum computers are the Holy Grail of information theorists. For years, scientists have been trying to crack their mysteries, to harvest their interesting applications. They are predicted to have tremendous computational power, exponentially larger than the computers available today. However, so far, they have been difficult to actually build. Prof. Ashley Montanaro will investigate the path from the theoretical foundations of quantum computing their applications to real-life problems.
Autonomous flight inspired by nature
01-07-2019 | © Shane Windsor
Humans have wondered at flight since primeval times. Yet despite almost two centuries of designing machines to fly, birds still do it better in many ways. Dr Shane Windsor, a lecturer in Aerodynamics at the University of Bristol, is looking at how birds control their flight in windy conditions with the aim to improve the engineering of small-scale unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) for use in and around urban areas.
Getting to grips with (slow) chaos
30-07-2018 | © picture
Chaotic systems are everywhere: the weather, molecules in a gas, the stock market. Small variations in initial conditions can lead to a drastically different time evolution, a phenomenon known as the butterfly effect. Systems can be classified according to how fast different, nearby initial conditions diverge in time. Supported by the ERC, Prof. Corinna Ulcigrai is investigating systems for which nearby initial conditions diverge slowly in time, to uncover mechanisms which explain their complex behaviour.
Quantum computing: the new paradigm
15-03-2017 | © picture
Jeremy O’Brien is Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the University of Bristol. His current work focuses on bringing quantum computing into reality, with the potential to transform healthcare, energy, finance and the internet. Professor O’Brien is pursuing a photonic approach to manufacturing a large-scale universal quantum computer, exploiting the extraordinary silicon fabrication capability developed by the silicon chip industry. Originally published in March 2017 as part of the multimedia campaign "ERC - 10 years – 10 portraits."
From Tenerife to Trinidad: corals and climate change in the abyss
28-11-2014 | © TROPICS Cruise
In June 1770, the explorer James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and became the first European to experience the world's largest coral reef. Last year, the James Cook research vessel set out to encounter unique and unexplored corals, this time in the deep ocean. Led by ERC grantee Dr Laura Robinson (University of Bristol, UK), the team on board crossed the equatorial Atlantic to take samples of deep-sea corals, reaching depths of thousands of meters. On the expedition, Dr Robinson collected samples that are shedding light on past climate changes and she will share her findings at TEDx Brussels.