IT Futures

University of Edinburgh

Conference 2018

The University’s IT Futures conference returns this year with the title:

Edinburgh Futures: Data, Data all Around …

It will take place all day on Wednesday, 12th December 2018, in G07 Informatics Forum

Surrounded by vast quantities of data, we are confronted by deep problems and extraordinary opportunities. Radical new thinking is needed, imaginative and interdisciplinary. Citydeal is about the University, in collaboration with the City, its businesses and a wider context, building a national centre of expertise, training and ethics, to realise the value in data. Our conference this year seeks to bring us together as a University to understand the breadth of the implications for creativity, research and education. The Usher Institute is already a major centre for the application of data expertise; the Bayes Centre, newly opened, has hit the ground running; the Edinburgh Futures Institute is emerging with a focus perhaps especially on creativity and learning. What do we want it to mean, when we say Edinburgh is Data Capital of Europe?

Tweet the conference using hashtag: #itfutures

All speakers are University of Edinburgh colleagues unless otherwise stated.

Many thanks to all for a highly successful conference. Slides are now available from links below.
Photos from the conference are by courtesy of Ashley Lloyd.

 08.45 – 09.30 Registration, with coffee
 09.30 – 09.35 Welcome
 09:35 – 10.00

City Region Deal: Opportunities, Challenges
Prof. Charlie Jeffery, University of Edinburgh

We are delighted that Prof Charlie Jeffery, Senior Vice Principal at the University of Edinburgh, has agreed to deliver the opening address.

Link to slides (pdf)

 10.00 – 10.40

Edinburgh Futures Institute
Prof. Lesley McAra, University of Edinburgh

Link to slides (pdf)

 10.40 – 11.15 Coffee break
 11.15 – 11.45

Prof. Peter Mathieson

We are delighted that Professor Peter Mathieson MBBS(Hons)(London), PhD(Cambridge), FRCP(London), FRCPE, FMedSci has agreed to present to us in this conference.

 11.45 – 12.25

Learning = change + risk: The Bayes Experiment
Michael Rovatsos

Link to slides (pdf)

 12.25 – 13.05

Data Education for All
Prof. Judy Robertson, University of Edinburgh

Link to slides (pdf)

 13.05 – 14.00 Lunch break
 14.00 – 14.40

Dr. Claudia Pagliari, University of Edinburgh

 14.40 – 15.20

The Internet of Things
Simon Chapple, Information Services

 15.20 – 16.00

Space is big. Really big. So is the data.
Dr. Nigel Hambly, University of Edinburgh

Link to slides (pdf)

 16.00-16.30

Closing Address
Gavin McLachlan

Link to summary (pdf)

 16.30 – 17.00 Please join us for Mince Pies and Mulled Wine