2018
All the news from 2018.
Guido Sanguinetti nominated for Medical Physics breakthrough of the year for his work on AI in cancer evolution prediction
Guido Sanguinetti and Giulio Caravagna (postdoc in Informatics 2015-17) are co-leading a cancer study that got a lot of interest in the media: 64 news outlets around the world picked it up, including ITV News, Independent and Daily Express. It has been nominated as one of the 5 breakthroughs of 2018 in Medical Physics.
European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) launched with Informatics researchers on board
Professors Amos Storkey and Chris Williams are among the researchers who established the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) on 6th December in Montreal.
Informatics students finish first in a national cyber security competition
Informatics students Wojciech, Jorge, Gwion, Jamie, Alexander and Konstantinos won a Capture The Flag competition organised by Deloitte.
Performance goals

PlayerData, a wearable tech company founded by two recent graduates of one of School of Informatics' joint degrees, has showcased its first product to thousands attending the Homeless World Cup in Mexico.
UK and Ireland Programming Contest came to Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh was one of the 14 universities in UK and Ireland that hosted UKIEPC this year, and the School of Informatics was one of the participating sites.
Sethu joins The Alan Turing Institute as Programme Co-Director for AI
Sethu Vijayakumar has been recently announced as Programme Co-Director for Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Alan Turing Institute.
School girls visited Informatics on Ada Lovelace Day
In October the School of Informatics celebrated Ada Lovelace Day by inviting teenage girls to try to be a computer scientists for a day.
Royal visit gives Bayes Centre seal of approval
Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal has officially opened a world-leading centre of expertise in data science and artificial intelligence (AI).
Suffrage awards for science pair
Two Edinburgh professors have been recognised for their achievements in mathematics and computing.
Visit School of Informatics for Edinburgh Doors Open Day this weekend
The School of Informatics opens its doors to visitors this weekend.
Informatics involved in China’s first low-carbon college
China’s first college for the study of low-carbon technology has opened with the support of experts from University of Edinburgh’s schools, including Informatics.
Informatics students contribute to developing transport of the future
HYPED (Edinburgh Hyperloop Society Team) with their custom-made prototype pod, affectionately named Poddy II, were among six best teams in the world to be invited to SpaceX for their annual Hyperloop Competition.
Ministers’ visit puts seal on City Region Deal
UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have visited the University to formally agree the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.
Edinburgh students win driverless race car competition
A team of Edinburgh students has won the UK’s first driverless race car competition.
Ursula Martin to talk about Ada Lovelace at Edinburgh Book Festival
Ada Lovelace continues to be a role model not just for women in STEM.
Mark Steedman awarded ACL Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor Mark Steedman was awarded 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).
Students on quest for high-speed success
A team of Edinburgh students is the UK’s sole representative in a prestigious engineering contest to help develop a futuristic form of transport.
Navigation in insects inspires robot design
Research into the complexities of how insects navigate is enabling the design of robots that mimic their behaviour.
Gordon Plotkin awarded Ada Lovelace Medal
Gordon Plotkin has been selected by the Awards Panel of British Computer Society, The Chartered Institute for IT as the 2018 winner of the Lovelace Medal.
Wayra UK and University of Edinburgh to launch new AI and Blockchain Accelerator
Wayra, Telefonica’s open innovation platform, and the University of Edinburgh are proud to announce an AI and Blockchain Accelerator that will welcome 20 start-ups a year from September.
Scientists aid developments of warehouse robots
University researchers are helping to develop smart robots to quickly shift goods in warehouses or assembly lines.
Wenfei Fan elected as Fellow of the Royal Society
Wenfei Fan, professor of Web Data Management from the School of Informatics was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society among fifty other eminent scientists on 9th May.
Informatics students showcase their projects to applause from industry experts
The System Design Project course is a group project for third year Computer Science students.
Darker emoji skin tones promote diversity, Twitter study shows
Emoji characters with adapted skin tones are used positively and are rarely abused, a study of Twitter posts has shown.
EIE bigger and better in its 10th year
The School of Informatics is a proud sponsor of the 10th edition of EIE (Engage Invest Exploit) organised by the Informatics Ventures.
Informatics students gearing up for the first student-run hardware hackathon
CreatED is the UK’s first student-run hardware hackathon. A hackathon is a 24 hour event where coders, makers and technical people of all kinds come together and build something innovative.
Informatics ProgClub Competition
Raitis Krikis fetched the first prize in the annual ProgClub Competition. Uday Patel and Mateusz Parafinski were awarded 2nd and 3rd prize respectively.
DataVisFest on Visualizing (In)equality and Inclusion
More than 20 participants from diverse backgrounds including graduate and PhD students from both ECA and Informatics took part in the DataVisFest.
Students take UK cyber security prize
A team of Edinburgh students has won the top prize in a UK-wide cyber security skills competition.
Data partnership seeks to benefit public sector
The University’s Bayes Centre for Data Science and Technology has agreed a memorandum of understanding with SAS, a leader in analytics.
Sensors in city park sound out how people and nature coexist
Innovative sound technology is set to reveal how city dwellers might better tune in to the natural world around them.
NSS launch for Informatics final year students
The National Student Survey opened for the University of Edinburgh students on 5th February.
Bayes Centre set for key role in City Region Deal
Proposals are being finalised for the Bayes Centre’s involvement in the City Region Deal for Edinburgh and South East Scotland.
Bitcoin wallet devices vulnerable to security hacks, study shows
Devices used to manage accounts on the innovative payment system Bitcoin could be improved to provide better protection against hackers, research suggests.