IBM Research is newest Compass partner to sponsor PhD project

The University of Bristol is excited to announce IBM Research Europe as a new partner of Compass – the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Computational Statistics and Data Science. IBM scientists are collaborating with Prof. Robert Allison and Compass PhD student Anthony Stephenson, on a research project entitled Fast Bayesian Inference at Extreme Scale. The project’s aim is to extend Bayesian inference algorithms to the ‘extreme scales’ that many deep learning workloads occupy, by placing more focus on AI methodologies which furnish both an accurate prediction, and critically, a high-quality uncertainty representation for predictions.

For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 19 locations across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame

IBM has European research locations in Switzerland (Zurich), England (Hursley and Daresbury), and Ireland (Dublin), with a large development lab in Germany focused on AI, quantum computing, security and hybrid cloud.

IBM’s global labs are involved hundreds of joint projects with universities particularly throughout Europe, in research programs established by the European Union and the local governments, and in cooperation agreements with research institutes of industrial partners.

Compass is a 4-year PhD training programme focusing on Computational Statistics and Data Science. This new venture is part of the Compass mission to promote academic and professional agility in its students, equipping them with the skills and experience to work across disciplines in academia and beyond.

Anthony Stephenson is the PhD student recruited to this project says, “After several years working in industry, I am pleased to be starting the Compass programme and shifting my focus to research. Having the combined forces of the University of Bristol and IBM behind me inspires confidence and I look forward to working with members of each of them. My project, scalable inference in non-linear Bayesian models, is also a highly relevant and exciting area to work on, with many applications in modern machine learning.”

Dr Ed Pyzer-Knapp is World-Wide IBM Research Lead in AI Enriched Modelling and Simulation and says, “I am very excited to work with Anthony and Robert – scaling Bayesian inference is a really important area of machine learning research; bringing to bear our mantra of fusing of bits and neurons to further develop the future of computing. This project is a great opportunity to further strengthen our relationship with the University of Bristol.”

Prof Robert Allison is Anthony’s academic supervisor at the University of Bristol and says, “I’m really looking forward to working with Anthony and Ed on a highly important and widely applicable area of machine learning which encompasses mathematical research, data-analysis, algorithm development and efficient large-scale computation. In addition, I see this project as an ideal opportunity to seed wider ranging data-science and machine learning collaborations between IBM Research, their academic partners and the University of Bristol.”

As Director of Compass, Prof Nick Whiteley say “I’m absolutely delighted to welcome IBM Research to Compass. This project is a fantastic opportunity for Anthony to tackle a very challenging and increasingly important AI research problem under Prof. Allison and Dr. Pyzer-Knapp’s supervision. As this collaboration develops, I look forward to all Compass students learning about IBM’s vision for the future of AI and its connection to the expertise in statistical methodology and computing they will acquire through the Compass training programme.”

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