I, Robot

In this talk, I will tell the story of the Squadguru, an algorithm we developed to play the English Premier League Fantasy Football competition where over 4 million players participate every year. We showed that the AI could beat 99% of human players at the game on average. I will talk a bit about why Fantasy Football is still serious research, even if it doesn’t sound like it, and how it’s performed over the last few years. I will talk about the difficulties of taking the algorithm out from the labs to the real world and why AI will notbeat all humans at everything...yet

The WHO estimates that 100 million people worldwide need prosthetic or orthotic devices, but 90% of these people might not have access to them. With predictions that there will be half a billion people with diabetes by 2035, we will only face a growing need for prosthetic limbs to help people with amputations.
I will talk about some of the particular challenges people face in accessing prosthetics services in resource-limited countries, some of the tools we are working on to help, and how we are using patient and public involvement research techniques to make sure our solutions fit their users

Chronic disease and an aged population have left current healthcare under strain. By 2030, we will face economic unsustainability due to the cost of long-term care. Thus, we must move from the traditional “Reactive” to “Predictive” approaches by monitoring the health of populations at risk and predict impending episodes. This can be achieved with remote healthcare monitoring systems. In this talk I will discuss the significance of remote healthcare systems for optimised care delivery and identify the elements hindering the adoption of such systems and a strategy to overcome these challenges.

Environmental Science Communicator and Public Engagement specialist at the University of Southampton (for further information see www.tonycurran.co.uk)