News Items

Computer Science (CS) Industry Steering Board

We have recently re-launched the Heriot-Watt Industry Steering Board event and had a wonderful time with business and industry partners. Heriot-Watt is committed to making industry and business a key stakeholder in both our teaching and research. Especially at a time when recent technology is upending a lot of assumptions about what the next generation of computer scientists and researchers will be doing.

Alistair McConnell, CS Head of Department, gave a insightful overview of the research and teaching work we are doing in the department. Highlights included research applying deep learning for Parkinson’s Disease detection and Heriot-Watt’s brand new course in game development and production .

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ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI2026)

I attended CUI this year in Bremen and presented provocation work on “The Dangerous Allure of Science Fiction in Conversational User Interfaces.” The presentation was a lot of fun. I used Ralph the Robot (pictured) as an example of non-autonomous social agent designed to use a Wizard of Oz approach to disseminate research material.

I argued that much work in the area was depending on ideas that were not based in practical engineering but rather in science fiction stories and put forward a framework for explicitly describing fictions within anthropomorphic research work:

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UK and Ireland Speech Workshop (UKIS2026)

We presented pioneering research on innovative approaches to customer relationship management using AI agents conceived by Jaume Padrell, Capacity Director Research & Development, Voice, at the UK and Ireland Speech Workshop (UKIS) , taking place on 22–23 June 2026 by with Chris Pidcock, Capacity Director of Engineering, Voice.

The work highlights new ways in which artificial intelligence can enhance customer service experiences, particularly in call centre environments. A key aspect of the research explores how human agents can seamlessly collaborate with AI systems. The project builds on a recent MSc initiative at Heriot-Watt University, sponsored by Capacity, in which 16 students investigated advanced methods for integrating human intervention into AI-driven customer interactions. Their work focused on enabling human agents to be “brought into” AI-led calls when needed, and to “step back” when automated systems can resume control—creating a more fluid and efficient hybrid service model.

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AI Strategy for Scotland Launch

I attended a thought provoking event at the Edinburgh Futures Institute exploring Scotland’s AI Strategy.

The agenda included a great opening ministerial address from Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Business and Employment followed by two excellent panels. I had the pleasure of chatting to the people who made the Scottish AI alliance such a key organisation in supporting Scotland’s AI development over the last 5 years.

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Conference on Human Robot Interaction

I spent a fantastic week at a wonderful conference in Edinburgh this week. Human Robot Interaction has grown from a few hundred to around eight hundred delagtes over the last few years and the organisers at Heriot Watt did a fantastic job. Especially the local organisers, Marta Romeo and Mary Ellen Foster who gave us brilliant workshop day and wonderful events.

I was honoured to be a co-chair of the Alt.HRI and was incredibly impressed with the quality of the papers and the wonderful presentations of provocative and edgy research. A special mention goes for authors of the best Alt.HRI paper, We Cannot Outsource What We Value Most: Toward Deployable Research Products in HRI by Kayla Matheus and Brian Scassellati. The paper stood out both in terms of the presentation, which was excellent, provocative and also a lot of fun and for its topic area which is of particular timely interest for the HRI community. The paper is also very well written offers a constructive and thoughtful appraisal of the issue of the failure of commercial robotic companies.

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Duncan Laboratory for Insurance Data Science

I had the pleasure if attending the launch of the Duncan Laboratory for Insurance Data Science at Panmure House in Edinburgh. Ian Duncan gave a thought provoking talk on the topic of Health Insurance in the Age of Big Data and AI. Ian Duncan has many years experience as an entrepreneur in the US health domain and is an expert of US health economics and finance.

One of the benefits of working at MACS at Heriot-Watt is the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in both Mathematics and Actuarial Sciences. Placing a financial lens on topics such as health care, pensions and climate science creates a fascinating perspective on many of today’s urgent issues.

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MIMER Roundtable on Digital Identity, Deepfakes and Fraud in the Age of Generative AI

The project MIMER — Mitigating Presentation Attacks in Remote Identity Proofing - is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and University of Engineering and Technology Taxila (UETT) in Pakistan. I had the pleasure of being asked to talk at an event organised by MIMER. I spoke on the subject of audio deep fakes, the process of copying or cloning a person’s voice so it can be used by a speech synthesis system and potentially used to impersonate a person for fraudulent purposes.

The event was very well organised with some other wonderful speakers on subjects ranging from Deepfake Detection and Know Your Customer (KYC) Vulnerability by Edinburgh company Datambit , Fraud Patterns and the Verification Gap by Charlotte Sadd from CIFAS and an incisive policy perspective from Dr Andrea Szymkowiak .

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M-DICE Launch

I’m very proud of my colleagues work in the Department of Mathematics with the launch of M-DICE. M-DICE is the Mathematics-Driven Innovation Centre and specialises in applying Mathematics and Statistics expertise to support industrial innovation, address real-world challenges, and encourage interdisciplinary research.

The launch was a great success. Professor Dame Alison Etheridge FRS, the President of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences , opened the event. We then had a wonderful display of research posters highlighting mathematics driven research from across the School from both academics and post-graduate students. There was plenty of time for attendees to talk with each other and explore collaboration possibilities.

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ERPE Health and Care Research and Networking Event

The Edinburgh Research Partnership in Engineering (ERPE) is a strategic alliance between Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh. Each university brings different strengths to the partnership to deliver world leading expertise to deliver commercial, social, environmental and economic impacts.

As part of our joint REF submission I met with other members of ERPE from Heriot-Watt and the University of Edinburgh with an interest in health care research. It was a great opportunity to meet with colleagues, talk about research ideas and how technologies as different as ultrasound and speech technology can be used in the health care sector.

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Scotland's National Innovation Summit

Spent the day attending Scotland’s National Innovation Summit . Two things really leapt out to me from the event. Firstly, a brilliant keynote from KD Adamson . Witty, thought provoking and with some hilarious punches at the tech bros. But also optimistic despite the tech BS we see so much of that as people we maybe can do better.

Secondly, I spoke to all the companies exhibiting and found out a lot more about Scottish businesses than I thought I would. One of my favorite exhibitors (pictured) was More Than Games. Focusing on the transformative power of games, the organization is aimed at an audience outside the game development community – offering a chance for game creators to reach people who don’t normally come to video games conferences. See the 2023 event at Scottish Games Week .

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IEEE RO-MAN 2025: Shaping out Hybrid Future with Robots Together

Spent a wonderful week in Eindhoven at RO-MAN 2025 where I presented early results from a student project by Kangdi Wang. RO-MAN has grown considerable over the last few years with over 600 attendees and 6 tracks. The conference is a leading forum where the latest developments and future perspectives of Human-Robot Interaction are presented and discussed.

Matthew has been attending talks on how we might develop state of the art AI models to control and model user interaction. He attended a workshop looking at interaction with children (one of the world’s most difficult customers), as well as presenting work on how to facilitate smooth interruptions and the impact of science fiction on the way we see technology and interaction over the next decade.

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Bridge AI Annual Showcase - London

Spent an entertaining day at the Bridge AI Annual Showcase in London. We had a great meeting with Tom Adeyoola who was recently appointed as Executive Chair of Innovate UK, where me and my Alan Turing colleagues shared our experiences working as independent science advisors.

I spoke with some very interesting developing companies working in a wide range of domains from construction to the creative industries. The impact of modern AI techniques is wide ranging from making applications in the creative sector possible which would have been impossible a few years ago, to giving the motivation for developing systems to collect and curate data which before was never collected.

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AI Regulation Workshop Organized by Responsible AI UK

Had a wonderful time at an AI regulation workshop organized by Jennifer Williams in the Churchill War Rooms. The workshop was organized as part of the Responsible AI UK international ecosystem . Using the scenario of a an automated AI Watchkeeper for the maritime industry we had some brilliant discussions on what sort of requirements are needed to make the technology trustworthy, secure and effective. The War Rooms are a fascinating venue and the museum there gives a very interesting insight into the second world war.

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HCT Showcase Organized by Heriot-Watt GRI in Health Care Technologies

I was very lucky to have the opportunity of hearing Professor Chris Witty give a talk at the Heriot-Watt Health Care Technologies Showcase. The event was organized by Heriot-Watt’s Global Research Institute in Health Care Technologies and demoed some of the wonderful work being done at Heriot-Watt in the healthcare domain. Professor Witty gave a remarkable insight of both the opportunities and challenges of innovation within the NHS.

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Bridge AI Road show Edinburgh

I attended the Bridge AI Beacon event (part of their road show series) at Codebase in Edinburgh. The event was ideal for business leaders, innovators, and decision-makers who are exploring the adoption of AI, as well as anyone interested in understanding how regional challenges can be addressed through its application. I attended in my role as an Independent Science Advisor for the Turing Institute. The event was partnered by the Scottish AI Alliance and we had some great talks from some new commercial companies and a fantastic discussion on ethics in AI.

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Visit to PAL Robotics Barcelona

I had a wonderful visit to one of Europe’s most successful robotics companies, PAL . PAL manufacture a big range of robots varying from humanoid through to delivery robots on wheels. There PAL ARI robot was key to the SPRING project at Heriot-Watt which explored the use of a robot to welcome and receive patients to a clinic. The coffee at PAL is excellent (they haven an Italian CEO) so if you visit make sure they give you a machiatto 😃.

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EPSRC Sandpit

I had a wonderful but stressful 4 days last week in Horseley looking at the early diagnosis of respiratary illness. The venue was the old estate which belonged to Lord Lovelace, whose wife Ada, is one of the mother’s of computing. Later is was owned by Mr Sopwith famous for biplanes in the 2nd word war. Here is a picture of the Italian Tower built by Lovelace after his wife Ada died.

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EPSRC Sandpit

UKRI Site

I am very pleased to be accepted as a participant in the EPSRC Sandpit: moving respiratory health diagnosis into the 21st century. Next week I will be traveling to Horley to work with another 29 academics and clinicians to explore research ideas that could have a big positive impact for people suffering from respiratory health problems.\

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British Council: Tech for Humanity

British Council Tech for Humanity Site

I was very pleased to be invited to participate on a panel as part of the British Council Youth Connect program. I worked for a year at the marvelous British Council School, Anglo Mexicano De Cultura, in Mexico City in 1990 so it was great to get involved again with one of their projects.

The Tech for Humanity project aims to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to envision a world where technology serves as a catalyst for positive change. Young international delegates have been invited to Edinburgh to explore ways in which technology can serve the common good, and to meet those in the city who are approaching technology in different ways.

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