Ramji Srinivasan - Senior Engineer, Qualcomm Technologies International

Ramji has worked in the general area of audio, speech and acoustic signal processing for around 15 years. At Qualcomm, Ramji works in Advanced Algorithms group, where he is currently engaged in developing machine learning algorithms for the earbud. Before joining Qualcomm, he was a research staff at Queen's University Belfast developing machine learning algorithms for different speech applications. He has 2 granted patents to his credit and authored several articles in international journals and conferences.

Laurent Brisedoux - Senior Manager, Amazon

Laurent has been heading the Amazon R&D team in Cambridge, part of the Lab126 organization, since its creation in 2014. His group is responsible for developing software for Amazon’s consumer electronic devices such as Cloud Cam, Echo Look, Echo Show and many more innovative products to come. Prior to that, Laurent was in charge of the development and productisation of imaging technologies at Broadcom. He joined the Broadcom Mobile Multimedia group in 2004 with the acquisition of Alphamosaic, one of the Silicon Fen ’success stories’. Laurent is also a junior angel investor and working with several technology startups in the Cambridge area.

Phil Claridge - Founder, Mandrel Systems

Phil Claridge is a ‘virtual CTO’ for hire within Mandrel Systems covering end-to-end systems. Currently having fun and helping others with large-scale AI systems integration, country-wide large scale big-data processing, hands-on IoT technology (from sensor hardware design, through LoRa integration to back end systems), and advanced city information modelling. Supporting companies with M&A ‘exit readiness’, due-diligence and on advisory boards. Past roles include: CTO, Chief Architect, Labs Director, and Technical Evangelist for Geneva/Convergys (telco), Arieso/Viavi (geolocation), and Madge (networking). Phil’s early career was in electronics, and still finds it irresistible to swap from Powerpoint to a soldering iron and a compiler to produce proof-of-concepts when required.

Richard Dearden - Senior Director and Advanced Analytics Project Leader, AstraZeneca

Richard is a Senior Director in R&D Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Astrazeneca in Cambridge, UK. He leads a team doing a wide variety of data analytics, artificial intelligence and optimisation projects in the areas of clinical trial design and clinical supply chain. Richard is also an industrial advisor for the University of Birmingham-based National Centre for Nuclear Robotics. He has spent six years in industry, previously working at Schlumberger’s Cambridge Research Centre where he led a robotics and AI team working on drilling automation and other oilfield applications.

Prior to joining Schlumberger, Richard was Reader in Intelligent Robotics at the University of Birmingham, where he was a principal investigator on a number of UK and European-funded research projects, including work on robotic manipulation with the German Space Agency, DLR, and on autonomous underwater vehicles with the National Oceanographic Centre. He has over 70 academic publications in the field of artificial intelligence, largely in the areas of automated planning under uncertainty, robotics, machine learning and fault diagnosis.

From 1999 until 2005 Richard worked as a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Centre, and for part of that time ran the Model-based Diagnosis and Recovery Group. He worked primarily on the Mars Exploration Programme, including work on planning daily activities and fault diagnosis for Mars rovers. His team also developed the Livingstone 2 fault diagnosis engine which was used for a number of project including being successfully deployed on-board the EO-1 satellite mission.

Richard studied Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and obtained his doctorate on Markov decision problems and reinforcement learning in structured worlds from the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Gunter Haberkorn - Senior Manager Product & Technology, Magna International

Gunter works in the Corporate R&D Department and has years of experience in complete vehicle engineering. He is looking into Product and Technology trends within the automotive industry with a special interest in autonomy, mobility solutions, manufacturing and electrification and especially technologies which can support advancements in these areas.

Vaiva Kalnikaite - CEO, Dovetailed

Vicky Schneider - Senior Scientific Programme Manager, Amazon

Currently Senior Scientific Program Manager at the Amazon Development Centre in Cambridge, UK. Vicky works in the Machine Learning Team and is involved in a variety of academic engagements around ML and AI, including outreach, education and training initiatives. Previously Deputy Director of EMBL Australian Bioinformatics Resource (www.embl-abr.org.au) and Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Vicky remains an Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne and is an academic visitor at the University of Cambridge where she collaborated with the Bioinformatics Training Team.  Before Australia, Vicky was at the Earlham Institute (Norwich), as part of the Senior Management Team and Head of Training and Outreach which evolved to Head of Scientific Training, Education and Learning Division. In the previous years Vicky has been responsible for the strategic coordination and implementation of the EMBL-EBI’s User-Training programme which has pass now ten years and continues to provide training for the scientific users of the EMBL-EBI’s data services. Prior to joining the EMBL-EBI in 2007 Vicky held an Assistant Professor position at the University of Bern and the Institute for Aquatic Sciences (EAWAG) and postdocs at the University of Zurich and University of Rome (Torvergata). Vicky studied biology at the University of Rome and obtained her PhD on the evolution of sex at the University of Leiden (NL) and Lyon (France). Vicky has been extensively involved in the acquisition, management and implementation of funded research and training projects throughout her career.

Peter Whale - Founder, Vision Formers

Peter is founder of Vision Formers, a specialist consultancy that helps visionary technology businesses get product to market and turn their ideas into reality. Peter has a long track record of conceiving, developing and marketing successful technology-based solutions, deployed at scale, globally. Innovative products Peter has brought to market in digital, cloud, AI, consumer electronics and telecommunications have been used by countless millions of people on a daily basis globally, badged by the world’s leading digital and technology brands. Peter is a board member of CW (Cambridge Wireless), and co-leads its Artificial Intelligence special interest group.