Spun out of the University of Oxford in 2016 by Professors Stephen Roberts and Michael Osborne,Mind Foundry has developed technology and products that help people and organisations to implement AI more responsibly.The Lab brings together insurance insights from the Aioi Nissay Dowa Group of companies and applied machine learning expertise from Mind Foundry,continuing asuccessful collaboration that has already delivered improvements in safe driving and automation.The Lab will expand on this work,bringing together experts from many disciplines,to develop real-world solutions to some of the most significant challenges changing societies around the world,from the climate crisis and ageing populations to the impact of increased automation.The research conducted at the Lab will focus on five key areas:Mobility for all Autonomous driving Future of insurance Climate Health and wellness By bringing together different philosophies and science under one roof,the lab aims to build abetter understanding of the data that surrounds us all and identify ways in which truly informative“big knowledge”can be extracted from that information,not just“big data”.Professor Stephen Roberts,co-founder of Mind Foundry and Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Oxford,said:‘Big data is useful up to apoint,but what we need now are very smart algorithms that can distil that data into knowledge that is interpretable,valuable,understandable,and beneficial to everybody.‘Professor Michael Osborne,co-founder of Mind Foundry and Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Oxford,said:‘AI is one of asmall number of transformational technologies that will truly change the face of our society and planet-I don’t think there is any way we can tackle the core challenges of the century without it.But most AI is not yet up to the task,because it is not trustworthy,reliable,or responsible.Our hope is that with the Aioi R&D Lab–Oxford we will develop new technologies within AI that are capable of being all of those things.Only then will we be able to ensure that AI solves the most important problems of today while also providing ablueprint for innovative solutions of tomorrow.‘ 查看详细>>

The first NHS patient has now received treatment on the cutting-edge ViewRay MRIdian technology,thanks to anew partnership between the University of Oxford,Oxford University Hospitals(OUH)NHS Foundation Trust and GenesisCare.The partners,with the support of the John Black Charitable Foundation,have collaborated to establish aten-year programme of clinical treatment for NHS patients,with further research into improving cancer treatment using the Viewray MRIdian.Due to the natural,unavoidable movement of soft tissue inside the body,normal tissue around the cancer can be exposed to radiotherapy treatment,particularly when targeting soft-tissue tumours deep within the body.It can be challenging to visualise these organs during radiotherapy with routine radiotherapy delivery.The ViewRay MRIdian machine is the only one of its kind in the UK,with only 41 machines worldwide.It allows doctors to see the normal soft tissue and the tumour in real time by combining MRI scanning with targeted radiotherapy.Incorporating MRI scans will allow doctors to then tailor doses in real time to the specific internal anatomy of the patient on the day of treatment.MRIdian technology also minimises the damage to surrounding healthy tissues by switching off when tumour tissue moves outside of the targeted beam.This could mean less side effects for patients and increased dosage of treatment delivered directly to the tumour. 查看详细>>

The long-term partnership will lead to the development of thousands of homes for students and staff at Oxford University,together with world-class science and innovation districts.Legal&General will provide up to£4 billion of funding over the next ten years to deliver aseries of key projects for the University of Oxford.These will include thousands of new homes for staff and students and state-of-the-art research and laboratory space through the creation of science and innovation districts across the city.The first projects that will be developed under the partnership are:Redevelopment of graduate student accommodation in Wellington Square,Court Place Gardens and Ewert House.Construction of graduate student accommodation at Osney Mead Construction of new science parks at Osney Mead and Begbroke Construction of subsidised rented accommodation for University and College staff at Begbroke It is intended that the first projects will be ready for occupation in 2023.The partnership will fulfil the commitments in the University’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan to provide at least 1,000 subsidised homes for University and College staff,and at least 1,000 units of affordable graduate accommodation.It aims to provide affordable residential and commercial space to ensure that the University continues to attract the world’s best researchers and students,and to support spinout companies from the University.Professor Louise Richardson,Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford,said:‘My colleagues and Iare delighted to have formed this partnership with Legal&General.We look forward to working together to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the University today.‘We will build much-needed graduate accommodation,subsidised housing for University staff,and new science parks,where academic departments,University spin-outs and commercial partners can work together to create new companies as well as high quality jobs.‘Nigel Wilson,CEO of Legal&General Group,said:‘Our partnership with Oxford is leading the way in bringing together dynamic cities and patient capital,creating great outcomes for long term investors and for the cities themselves.‘Oxford University is one of the best in the world and aglobal brand.It has inspired generations of academics and researchers,and today also nurtures outstanding modern business with world-leading potential.Legal&General’s partnership with the University is aterrific example for cities across the globe to follow.‘Established in 1836,Legal&General is one of the UK’s leading financial services groups and amajor global investor,with international businesses in the US,Europe,Middle East and Asia. 查看详细>>

Funding will be provided to the University of Oxford through the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund by as part of a£50 million investment to establish anetwork of digital pathology,imaging and AI centres,to drive innovation in the use of AI for improved diagnosis and delivery of precision treatments.Oxford is to be home to one of the five new technology centres across the country,and is also acollaborator in two of the other centres,with local activities integrated within the Big Data Institute.The University of Oxford led centre is the National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging(NCIMI),in which UK Research and Innovation is investing£10 million.NCIMI will also benefit from afurther£5 million of funding provided from its commercial partners.The consortium includes 15 NHS hospitals,industry(including GE Healthcare and Alliance Medical),charities,and patient support groups to develop new artificial intelligence tools to help speed up diagnosis of cancer,heart disease,genetic disorders and other conditions.Professor Sir Michael Brady,Executive Chairman of NCIMI and Founder of Perspectum Diagnostics,Director of Mirada Medical and Chairman of Optellum commented:‘All of the Oxford-based SMEs are excited to be part of the consortium working alongside industry and other partners to support the development and use of AI in healthcare.We hope that these developments will benefit patient treatment and patient pathways in the NHS.’Professor Gavin Screaton,Head of the University of Oxford’s Medical Sciences Division said:‘We are delighted that Innovate UK has chosen to support our National Consortium and activity in other centres.We believe that combining the heath data,ethics,clinical and AI expertise within the University with anational NHS network and arange of industry partners has real potential to introduce new solutions which will improve patient care.’The other successful centres funded through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund are based in Leeds,Coventry,Glasgow and London.Along with Oxford they will form anetwork of Centres using AI to develop more intelligent analysis of medical imaging and find new ways to speed up diagnosis of diseases to improve outcomes for patients.In addition to leading one of the five successful consortia,Oxford is apartner on the digital pathology focused centres led by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and University of Leeds). 查看详细>>

Social enterprises are companies which combine the impact-centric agenda of acharity with the profit generation strategies of abusiness.How this is achieved differs from company to company,but fundamental to all social enterprise is the concept of replacing the profitability goal at the core of mainstream businesses with an impact mission focused on enacting positive societal or environmental change.To date,the innovation side of the University has supported creation of two types of business:regular startup businesses created by the student body,and ventures based on intellectual property from the University supported by OUI,known as spinouts.Typically,spinouts are formed around apatentable technology,such as apotential therapeutic candidate or an engineering project.This model has been successful for turning Oxford research into reality,with the University creating over 160 spinout companies since OUI opened its doors in 1987,19 of which were launched in the past year.OUI is now supplementing this spinout creation activity by offering the social enterprise option.Academics will be able to receive support for creating businesses around ideas that perhaps aren’t inherently patentable and will have the option of creating spinout companies focused on impact.Through social enterprise,OUI will be able to offer abusiness model that is adaptable,dynamic and supports all academic Divisions equally.OUI has already begun creating social enterprises,the first of which will be announced in the coming weeks.Prior to launch,OUI had built up apipeline of over 25 social enterprises.To meet demand for the service,which OUI anticipates will create at least an additional ten spinouts per annum,OUI has created agroup led by Dr Mark Mann,Innovation Lead for Humanities and Social Sciences.Examples of some of the projects OUI will support include secure,cashless homeless donations app Greater Change and mobile and VR-based lifesaving emergency instruction platform LIFE.OUI has also created a£550,000 social and environmental impact fund,SE2020,to support the development and acceleration of social or environmental ideas towards real-world positive impact.SE2020 is possible thanks to support from the Global Challenges Research Fund(GCRF)and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EPSRC),which both backed the fund. 查看详细>>

The ten teams will be supported by the Foundry through the L.E.V8 programme for asix month period,ending in September 2018.The Oxford Foundry(OXFO)is anew entrepreneurship centre at the heart of Oxford University,an initiative led by Professor Peter Tufano,the Dean of Saïd Business School,with afounding donation from Reid Hoffman,Founder of LinkedIn.The call for applications was only open for two weeks,but in that period more than 130 early-stage start-ups applied to the Foundry’s OXFO L.E.V8 accelerator programme,each of whom have at least one Oxford University-affiliated person on their founding team.The Foundry takes no equity,and requires no transfer of IP from the ventures it supports through L.E.V8,and the package of support is estimated to have avalue of£60k per team.The final 10 teams selected for the L.E.V8 programme comprise 30 entrepreneurs,from 11 different nationalities.They will benefit from arange of support including bespoke masterclasses,practical advice and support to develop and scale their businesses,and access to advisors,industry experts and investors.All the ventures will have adesignated workspace within the Amersi Foundation Accelerator at the Oxford Foundry’s central Oxford location for the six months of the programme.The teams will finish their six month residency at L.E.V8 with ademo day in September,where they will showcase their businesses to an audience of invited guests,including investors and members of the Press.Further details of the demo day will be announced in June 2018. 查看详细>>