Inaugural Engineering Horizons lecture held at IET Savoy Place

From Jack Robinson, Access and Alumni Manager

On Wednesday 20th November, we held the first of our Engineering Horizons lectures at the IET building in London. Being new to the department, it was wonderful to see so many of our Alumni enjoying themselves and reminiscing about their time in Oxford (I had no idea the Thom building originally had a Paternoster Lift!).

After a welcoming coffee and a quick catch-up, Professor Alison Noble delivered a fascinating lecture on Challenges in Ultrasound Imaging, which illuminated the human-centric difficulties when using AI as a tool in medical practices. It was interesting to hear about the importance of ensuring patients are informed about what is being used and practitioners understand (and crucially, want to understand) how best to use AI as a tool to support their work.

"This was a very interesting talk and an enjoyable evening. Thank you. It was a pleasure to hear directly from Prof. Noble about some of the cutting-edge research, innovation and developments coming out of the University's Engineering department. I hope you will be able to organise similar events in the future."

I think it is fair to say everyone present had their eyes opened to what the public trust element of AI actually means to us all, irrespective of discipline, as this technology evolves and becomes ever more omnipresent within our work we may all find ourselves having to explain how and why we have used AI to influence our decision making.

At the end of the lecture, the number of questions we had to field spoke for themselves, and we were forced to cut them short or there wouldn't be time to eat! The final part of the night consisted of drinks, canapes and mingling, with the members who hadn’t been able to ask their questions being able to speak to Alison directly about her work.

"I thought it was a really enjoyable event and have told the other engineers from my college that they should attend the next one! The talk was really interesting and created a lot of interesting discussion afterwards"

I think the words of our Head of Department, Professor Clive Siviour, sum the evening up perfectly: “It was a real pleasure to see so many alumni, of all generations, at our first London lecture. Speaking to a number of you, it was clear the affection that many of you hold for the department, and it was great to hear about your experiences. We have ambitious plans for the future physical infrastructure of the department, including state of the art new buildings; however, what really makes a university is its people, past, present and future. Richard and I are looking forward to working with our colleagues to further build and strengthen our alumni community. We hope to be able to meet, and perhaps work with, many of you in the future”.

For myself, it was a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable night that was a lovely way for me to begin working with our wonderful alumni community. This was only the first of our Horizons Lectures. We have plans to create a consistent, diverse series of similar events in the future, allowing Alumni of all generations to catch up, share their experiences with each other and hear more about the world-changing work the department continues to do every day.

"I enjoyed the talk and was great to catch up with friends from my undergraduate years."

Attendee