Our case studies showcase academic research from across the Department that has had an impact on the world or local community, and feature some of our current academics, research staff, Alumni and students.
Rethinking Robotics: From Intelligent Machines to Intelligent Environments
Robotics
Professor Daniele De Martini's research spans robotics and artificial intelligence, focusing on perception, localisation, mapping, and decision-making for autonomous systems. In recent years, his work has taken a distinctive direction, challenging long-held assumptions about where intelligence in robotic systems should reside.
Heat Pumps cut energy use but increase peak demand
Energy
A study focusing on the real-world deployment of ground source heat pumps (GSHP) in retrofitted UK social housing apartments, has quantified the impact of domestic electrification transition on the electricity grid. The research provides data that could be useful for policymakers, as the UK progresses its net-zero roadmap, demonstrating both substantial energy savings and emerging infrastructural challenges.
Enabling Semiconductor Quantum Computing by Neural Operators, Transformers, and Meta-Learning
Machine Learning
Deep learning has achieved many breakthroughs across science and engineering disciplines, ranging from autonomous driving to protein structure prediction. The impact it has on quantum technologies is no exception.
From Melodies to Machine Learning: Detecting Musical Plagiarism
Alumna
Can artificial intelligence help us identify cases where one song copies another? Asli Saner, a former student under the supervision of Professor Min Chen at the Oxford e-Research Centre, set out to answer that question — combining her knowledge and love of music with the power of machine learning and data visualisation.