The smart machines revolution has only just begun and will be one of the great transformative forces of the century. How can the UK put itself at the front of the race to prosper in this exciting new world? How can cross-sector technologies of connected synthetic environments, digital twins, living labs and other cyber-physical infrastructure be mobilised at scale? How can government, business and universities collaborate to make this happen, and what moonshots might this enable?
The RGP and Tortoise Media invite you to participate in a series of ThinkIn discussions that will help shape the UK’s ambitions. We are seeking input from researchers, educators, innovators, industrialists, policy makers and other thought leaders from across the sector across three ThinkIns:
This ThinkIn focuses on contributions from the broader community, including representatives from across the AI sector and government.
24th September: ThinkIn focuses on contributions from the RAS research community. Sign up here.
30th September: ThinkIn focuses on contributions from the RAS business community. Sign up here.
Participants will hear first-hand from members of the Robotics Growth Partnership and leading thinkers from across the sector, and will have the opportunity to help shape the UK’s ambitions and the plans to bring them to life.
Co-chair: Matthew d’Ancona, Editor and Partner, Tortoise. Formerly Editor of The Spectator.
Co-chair: Paul Clarke, Chief Technology Officer at Ocado is a world leader in smart fulfilment and logistics. Paul’s role at Ocado includes exploring opportunities to use Ocado's technologies and competencies to disrupt other sectors, research activities and the technology vision and future proofing of the business. Paul read Physics at Oxford University, before entering the computer industry. Paul sits on a number of government and industry advisory boards including the AI Council, Robotics Growth Partnership (co-chair), National Food Strategy Advisory Board and the BEIS Innovation Expert Group.
Our invited experts are:
Paul Newman, Academic, technologist and entrepreneur. Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute, Founder of Oxbotica and BP Professor of Information Engineering at Oxford University. Leading thinker in robotic spatial awareness. Published over 200 papers and continues to extend the reach and endurance of mobile robotics. Oxbotica is a fast growing autonomy company based in the UK which raised £14m in 2018 to supply autonomy software to vehicle manufactures around the world.
Rob Buckingham, UK Atomic Energy Authority, Director of the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham and Head of the testing and handling facility for Remote Applications in Challenging Environments. Co-chair of the RAS Special Interest Group that developed the 2014 UK RAS strategy. Rob co-founded OC Robotics in 1997 and led commercialisation of snake-arm robots for confined and hazardous spaces. OC is providing novel solutions to nuclear decommissioning at the National Nuclear Laboratory and Sellafield (with support from Innovate UK, NDA and DECC). Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, IET and Visiting Professor at the Bristol Robotics Lab.
What is a Tortoise ThinkIn?
A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. It is a place where everyone has a seat at the (virtual) table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise.
How does a digital ThinkIn work?
A digital ThinkIn is like a video conference, hosted by a Tortoise editor, that takes place at the advertised time of the event.
The zoom link to join the conversation will be emailed to you after you have registered for your ticket to attend. When you click the link, you enter the digital ThinkIn and can join a live conversation from wherever you are in the world.
If you have any questions or get stuck do get in touch with us at annabel@tortoisemedia.com.
Read our ThinkIn code of conduct here.
