AI & Machine Learning Awards: Meet the judges

This brand new awards show celebrates the best of AI, and industry leaders will choose the winners

2019 marks the first ever edition of Computing's AI & Machine Learning Awards: topics that are becoming increasingly important as the amount of data being generated grows and companies put ever greater demands on automation.

The Awards themselves, which will take place on the 3rd July in London, will recognise the best companies, individuals, projects and products in the AI space today, and we have an expert judging panel who will choose the winners.

ENTER NOW

Noriko Matsuoka is Lead Strategist at the BBC, currently focussing on an organisation-wide approach towards assessing voice software and artificial intelligence. She is also part of cross-divisional BBC group WiSTEM, which aims to inform, support, and educate women in and into careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Following his PhD in data science in 1997, Armando Vieira - Data Scientist at Direct Line Group - began work on machine learning, and currently works on deep neural networks, especially for unsupervised and semi-supervised learning problems. He is currently writing a paper on the ethics of AI and has written a book, Business Applications of Deep Learning.

Zoë Webster, Director of AI and Data Economy at Innovate UK, has a computer science background and a PhD in AI. She leads a team working to identify and support areas of high-growth potential innovation in the UK, based on cutting-edge AI and data research and technology.

Daniele Magazzeni is Head of Artificial Intelligence Planning at King's College London, where he works on research into transparent, ‘explainable' AI to improve the concepts of safety and trust.

NHS Health Research Authority's IT Director, Gaynor Collins-Punter, is in the midst of the organisation's digital transformation of one of the Authority's key regulatory systems. This means understanding and adopting new agile ways of working: always a challenge in the public sector.

Natalia Konstantinova is a Senior Software Engineer at First:Utility. Having worked in fields including machine translation, ontologies, information extraction, dialogue systems and chat bots, she has more than 10 years of experience in natural language processing, AI, IT and machine learning technologies.

Orlando Machado is Chief Data Scientist at data science practice Aviva Quantum. He has spent more than 20 years working on extracting value from data, and today leads a team of data scientists, statisticians, insight analysts and targeting specialists.

Focusing on event tracking and product analytics, Weiting Xu - Senior Analyst at Cazoo - has previously worked for brands including Zoopla, Shazam and Badoo. She considers it her mission to help companies understand their users and make impactful decisions using data.

David Hoyle is Head of Data Science and Lead Data Scientist at AutoTrader UK. He boasts a PhD in theoretical physics, nearly 30 years' experience in statistical and mathematical modelling and seven years in the private sector. He has worked for firms including Lloyds, Dunnhumby and - of course - AutoTrader.

Huma Lodhi, Principal Data Scientist at Direct Line Group, has more than 15 years of experience in AI and machine learning, across both industry and academia. She has a PhD in machine learning and hands-on experience in the development and application of deep learning, kernel methods, relational learning and ensemble methods for areas ranging from insurance to health care.

Entries for the Awards are open now - make sure to register to secure your place.