University of Warwick selected as partner in new £42m Alan Turing Institute

THE University of Warwick has been named as one of five universities charged with the delivery of the prestigious new £42m Alan Turing Institute.
 
The Institute, which bears the name of the famous Enigma codebreaker and computer pioneer, is intended to build on the UK’s existing academic strengths and help position the country as a world leader in the analysis and application of big data and algorithm research.  Its headquarters will be at the British Library at the centre of London’s Knowledge Quarter.

Announcing the appointment, Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “Alan Turing’s genius played a pivotal role in cracking the codes that helped us win the Second World War. It is therefore only right that our country’s top universities are chosen to lead this new institute named in his honour.

“Headed by the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, Warwick and UCL – the Alan Turing Institute will attract the best data scientists and mathematicians from the UK and across the globe to break new boundaries in how we use big data in a fast moving, competitive world.”

Central to the research undertaken by the Alan Turing Institute is Warwick researcher Professor Mark Girolami, director of the university’s Centre for Research in Statistical Methodology (CRiSM).

He said: “The Alan Turing Institute is a hugely exciting development for the mathematical and statistical sciences in the UK and it will have a massive impact on my own research work. For example the results of recent research of my group now forms the technology that most Automated Teller Machines (ATM) employ in the detection of counterfeit currency.

“Now with the ability of these machines to obtain even more types of data the possibilities that Big Data presents to provide further services and safeguards to individual users of ATMs is amazing. But the exploitation of this new so called Big Data requires the development of new cutting edge mathematics and statistical methods to ensure we make the most of these opportunities. The ATI is going to enable my own group to work on these sorts of problems and take theory to algorithms to economically valuable products and services.”
 
The delivery of the Institute is being coordinated by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which invests in research and postgraduate training across the UK. The Institute is being funded over five years with £42m from the UK government. The selected university partners will contribute further funding. In addition, the Institute will seek to partner with other business and government bodies.
 
Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s chief executive said: “The Alan Turing Institute will draw on the best of the best academic talent in the country. It will use the power of mathematics, statistics, and computer science to analyze Big Data in many ways, including the ability to improve online security. Big Data is going to play a central role in how we run our industries, businesses and services. Economies that invest in research are more likely to be strong and resilient; the Alan Turing Institute will help us be both.”
 
The Institute is intended to promote the development and use of advanced mathematics, computer science, algorithms and big data for human benefit. It will conduct first class research and development in an environment that brings together theory and practical application.