EdinburghAI

Our Mission

EdinburghAI is The University of Edinburgh’s AI society. Our mission is:

Empower students and the broader community, transforming them into the next generation of AI builders and researchers.

@Ben Alison from Amazon Advertising giving a talk

What Do We Do?

• Host Talks: We’ve had Google DeepMind, Amazon and Spotify (and more!) give talks. With AI-based talks from robotics to recommendation systems, I’ve learned something new every talk.

• Workshops: These were split into 2 parts:

  • Beginner-Friendly: Taught the fundamentals of Machine Learning in a beginner-friendly way. Check them out here!
  • Advanced: For those with a better grasp of concepts, we held reading and discussion groups, reading the latest papers and tools like DSPy!

• EdinburghAI Expo: Our flagship event is a science-fair-like event. It works like so:

  • Students apply at the start of the school year.
  • They choose a project (given a rubric) and start to build a project they think would do well!
  • On the day of the event, academia, industry, students and researchers alike come together and view the projects on display.
  • The projects will be judged on the day and the top teams will win some sweet prizes (first place 2024 was £1000 🤑).

A photo of our inaugural AI Expo!

How did the society begin?

In 2nd year, I was ranting to my friend from MathSoc that I was struggling to find people equally interested in ML. He said it was funny; I was the 2nd person to say that to him that week. The first was Pascual Merita Torres.

After a coffee chat, the rallying of some of our mates and some society-founding-bureaucracy, we founded EdinburghAI. I could not have asked for a better co-founder of the society.

I've learned a lot at EdinburghAI. I learned that I get so vividly energised when working with a team of cracked people. Any endeavour I take in the future, that'll be a central part to it.

Company, academic or student interested in getting involved?

As of writing, I'm still at Uni and the president. If you're reading this and want to contribute in some way, reach out!