In November 2024 Dr Miles Cranmer and Dr James Fergusson from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) were joined by fellow Cambridge academics and an audience of Cambridge alumni for a live webinar discussion exploring some of the ways in which AI is advancing science, and the real-world implications.
The discussion focused on recent work by Dr Miles Cranmer, Assistant Professor in Data Intensive Science in DAMTP and the Institute of Astronomy; Dr Emily Lines from the Department of Geography; and Professor Michele Vendruscolo (Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Department of Chemistry).
"A sea change that has happened in science - and in society in general - is the exponential growth in data," says discussion chair James Fergusson, Associate Professor in the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology and Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science, the MPhil in Data Intensive Science, and the Cambridge Infosys AI hub, in his introduction below.
"The challenge that this brings is that you have to adapt methods and use different ways of approaching [science] when you're up to terabytes or petabytes of data, but when you have large amounts of data it does open up really exciting things that you can do with AI."
This was part of our series of live online events for alumni, sharing insights and ideas from the wide range of Cambridge mathematics through informal discussion with the researchers involved. The webinar discussion was recorded on 27 November 2024, and includes a Q&A with the audience.
You can read more about Miles Cranmer's work in our feature article Teaching AI the language of science.