MSc Artificial Intelligence

Module purpose: This course offers an introduction to machine learning for those interested in the science and technology of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It provides background and the theory for building fundamental artificial systems that can process a variety of data and analyse their semantic information of interest. This is implemented by various fundamental learning algorithms that will be discussed and demonstrated in an easy-to-approach manner.

This module offers an introduction to the use of AI in society, work, media and communication, government and policy. It puts people ¿ as opposed to technology -- in the centre of AI, and highlights core considerations in planning for AI applications as a response to issues and considerations in the society. This is done by exploring varied positions of users and stakeholders in relation to AI, examining the suitability of AI and associated tools and methods to the productivity/progress/propagation in society. In this module we discuss the opportunities, but also the challenges, risks, threats and ethical implications involved in the use of AI in society.

Expected prior learning: Module EEE2041 – Computer Vision & Graphics, or equivalent learning about the geometric interpretation of Linear Algebra (e.g. homogeneous coordinates and matrices for point transformation e.g. rotation, translation, scaling). Module purpose: The module delivers a grounding in Computer Vision, suitable for students with a grounding in linear algebra similar to that provided by EEE2041 – Computer Vision & Graphics) and will help with modules such EEEM071 Advanced Topics in Computer Vision and Deep Learning. Content is presented as an application-focused tour of Computer Vision from the low-level (image processing), through to high level model fitting and object recognition.

Expected prior learning: Module EEE3008–Fundamentals of Digital Signal Processing or equivalent learning about signal processing. Module purpose: The module discusses basic concepts, signal processing methods and human computer interaction applications of speech processing and recognition including auditory perception and psychoacoustics. You will be taught how to extract salient features from speech signals, how to design a model of spoken language, how to perform recognition and training, and given an insight into current research on spontaneous speech recognition, such as speaker adaptation and solutions for robustness to noise. Demonstrations, interesting illustrations and working examples will be given. Successful students can either proceed to do PhDs or get jobs in the R & D departments of industry, i.e. jobs that are at a higher level than mere software package operators. The presented techniques have many other applications beyond speech, including expert systems and financial modelling. Module EEEM030 contributes to the development of student’s knowledge in audio and speech processing and recognition, which may be useful for their taking of other modules such as: EEEM071 Advanced Topics in Computer Vision and Deep Learning EEEM004 60 Credit Standard Project EEEM005 AI and AI Programming EEEM066 Fundamentals of Machine Learning EEEM067 AR, VR and Metaverse EEEM068 Applied Machine Learning Module EEEM030 contributes to student knowledge in audio and speech processing and thus useful for students taking 60 credit project (EEEM004) related to audio and speech processing and recognition. EEEM030 is related to EEEM005, EEEM066 and EEEM068 due to the fact that machine learning/AI techniques are used for speech and speaker recognition, therefore, EEEM030 contributes to the development of student knowledge in machine learning/AI, which is beneficial for their taking of machine learning and AI related modules such as EEEM005, EEEM066 and EEEM068. One of the applications of audio and speech processing is to apply it to AR, VR and Metaverse for spatial sound production and reproduction which is a key enabling technology for AR, VR, and Metaverse, for virtual sound reproduction. Therefore, knowledge gained from EEEM030 would be useful for the taking of the module EEEM067. Module EEE030 also benefits from knowledge gained from other modules such as: EEE3008 Digital Signal Processing EEE1033 Computer and Digital Logic EEE1035 Programming in C EEE3042 Audio and Video Processing EEE3032 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition The modules EEE1033 and EEE1035 provide students with some useful skills in programming, which will be beneficial for them to complete the computer programming based coursework components, by turning the signal processing theories and methods into working program codes. The module EEE3008 provides students with knowledge and skills on fundamental digital signal processing skills which are essential in understanding the application of these skills to audio and speech data. EEE3042 covers both audio and video processing and coding, and the audio related materials are highly relevant and thus useful for the EEEM030 module. The pattern recognition skills gained from EEE3032 would be useful for understanding the use of pattern recognition algorithms to speech data for achieving speech and speaker recognition.

This module introduces the students to the key ethical and regulatory issues associated with artificial intelligence, as well as to the methods of analysis of those issues used in ethics and in law. The focus of the module is on the current state of the art in the applications of artificial intelligence (in particular: of machine learning), with smaller emphasis on hypothetical future developments. The module makes use of the case study method to introduce students to ethical and regulatory (legal) questions through discussion of relevant major incidents from recent years. The module helps students develop their thinking on how to translate abstract ethical (and regulatory) requirements of fairness, explainability or privacy into engineering and business practice.

This module introduces the fundamental concepts and technologies underlying virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) and the emerging concept of the Metaverse. It also examines current and future technological challenges and explores the potential impact of these technologies on industry and wider society.

Machine learning and deep learning have emerged as core areas within computer science and artificial intelligence, drawing on methods from statistics, applied mathematics, pattern recognition, and neural network computation. This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and application of advanced machine learning and deep learning techniques.The module explores how these methods are applied across a wide range of domains, including natural language processing, large language models, medical imaging, healthcare, audio and speech processing, computer vision, multimodal large language models, large multimodal models and financial technologies (fintech). Students will gain an understanding of how modern AI systems are designed to process and analyse diverse data types such as images, video, text, and audio.The deep learning algorithms covered in this module are widely used in industry, from AI start-ups to major technology companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Tesla. The module combines theoretical foundations with practical implementation, enabling students to develop, evaluate, and apply machine learning models to real-world problems.

This module is aimed at forming essential professional skills and competences in responsible research and innovation for master level students studying in programmes relating to computer science and/or electronic engineering. It will therefore serve as an important initial module towards planning and executing the dissertation project through learning about literature reviewing and research methodologies. Furthermore, it will facilitate team building skills through identifying individual strengths and exercising capability together with use of artificial intelligence through group design work. This experience will also make the student aware of the challenges of working effectively with other people embracing equality, diversity and inclusion.

This module introduces students to some of the basic ideas and concepts that underlie the development of artificially intelligent machine systems. Teaches core AI materials for problem solving (search, logic, probabilistic methods, Perceptrons as the building block for ANNs) Focuses on core understanding and problem solving: suitable tools/methods for a problem using problem classes Provides a clear understanding of neural networks, back-propagation, RBFs, ANN learning and optimisation Provides a clear understanding of intelligent agents via search methods and introducing cost functions Provides a clear understanding of Bayes’ Rule, conditional probability and uncertainty reasoning Provides a clear understanding of knowledge capture, symbolic knowledge representation and logical reasoning from antiquity to Boule to first order predicate rules and representations. Provides opportunity to implement concepts during coursework.

Module purpose: This course offers an introduction to image processing and computer vision for those interested in the science and technology of machine vision. It provides background and the theory for building artificial systems that manipulate videos and images and alter or analyse their information content. This is done by various computer algorithms that are discussed, implemented and demonstrated.

The module provides an application-focused tour of machine learning for real-world healthcare research and application from understanding various healthcare components, ethical concerns to pre-processing and analysing healthcare data for classification, survival and risk analysis, and early prediction tasks. The module requires and builds on the knowledge of basic machine learning, linear algebra, and familiarity with Python programming. Labs are designed to support understanding of the theory and enable development of practical skills required for future employability.

This module will demonstrate fundamental concepts from the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computational Linguistics. It will also discuss some of the latest advances in NLP and Generative Artificial Intelligence with a focus on Language Models like BERT, T5, and GPT, and get student up to speed with current research. It will provide the necessary skills to enable students to build computational models for solving a range of problems, such as text classification, sequence classification, machine translation and building conversation agents. The students will learn how to build NLP pipelines for preparing training data and choosing appropriate algorithms and techniques to build such models. The module also focuses on aspects of ethical and trustworthy artificial intelligence with discussion on rigorous model evaluation and ethical considerations for computational modeling. Although traditional linguistic approaches will be mentioned, majority emphasis will be put on the state-of-the-art Deep Learning algorithms and Transfer Learning methods for building efficient and trustworthy NLP solutions.

Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been playing a key role in the research and development of scientific and technological breakthroughs in many disciplines to solve real world problems, providing new foundations and steppingstones to foster more advances and solutions. In this context, AI has a great potential to play a transformative role in helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), by providing new insights, enabling more efficient use of resources, and supporting a better understanding of complex systems that underpin the dynamics of people's lives and the planet's environment. Therefore, the purpose of this module is to present the key concepts with practical applications related to the development of more sustainable AI techniques (e.g. model, data and energy efficiency, bias and unfairness identification and mitigation, trustworthy AI, physics-informed neural networks etc.), and AI solutions to support UNSDGs (e.g. clean air, clean energy, clean water, waste management, smart manufacturing etc.).

Expected prior learning: Appropriate background knowledge related to the project topic. Module purpose: This is an individual student project module giving each masters student an opportunity to gain realistic experience in developing a solution to a problem from its inception to a demonstrable result. It provides a framework as well as a vehicle for exercising all key aspects of project work, from project specification, through literature and technology research, leading to project planning, problem solving as well as design and implementation, culminating in performance assessment, project demonstration, and project evaluation. It also provides a scope for gaining practical experience interpersonal skills, use of IT, project management, project reporting and project presentation. The project can be either of engineering design nature or have a research flavour. This module is complementary to all other taught modules in order to apply the learning gained into undertaking an independent piece of research and/or development.