May 19, 2020 — A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between The Alan Turing Institute and the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin. This formally creates an ambitious agreement led by the Turing’s data-centric engineering program, a major research initiative funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

This new collaboration aims to deliver research advances in a number of key impact areas: artificial intelligence for science and engineering, computational science and engineering (CSE), scientific machine learning, and data-centric engineering.

The agreement, signed by UT Austin President Greg Fenves and the Turing’s Institute Director and Chief Executive, Adrian Smith, is expected to continue for five years and establishes plans to develop joint research projects and exchange academic materials and publications, as well as to jointly host meetings, research seminars, workshops and symposia. There are also plans for new opportunities for UT Austin faculty and students to conduct research in London and vice versa.

The Oden Institute is a world-leading interdisciplinary institute dedicated to CSE, which brings together faculty from across 23 different departments in engineering, medicine, the natural sciences, the geosciences, and business. The Oden Institute plays a leadership role in Texas Computing, a tight collaboration among the units that contribute to UT Austin’s global leadership in computing research, education and technological innovation. It is so named to honor Dr J. Tinsley Oden, widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of the field of computational science and engineering.

“Forging closer ties with The Alan Turing Institute is the first step in what I expect to be a long and rewarding journey for UT Austin and our new UK partners,” said Oden Institute director, Karen Willcox.  “Both organizations share a deep commitment to research with real impact, research that can help bring about solutions to the toughest challenges we currently face as a global community. And, given the scope of priority areas identified, the benefits of working more closely with The Alan Turing Institute will be felt, not only by the Oden Institute community, but across UT campus.

Mark Girolami, Programme Director of Data-Centric Engineering said: “This is an important and significant new collaboration for The Alan Turing Institute.  The unique combination of the computational and data centric engineering expertise of the Oden and Turing will create exciting opportunities for innovative and impactful research outcomes. Indeed working with the Oden Institute will allow our research teams to effectively address a range of pressing global challenges, such as achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and improving the quality of air we breathe in our major cities.”

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