Short Bio
Prof. Sarvapali Ramchurn is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Turing Fellow, and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is the CEO of Reponsible AI UK, Director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems hub. He is also a Co-CEO of Empati Ltd, an AI startup working on decentralised green hydrogen technologies. His research is about the design of Responsible Artificial Intelligence for socio-technical applications including energy systems and disaster management. His research involves applying techniques from Machine Learning, HCI, and Game Theory. He has won multiple best paper awards for his research and is a winner of the AXA Research Fund Award (2018) for his work on Responsible Artificial Intelligence.
He has pioneered the development of AI-based disaster response systems using multi-UAV systems, AI-driven large-scale battery management for smart grids, and an AI bot that outperformed more than 5M human players (top 0.7%) in the English Premier League Fantasy Football Tournament. His papers have been cited more than 8500 times (according to Google scholar). He is originally from Mauritius and is passionate about AI for Social Good and Environmental Sustainability.
Education and Appointments
Director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub (£11.7m)
- Member of the IPCO Technology Advisory Panel
- Co-CEO Empati Limited
- Co-Director Shell-Southampton Centre for Maritime Futures
Turing Fellow – The Alan Turing Institute
- Flexible Autonomy for Responsible Human Agent Collectives
Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Chief Scientist (North Star Solar Ltd)
- Co-I on the BRECCIA GCRF Project on Food and Water Security (£4M)
- PI on the REACH Project (AXA Research Fund)
- Co-I on the EPSRC Platform Grant on Wearable Computing at Southampton
Associate Professor (Part-Time) and Chief Scientist North Star Solar Ltd
- Leading the development of an AI platform for Smart Energy Systems and Assisted Living
- Developing the next generation of Autonomous IoT-based services
- AXA Research Award for work on Responsible AI (250K Euros)
Associate Professor (University of Southampton)
- Research into Human-Agent Collectives
- Teaching Data Management
- ECS Placements Tutor
- Co-I on the A-IoT project (£800K) funded by EPSRC
- Co-I on the CharIoT project (£300K) funded by EPSRC
- Co-I on the SEACORES project (£1.2M) funded by InnovateUK
Roberts Fellow (University of Southampton)
- Co-I on the EPSRC funded ORCHID Programme (£5M)
- Co-I on the EPSRC-funded ICIF project (£350K / £3.5M)
- PI on the EPSRC-funded KTS (£55K) with BAE Systems (2014-2015)
- PI on the EPSRC-funded KTS (£50K) with Hampshire County Council (2011-2012).
- Supervising 6 PhD students
- Leading work on energy, disaster response, and crowdsourcing applications.
Senior Research Fellow – University of Southampton
PhD in Multi-Agent Systems – University of Southampton
- Supervisors: Prof. Nicholas R. Jennings and Prof. Carles Sierra.
- Examiners: Han La Poutre and Michael Luck.
BEng (Hons.) in Information Systems Engineering – Imperial College London
- First Class First.
- Governor’s medal winner.
Awards
Winner of the AXA Research Fund Award
For work on Responsible AI (2018)
Honourable Mention
IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Award 2016
Winner of the Best Paper on the Innovative Applications Track
at AAMAS 2015
Winner Best Student Paper Award
(with Muddasser Alam) at AAMAS 2013
Runner-Up, TREC 2012
Crowdsourcing Challenge (AUC Metric)
Nominated for the Best Paper Award at AAMAS 2011 (Applications)
for work on agent-based optimization for demand-side management
Funding
Year
Amount
Role
Project Details
- 2018
£200K
(PI)
AXA Research Fund Award for Responsible AI
- 2018
£4M
(Co-I)
GCRF BReCCIA project on Capacity Building for Food & Water Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 2017
£2M
(Co-I)
EPSRC Platform on Wearable Computing for Smart Cities
- 2017
£75K
(PI)
DSA Human-UAV Teaming
- 2016
£40K
(PI)
EPSRC IAA (Southampton) – CharIoT 2.0
- 2016
£800K
(Co-I)
 A-IoT: Future Interactions with the Autonomous Internet of Things.
- 2015
£1.2M
(Co-I)Â
InnovateUK – SEACORES: energy management on marine platforms.
- 2015
£47K
(PI)
 Newton Fund – International Disaster Management Workshop.
- 2014
£200K
(Co-I)
EPSRC- CharIot Project on Internet of things for Charitable Energy Advisors.
- 2014
£35K
(PI)
ASUR Phase 1 Project with BAE Systems.
- 2014
£55K
(PI)
EPSRC- Knowledge Transfer Secondment with BAE Systems Maritime systems
- 2013
£1.2M
(Co-I)
EPSRC – Distributed Sensing and Flexible Autonomy (MOSAIC)
- 2012
£350K
(Co-I)
EPSRC – International Centre for Interdependent Infrastructures.
- 2011
£20K
(Co-I)
Southampton Adventures in Research Grant.
- 2011
£5M
(Co-I)
EPSRC Programme Grant (ORCHID
- 2011
£50K
(PI)
EPSRC Knowledge transfer secondment with Hampshire County Council.
- 2003
£20K
-
EU Research Mobility Grant with IIIA, Spain.
| Year | Amount | Role | Project Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | £200K | (PI) | AXA Research Fund Award for Responsible AI |
| 2018 | £4M | (Co-I) | GCRF BReCCIA project on Capacity Building for Food & Water Security in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| 2017 | £2M | (Co-I) | EPSRC Platform on Wearable Computing for Smart Cities |
| 2017 | £75K | (PI) | DSA Human-UAV Teaming |
| 2016 | £40K | (PI) | EPSRC IAA (Southampton) – CharIoT 2.0 |
| 2016 | £800K | (Co-I) | A-IoT: Future Interactions with the Autonomous Internet of Things. |
| 2015 | £1.2M | (Co-I) | InnovateUK – SEACORES: energy management on marine platforms. |
| 2015 | £47K | (PI) | Newton Fund – International Disaster Management Workshop. |
| 2014 | £200K | (Co-I) | EPSRC- CharIot Project on Internet of things for Charitable Energy Advisors. |
| 2014 | £35K | (PI) | ASUR Phase 1 Project with BAE Systems. |
| 2014 | £55K | (PI) | EPSRC- Knowledge Transfer Secondment with BAE Systems Maritime systems |
| 2013 | £1.2M | (Co-I) | EPSRC – Distributed Sensing and Flexible Autonomy (MOSAIC) |
| 2012 | £350K | (Co-I) | EPSRC – International Centre for Interdependent Infrastructures. |
| 2011 | £20K | (Co-I) | Southampton Adventures in Research Grant. |
| 2011 | £5M | (Co-I) | EPSRC Programme Grant (ORCHID) |
| 2011 | £50K | (PI) | EPSRC Knowledge transfer secondment with Hampshire County Council. |
| 2003 | £3K | - | EU Research Mobility Grant with IIIA, Spain. |
PhD Students and Post Docs Supervised,
2018
Ryan Beal (with Prof. Tim Norman)
2018
Luca Capezutto (with Dr. Danesh Tarapore)
2018
Shaun Lamb (with Prof. Tim Norman) 2
2017
Ayodeji Abioye (with Dr. Stephen Prior)
2017
Andre Ortega Alban (with Dr. Geoff Merrett)
2017
Jorge Palominos (With Dr. Long Tran Tanh)
2015
Olabambo Oluwasuji (with Dr. Enrico Gerding)
2014-2018
Jhim Verhame  (with Enrico Costanza)
2012-2018
Manolis Rigas (with Dr. Nick Bassilides)
2014-2017
Dengji Zhao 2014-2017
2014-2017
Pedro Garcia (with Enrico Costanza)
2013-2017
Elliot Salisbury (with Dr. Sebastian Stein)
2013-2017
James Holyhead (with Prof. Alex Rogers)
2012-2016
Chris Baker (with Prof. Nick Jennings)
2012-2016
Alper Alan Turan (with Dr. Enrico Costanza)
2014
Sherry Yang
2010-2014
Sam Miller (with Dr. Alex Rogers)
2010-2014
Truong Cuong (with Dr. Enrico Costanza)
2009-2014
Mudasser Alam (with Dr. Alex Rogers)
2008-2011
Kathryn Macarthur (With Prof. Nick Jennings)
Reviewer for AI Journals & Conferences
- Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) – Highly rated AI Journal.
- Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ) – The top AI Journal
- Constraints
- Computational Intelligence
- IEEE Intelligent Systems
- International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
- Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Journal – The top Agents Research Journal
- EPSRC- Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council
- AAMAS – Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
- AAAI – Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
- IJCAI – International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
- ACM E-Energy