About
Prof. Sarvapali Ramchurn is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Turing Fellow, and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is the Director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems hub and Co-Director of the Shell-Southampton Centre for Maritime Futures. 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.
Research
Research groups
Current research
I am a Professor of Artificial Intelligence, in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, at the University of Southampton. I am also the Director of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub, the focal point of the £33m UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Programme, a Turing Fellow, associated with the Alan Turing Institute, and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. I am a Co-Director of the Shell-Southampton Centre for Maritime Futures where we are researching digital technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in Shipping and Maritime.
I am also the co-CEO of Empati Ltd, an AI startup focusing on the management of large-scale decentralised green hydrogen technologies building on my experience in developing AI algorithms for smart grids and using satellite data to monitor renewable energy assets.
I am interested in the development of core AI technologies and Human-AI partnerships and their application to key sustainability challenges. This includes domains such as smart energy systems, Smart Cities, and disaster response. My research combines a number of techniques from Machine learning, AI, Game theory, and HCI.
I am currently part of a number of exciting research projects totalling over £30 million, including BReCCIA (a GCRF-funded project on Food and Water Security in Africa), the Smart Cities Platform focusing on waste management and air pollution monitoring. I was one of the three recipients of the 2018 AXA Research Award for my work on Responsible AI. I am member of the Centre for Doctoral Training on Machine Intelligence for Nano-Electronic Devices (MINDS CDT).
In the past, I have either led or been part of major scientific and industrial research projects including the ORCHID programme within which I developed applications of Human-Agent Collectives. Prior to this I worked on the award-winning ALADDIN project (with BAE Systems) and IDEAS (with SECURE Meters).
I have won a number of awards including the Prisoner’s Dilemma Competition (2004,2005), Robocup Infrastructure Competition (2007), AAMAS best papers (2010,2013,2015), and honourable mention for the IJCAI-JAIR 2016 best paper prize for our work on game theoretic techniques for energy storage management.
I have served as PC/SPC/AC member for AAMAS, IJCAI, CHI, AAAI, and co-organiser of the workshop series on Human-Agent Interaction. I am a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. I have graduated over 10 PhD students.
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Biography
Prizes
- Best Abstract Spotlight (2021)