Latest news with #BrunelUniversity
The National
27-06-2025
- Business
- The National
Age of AI: How technology is set to transform government and business in UAE and the world
The power of artificial intelligence is extraordinary. It can, among much else, help to diagnose diseases, make investments and create pictures, songs, novels and university essays. It is no wonder then that the UAE authorities are keen to harness its potential through a wide-scale roll-out. As reported last week, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said that from January, the National Artificial Intelligence System will be an advisory member of the UAE Cabinet, the Ministerial Development Council and the boards of government firms and federal bodies. It is the latest move to promote AI. In 2017, the UAE became the first country in the world to have a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, and it also has a national AI strategy and an AI university. New AI era Ashley Braganza, professor of organisational transformation at London's Brunel University, says governments globally 'are on the threshold' when it comes to adopting AI. 'Governments in many countries are talking about the use of AI to provide services for citizens,' he says. 'If we were to have this conversation as early as a year to 18 months from now, we'd be talking about AI in a wide range of the delivery of public sector services in different parts of the world.' Prof Braganza, who hosts The AI Adoption Podcast, says the technology will change how public sector employees interact, and how citizens engage with public services. It will, he says, 'be transformative'. 'If you are a civil servant, you can say: 'In this situation, with this kind of citizen that I'm dealing with, what should be the course of action, or what are the forms that need to be completed, or what information do we need to get from this individual?'' he says. 'It brings all this together and that, I think, is where the transformation is going to be seen. It will change working practices within the public sector.' Widespread adoption of AI by governments worldwide in the future should come as no surprise as it is 'very much a general-purpose technology', says Prof Mark Daley, the chief AI officer at Western University in Canada. 'It is a technology that allows some degree of cognitive offloading,' he says. 'Tasks that needed direct human supervision can, more and more as the models get better, be offloading to a machine assistant. 'It still has to be verified by a human, but it increases the capacity of each individual human to carry out work. The exact nature of that is totally dependent on the job function and the preferences of those individual humans.' It can make people 'significantly more productive and happier', he says, by carrying out 'intellectual drudgery', such as going through 500 emails to find any mention of a particular topic. Complementing not replacing For now, Prof Daley says, AI can carry out what might be seen as more mundane intellectual tasks, such as answering routine emails, but is not ready to completely replace many job functions. 'We're not quite there yet,' he says. 'The technology is remarkable and when it works it's fantastic, but it's still very brittle and there's still a lot of failure modes that require human oversight.' Using a word he coined, Prof Braganza sees AI as being likely to cause the 'gigification' of work, taking out the less demanding tasks within any particular job and leaving people to undertake the most difficult functions. 'What you end up with is people being employed for that last 20 to 30 per cent [of a job], where people are able to look at that very complicated issue and be able to deal with that,' he says. 'You will see over time a paring down of working roles, as opposed to AI coming in and the entire organisation's workforce collapsing.' The technology is advancing rapidly and Prof Daley says that it is not hard to imagine a future where agentic AI – a form of the technology where AI 'agents' carry out functions independently – does eventually completely take over many human roles. AI is not just a technology for governments in high-income nations: it allows advances in developing countries too. A parallel can be drawn, Prof Daley says, with the way that African nations rapidly increased mobile phone penetration, 'leapfrogging' the widespread dependence on landlines. 'We're probably going to see the same thing play out here,' he says. 'Nimble, fast-moving developing countries are going to say, 'Let's just integrate AI into our processes as we are evolving them.'' Safeguards in place With AI – as with people – there are concerns about bias, and it may not even be obvious that such biases are lurking within algorithms, Prof Braganza says. 'If you're talking about AI being used by police, health, social security, childcare – in those situations, some of those decisions can have very deep, very wide effects if they go wrong,' he says. Prof Braganza notes that a human caseworker or call centre employee may deal with, say, a few dozen customers in a day – but over the same time period, an AI model may adjudicate in thousands of cases. 'Somebody applying for a loan, for example, if that algorithm is biased, then 10,000 applications in the last one hour may well have been affected,' he says. Yet Prof Daley says that as the technology becomes more sophisticated, bias can be removed. 'With the frontier AI we have right now, with the reasoning models … you can actually explain in English what criteria you're looking for, what biases it should watch for, and you can construct a system that is essentially less biased than any human would be,' he said. 'You can require it to explicitly state how it is making decisions against all these possible sources of bias,' he says. 'There's a possibility to use these models in a way that actually increases procedural fairness, but you have to be really mindful about how you're using them.' For all the concerns relating to AI in government or business, the technology's adoption is going to continue. Its use is likely to become existential for companies. 'If a productivity enhancer is invented and you decline to adopt it, you as a firm or an individual will be outcompeted by those who do adopt it. There seems little question to me [that] AI is a productivity enhancer across a broad range of domains,' Prof Daley says.
Irish Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Demystifying the path to publication, for free
Before I published my debut novel, The Lost Letters of William Woolf, with Penguin Random House in 2018, I knew so little about how publishing worked. The role of literary agents or how submissions to publishers worked was a total mystery to me, so much so that it feels miraculous now that I ever found the courage to send my novel manuscript out into the world at all. Two novels later, I understand now that there is no reason for aspiring writers to feel intimidated or confused about the world of publishing, and yet I also know that so many brilliant aspiring writers feel lost as to how it all works. This summer I have curated a programme of free online publishing webinars and creative writing workshops for Brunel University of London that I hope will change all that. I am on the creative writing faculty at Brunel University where we are the very proud partners of the Nero Book Awards, but we also want to support as many aspiring writers as possible – award-winning writers of the future. As such, we will soon be announcing details of the Nero New Writers Prize in association with Brunel University of London, and why we have launched this series of events. Helen Cullen One of the great privileges for me of being published has always been having the opportunity to share what knowledge I have gleaned along the way to encourage other writers in their own journeys towards publication. That is why I am so delighted to have had the opportunity to curate this series of free online events. Our aim of the series is to support as many writers as possible by offering publishing insights, craft advice and preparing work for submission to publishers, publications, agents and competitions. READ MORE We have an incredible line-up of publishing experts and award-winning writers all ready and willing to share their advice and support. My hope is that this series will demystify the publishing process, and encourage anyone who has an instinct that they may like to write to have the confidence to give it a go from the privacy of their own homes. Programme of Events To register for free for these online events please click here . June 25 th (7pm-8pm): Meet the Editors: A live panel with editors from three publishing houses: Fourth Estate, Galley Beggar and #Merky Books, a publishing imprint founded by Stormzy and Penguin Books. July 8 th (7pm-8pm): Meet the Agents: A live panel with three top literary agents from RCW, PFD and Madeleine Milburn literary agencies explaining the role of literary agents, sharing tips on submissions, finding the right agent and offering industry insights. July 10 th (7pm-8pm): Submitting to Literary Journals : A live panel with editors from three leading literary journals – Stinging Fly, Wasafiri and the London Magazine. Workshops: July 23rd, 6.30pm-8.30pm: Writing Children's Fiction with Liz Hyder, winner of the Children's Fiction Prize at the Nero Book Awards. Her debut novel, Bearmouth, won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Readers, the Branford Boase Award and was The Times Children's Book of the Year. Her latest novel, The Twelve, won 2024 Nero Book Awards prize for Children's Fiction and the Tir na n-Og Award 2025 English language category. It was a book of the year in both The Financial Times and The Guardian, one of The Observer's young adult books of the month and Children's Book of the Week in The Times. July 28th, 6.30pm-8.30pm: Writing Creative Non-Fiction with Hannah Lowe. This workshop is for anyone interested in writing memoir, short or long. Using VS Pritchett's quotation — 'It's all in the art. You get no credit for living'— we'll explore how to shape life into story through memory, reflection, and craft. No experience needed—just curiosity and a willingness to write. Hannah Lowe is a professor in creative writing at Brunel University of London. She is a poet and memoirist, whose work lies between creative writing, memory studies and postcolonial studies. Hannah is the author of several collections of poetry and a family memoir. In 2021, she won both the Costa Poetry Award and the Costa Book Award for her collection The Kids. August 6th, 6.30pm- 8.30pm: Writing Short Stories with awardwinning Irish writer Elaine Feeney. Booker Prize nominee Elaine Feeney is a writer and lecturer at the University of Galway. She writes poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction. She has published three poetry collections, the most recent being All the Good Things You Deserve in debut novel As You Were won Dalkey Book Festival's Emerging Writer Prize, The Kate O' Brien Prize, The Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was also shortlisted the Rathbones-Folio Prize. How to Build a Boat , Feeney's second novel, was published in 2023. It was nominated for The Booker Prize and shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year. Her short fiction has been published in The Art of The Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories edited by Sinéad Gleeson and widely in publications including The Paris Review, The Stinging Fly, The Moth, The Irish Times, BBC Radio, RTÉ and The Guardian. Elaine's third novel, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way was published in May 2025 (Harvill Secker / Vintage) All of the events will be introduced and moderated by myself. The Lost Letters of William Woolf won a Best Newcomer nomination at the 2018 Irish Book Awards. I am also a literary critic for the Irish Times newspaper and a writer for the Sunday Times Magazine. To register for free for these online events please click here . The Nero New Writers Prize in association with Brunel University of London aims to discover emerging talent by recognising unpublished and aspiring writers and supporting them with their work. Running in conjunction with the main Nero Book Awards, entrants will be asked to submit a self-contained piece of original, unpublished fiction (adult or children's) or narrative non-fiction of up to 5,000 words. The judging panel will be looking for outstanding writing that will appeal to a wide range of readers. Among their prizes, the winner will receive a cash prize, a scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at Brunel University of London as well as an introductory meeting with a literary agent, facilitated by Brunel. The prize will open for entries on August 1st and close on August 29th at 5pm. It is open to adults who are either citizens of, or living in, the UK and Ireland and aged 18+. Click here for more information. To read more about the MA Creative Writing at Brunel University of London visit here.
Rhyl Journal
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
Academics ‘branded transphobic' by own union have discrimination claims rejected
Dr Deirdre O'Neill, a lecturer at Hertfordshire University, and Michael Wayne, a professor at Brunel University, were criticised by the University and College Union (UCU) which condemned a film as an attack on trans identity. The union welcomed the tribunal's ruling as a 'sensible and common-sense decision'. Protesters, including some in 'balaclavas', twice blocked screenings of Adult Human Female at the University of Edinburgh and 'hurled insults at those trying to attend', documents presented to the tribunal said. The academics said the UCU's public opposition to them amounted to unlawful discrimination on grounds of their gender-critical belief that there are only two sexes. But rejecting their claims, Employment Judge Jean Laidler said the union had been 'entitled' to act as it did. 'The role of this tribunal is only to determine the legal issues before it and not to enter the debate on gender,' she said in a 52-page judgment. 'The reason why the UCU acted as it did was because it believed that other members of its union would be offended by some of the content in the film and could be put at risk and that, under its policies, the union was entitled and indeed required to protect them as best it could.' The academics claimed that by describing the film as transphobic, the union was by extension describing them in the same way. The judge said it was 'a fine line', but accepted that the film was a 'manifestation' of their beliefs. Giving evidence earlier this year, Dr O'Neill insisted there there was 'no hate in the film'. In November 2022, the pair released Adult Human Female, which examined claims made by trans rights activists that 'trans women are women and should be treated as women in all legal and social contexts', the tribunal, held remotely, heard. When UCU's Edinburgh branch became aware of a planned screening at the university in December 2022, a letter was sent to principal Peter Mathieson, demanding that the screening be halted. The union also launched a series of social media posts denouncing the screening, describing it as transphobic hate, and encouraging protests. On the day of the screening, protesters, including students, blocked the entrance to the venue as well as a back-up venue. Between 100 and 150 people who had arrived to watch the film were stopped from doing so, the tribunal heard. UCU Edinburgh branch president Grant Buttars later published an article describing the 'victory' of having blocked the screening, the tribunal was told. When the screening was rearranged for April 2023, it was again blocked by protesters, who shouted insults at those trying to attend. The screening was eventually able to go ahead in November 2023, but Dr O'Neill said the university had to bring in extra security for the event. Women who wanted to go to the toilet during the screening had to be 'escorted by security' for their own safety, the tribunal heard. Defending the film, Dr O'Neill told the tribunal it was 'very important to hear both sides of the argument'. Responding to the tribunal's decision, Mary Senior, Scotland official UCU, said: 'This is a sensible and common-sense decision, and we thank Judge Laidler and the tribunal for their careful deliberations. 'I am proud that UCU successfully defended this case in tribunal. 'It cannot be right that a trade union is not able to protest peacefully within the law and to employers when material is presented on campus which it believes attacks the human rights of others. 'As a trade union we are a broad church and we have members with a wide range of diverse views and beliefs on a whole host of issues. 'Our diversity is our strength. 'The Tribunal very carefully noted that UCU Edinburgh was not objecting to the beliefs of the claimants, who are also UCU members, they were protesting against a film which it believed presented misinformation about trans and non binary people and that was damaging to trans and non binary staff and students. 'It is welcome to have this positive decision at the start of Pride month, and at a time when trans and non binary people feel under attack.'
Glasgow Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Academics ‘branded transphobic' by own union have discrimination claims rejected
Dr Deirdre O'Neill, a lecturer at Hertfordshire University, and Michael Wayne, a professor at Brunel University, were criticised by the University and College Union (UCU) which condemned a film as an attack on trans identity. The union welcomed the tribunal's ruling as a 'sensible and common-sense decision'. Protesters, including some in 'balaclavas', twice blocked screenings of Adult Human Female at the University of Edinburgh and 'hurled insults at those trying to attend', documents presented to the tribunal said. The academics said the UCU's public opposition to them amounted to unlawful discrimination on grounds of their gender-critical belief that there are only two sexes. But rejecting their claims, Employment Judge Jean Laidler said the union had been 'entitled' to act as it did. 'The role of this tribunal is only to determine the legal issues before it and not to enter the debate on gender,' she said in a 52-page judgment. 'The reason why the UCU acted as it did was because it believed that other members of its union would be offended by some of the content in the film and could be put at risk and that, under its policies, the union was entitled and indeed required to protect them as best it could.' A general view of the University of Edinburgh Old College, Edinburgh (Jane Barlow/PA) The academics claimed that by describing the film as transphobic, the union was by extension describing them in the same way. The judge said it was 'a fine line', but accepted that the film was a 'manifestation' of their beliefs. Giving evidence earlier this year, Dr O'Neill insisted there there was 'no hate in the film'. In November 2022, the pair released Adult Human Female, which examined claims made by trans rights activists that 'trans women are women and should be treated as women in all legal and social contexts', the tribunal, held remotely, heard. When UCU's Edinburgh branch became aware of a planned screening at the university in December 2022, a letter was sent to principal Peter Mathieson, demanding that the screening be halted. The union also launched a series of social media posts denouncing the screening, describing it as transphobic hate, and encouraging protests. On the day of the screening, protesters, including students, blocked the entrance to the venue as well as a back-up venue. Between 100 and 150 people who had arrived to watch the film were stopped from doing so, the tribunal heard. UCU Edinburgh branch president Grant Buttars later published an article describing the 'victory' of having blocked the screening, the tribunal was told. When the screening was rearranged for April 2023, it was again blocked by protesters, who shouted insults at those trying to attend. The screening was eventually able to go ahead in November 2023, but Dr O'Neill said the university had to bring in extra security for the event. Women who wanted to go to the toilet during the screening had to be 'escorted by security' for their own safety, the tribunal heard. Defending the film, Dr O'Neill told the tribunal it was 'very important to hear both sides of the argument'. Responding to the tribunal's decision, Mary Senior, Scotland official UCU, said: 'This is a sensible and common-sense decision, and we thank Judge Laidler and the tribunal for their careful deliberations. 'I am proud that UCU successfully defended this case in tribunal. 'It cannot be right that a trade union is not able to protest peacefully within the law and to employers when material is presented on campus which it believes attacks the human rights of others. 'As a trade union we are a broad church and we have members with a wide range of diverse views and beliefs on a whole host of issues. 'Our diversity is our strength. 'The Tribunal very carefully noted that UCU Edinburgh was not objecting to the beliefs of the claimants, who are also UCU members, they were protesting against a film which it believed presented misinformation about trans and non binary people and that was damaging to trans and non binary staff and students. 'It is welcome to have this positive decision at the start of Pride month, and at a time when trans and non binary people feel under attack.'
Powys County Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Academics ‘branded transphobic' by own union have discrimination claims rejected
Two academics who sued their own union for branding them transphobic have had their discrimination claims rejected by an employment tribunal. Dr Deirdre O'Neill, a lecturer at Hertfordshire University, and Michael Wayne, a professor at Brunel University, were criticised by the University and College Union (UCU) which condemned a film as an attack on trans identity. The union welcomed the tribunal's ruling as a 'sensible and common-sense decision'. Protesters, including some in 'balaclavas', twice blocked screenings of Adult Human Female at the University of Edinburgh and 'hurled insults at those trying to attend', documents presented to the tribunal said. The academics said the UCU's public opposition to them amounted to unlawful discrimination on grounds of their gender-critical belief that there are only two sexes. But rejecting their claims, Employment Judge Jean Laidler said the union had been 'entitled' to act as it did. 'The role of this tribunal is only to determine the legal issues before it and not to enter the debate on gender,' she said in a 52-page judgment. 'The reason why the UCU acted as it did was because it believed that other members of its union would be offended by some of the content in the film and could be put at risk and that, under its policies, the union was entitled and indeed required to protect them as best it could.' The academics claimed that by describing the film as transphobic, the union was by extension describing them in the same way. The judge said it was 'a fine line', but accepted that the film was a 'manifestation' of their beliefs. Giving evidence earlier this year, Dr O'Neill insisted there there was 'no hate in the film'. In November 2022, the pair released Adult Human Female, which examined claims made by trans rights activists that 'trans women are women and should be treated as women in all legal and social contexts', the tribunal, held remotely, heard. When UCU's Edinburgh branch became aware of a planned screening at the university in December 2022, a letter was sent to principal Peter Mathieson, demanding that the screening be halted. The union also launched a series of social media posts denouncing the screening, describing it as transphobic hate, and encouraging protests. On the day of the screening, protesters, including students, blocked the entrance to the venue as well as a back-up venue. Between 100 and 150 people who had arrived to watch the film were stopped from doing so, the tribunal heard. UCU Edinburgh branch president Grant Buttars later published an article describing the 'victory' of having blocked the screening, the tribunal was told. When the screening was rearranged for April 2023, it was again blocked by protesters, who shouted insults at those trying to attend. The screening was eventually able to go ahead in November 2023, but Dr O'Neill said the university had to bring in extra security for the event. Women who wanted to go to the toilet during the screening had to be 'escorted by security' for their own safety, the tribunal heard. Defending the film, Dr O'Neill told the tribunal it was 'very important to hear both sides of the argument'. Responding to the tribunal's decision, Mary Senior, Scotland official UCU, said: 'This is a sensible and common-sense decision, and we thank Judge Laidler and the tribunal for their careful deliberations. 'I am proud that UCU successfully defended this case in tribunal. 'It cannot be right that a trade union is not able to protest peacefully within the law and to employers when material is presented on campus which it believes attacks the human rights of others. 'As a trade union we are a broad church and we have members with a wide range of diverse views and beliefs on a whole host of issues. 'Our diversity is our strength. 'The Tribunal very carefully noted that UCU Edinburgh was not objecting to the beliefs of the claimants, who are also UCU members, they were protesting against a film which it believed presented misinformation about trans and non binary people and that was damaging to trans and non binary staff and students. 'It is welcome to have this positive decision at the start of Pride month, and at a time when trans and non binary people feel under attack.'
