Oxford Computer Consultants

In 2020, we established a 5-year partnership with Oxford Computer Consultants (OCC) through their sponsorship of one of our Official Fellows, which provides financial support for the development of research, engagement and training initiatives in the field of AI & Machine Learning. The partnership also creates connections for our fellows and students with an industry leading software company, which has developed an exceptional reputation for designing trusted software solutions that make a useful contribution to society.

Professor David Clifton holds the first Oxford Computer Consultants Fellowship in AI & Machine Learning at Reuben College.

John Boyle, co-founder and managing director at OCC, explains the reasons for establishing a sponsored fellowship in the College:

John Boyle, Oxford Computer Consultants

"Oxford Computer Consultants sponsored a fellowship because we want to strengthen our links with Reuben College, as well as Professors Tarassenko and Clifton. We want to participate in, and contribute to, the college’s Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning research theme through opportunities for intellectual exchange in Reuben's workshops, lectures, and other initiatives.

"Our work involves the application of AI to a range of commercial problems, and the collaboration with Reuben College can help evolve our innovative thinking. The fellowship will encourage and help our staff keep abreast of emerging research and to consider which elements to apply to our commercial services and products. Examples are chat bot technologies, which can help our clients in health and social care to have an improved user experience, and synthetic data which can support machine learning where data privacy regulations prevent the use of personal information. 

"A strong entrepreneurial spirit clearly runs through the college and we look forward to working with both the fellows and students to create opportunities which will advance research and learning, and support their ambitions for research impact and commercial development. We also plan to participate in joint research projects with the college and to contribute to knowledge exchange activities by explaining the challenges around security, accessibility, application infrastructure and regulatory compliance.

"We hope all members of the Reuben College community will use Oxford Computer Consultants expertise in AI, data sciences and software development to support the IT elements of their spin-outs and commercial activities."