Data, Digital, AI, BBQ, fermenting, wood carving, dog walks. Head of Digital and Data Strategy at SIB NI. Director at Straylight Consulting. Co-founder of AINI.
I know times are tough. It’s hard for everyone. No matter how hard things get, how desperate you feel, how overwhelming it all is... stay strong. Don’t give up. Don’t start a podcast.
I have to say,
@niscifest
is a wonderful thing. I didn't get to see anywhere near as much as Id have liked to, but I was proud and honoured to have been invited to help organise one event and to speak at the Turing Talk. Overall the entire thing is a fantastic thing for Belfast
The day of
@AI_Con2019
has arrived! Early start for a radio interview and then a great day ahead. Amazing to see how this chat between myself and
@thomas_d_gray
has turned into a phenomenal sold out event.
Started my day with a wee swim in a waterfall with Steph. She’s been doing this the last few weeks. First time for me. Took my breath away but felt amazing.
Where is
#AI
currently changing our daily lives? Read this new article from our own
@AustinTanney
featured in
@InformationAge
on what he sees as the impact - from the small to the life-changing:
NI people, HSC has released the COVID-19 NI app which is now available in google play and the App Store. Download it and use it if you’re experiencing any symptoms and help build a better picture of the spread of the disease.
The first prize place was awarded to two teams who were both incredible and not only met the challenge but utterly exceeded expectations. Team Fletch and The Team with No Name (from
@KainosSoftware
)
Best quote in this article... “ many employees for companies who have sent all staff home are already starting to question why they had to go in to the office in the first place. “ Covid-19 could cause permanent shift towards home working
I remember a time when New Year’s Eve was a time of hedonism. An enthusiast celebration of a year passed and the anticipation of the one ahead. That was a while ago though. Today I put together a bunch of Ikea furniture. Happy Middle Aged New Year to you all!
Getting up stupidly early in the mornings for no apparent reason sucks. But taking advantage of it and heading to the beach for the morning dog walk actually makes it so much better.
We live in a strange version of a democracy where 76% of the people in northern Ireland support same sex marriage yet it can be blocked by a single MP. Conversely 51% of the UK votes for Brexit and we all are driven over that cliff with no apparent chance of reversal.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Ireland support equal marriage. They will be outraged that one English Tory MP was able to block our Bill’s progress today. The Assembly, Parliament & the public support equal marriage. The Government now has a responsibility to act.
Another batch of fermented hot sauce done. This one had scotch bonnets in and is a lot spicier 🔥. Another batch now fermenting. Bit more variety in this one.
Congratulations to my colleague
@RobinSwannMoH
for the speed of the covid vaccine rollout in Northern Ireland. It's a big UK team effort.
We're making great progress & more to do.
Meanwhile:
Stay at home.
Protect the NHS.
Save lives.
Are you interested in finding out more about the
#ArtificialIntelligence
community in Northern Ireland? Stay tuned for more information on an upcoming event combining academics, students and companies giving a series of great talks!
A few weeks back I had a chat with our partners in
@awscloud
about my thoughts on the future of AI and ML in the public sector. This has now been run as a featured article by them. Great to see and thanks to the AWS team for pulling this together.
A blog about some work the
@KainosSoftware
AI Practice have been doing recently. We took at look at some of the data out there around coronavirus and covid-19. For me it highlights where
#AI
and particularly
#NLP
can add huge value
The past few weeks have been nothing short of extraordinary, with our immediate focus being on the safety and security of our colleagues and customers. We’re also helping in the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, read our blog to find out how.
Fantastic day at
#HackTheHub
today. Absolutely incredible work done and hard to believe the quality of what was achieved in just a day by all the teams. Was incredibly hard to judge it as there were so many amazing applications developed.
As we decided to lock ourselves down about a week before the UK gov advice to do so, I have a distinct feeling I’ll be unimpressed by the announcement today. Any easing at a time when the UK is still identifying >4000 new cases per day is crazy.
We are here at MCS Group office for our pre-hackathon
@ai_ni_community
event. Great turnout and lots of excitement about this weekends event. (Also beer and pizza and Ryan from
@AquaQAnalytics
)
So cool too see such a nice review of my amazing wifes artwork being shown in
@TheMACBelfast
It’s just a pity they got her name wrong and don’t seem to respond to multiple emails asking for a correction
@irish_news
So yesterday I flew to London for work for the first time in over two years. It was weird. Managed to get home again this evening without having to take a ministerial post or my flight getting cancelled. What a relief.
Want to come and work on really cool and exciting projects in the public sector? Want to use data and analytics to benefit our society? Come and work with me :)
We are hiring data scientists and data engineers to work on really cool projects.
Busy week next week. On Monday I'll be speaking at CogX. looking forward to having you at
#CogX19
, the Festival of
#AI
and
#EmergingTech
London, 10-12 June
So as we as a nation are kinda deciding to self isolate (to a greater or lesser extent) I personally feel pretty cool about the whole thing as I live with a bunch of cool people I love and can WFH & with the tech we use I can keep in close and regular tough with my work buddies
Made it just in time for the
#womenintechbelfast
conference. Hopefully my contribution to the panel I’m on won’t be too badly impacted by severe sleep deprivation
Very excited about this one. We’ve been brewing this in stealth mode for a while and we are happy to hear from
@Chloe__Thomp
about our new AINI Academy
#AINI
This is worrying. Surely we have got to a point where an ICT/ digital GCSE should be mandatory like maths and English? “UK digital skills shortage risks Covid recovery as young people shun IT courses”
Never ceases to amaze me the dedication and enthusiasm of the local tech folks. Genuinely inspiring. And fair play to
@Chloe__Thomp
and
@JakeYoung2410
for giving up their personal time to prep and deliver this session. Y’all are awesome.
@ai_ni_community