University College Dublin has appointed Prof Robin Burke as Director of its new UCD AI Institute. Robin will take up the role at Ireland’s largest university in October, where he will also be a Full Professor in UCD School of Computer Science.
Prior to joining UCD, Prof Burke was Chair and Professor of Information Science within the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at University of Colorado. He helped found and develop the field of personalised recommender systems, the most widely used AI systems globally, underlying platforms from Netflix and Amazon to news sites and social media feeds.
His most recent projects explore fairness, accountability and transparency in these systems. His approach blends both technical and human-centred approaches to address biases and harmful effects of recommender systems, while preserving their usefulness.
Prof Burke has published extensively in leading academic publications including Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) journals and high-profile conferences. His work has been supported by the US National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities among others.
“This is an exciting time for the field. There is an explosion of applications but an even larger wave of exaggerated claims. I lived through AI booms before. You have to have a critical eye, looking to extract valuable innovations from the slag heap of marketing and hype. I hope to work with individuals and organisations across Ireland who are grappling with these same issues,” said Prof Burke.
The UCD AI Institute will bring together world-class AI expertise spanning diverse fields including healthcare, manufacturing, space, food systems, creative arts, sport performance and cultural heritage. Research at the institute and wider university is underpinned by the Advanced UCD Research in Artificial Intelligence (AURA) supercomputer programme, bringing state-of-the-art infrastructure to groundbreaking discovery and applied research, skills development and innovation.
The establishment of the UCD AI Institute is a cornerstone of Breaking Boundaries, UCD’s Strategy to 2030, reflecting the university’s ambition to strengthen its leadership in artificial intelligence. The institute provides a focal point for interdisciplinary collaboration and strategic partnerships to advance the knowledge, technologies and talent that will shape the future of AI.
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