Artificial intelligence and cognitive technologies
Our transdisciplinary research is supporting the development of a range of transformative technologies and the fundamental knowledge of information processing. Our expertise spans the mathematics of cognitive systems, advanced computing, smart devices and materials, and the engineering of autonomous systems and robotics. We work with a range of industry partners and government stakeholders to address the emerging scientific, engineering and ethical challenges – and deliver global impact.
Transforming how we live and work
AI is already transforming how we live and work - improving the efficiency and safety of many of the everyday things we do. It supports our vehicles' travel navigation systems, smart home devices, automated manufacturing, internet use and streaming choices...
At Loughborough, we are applying our expertise to support the development of a broad range of applications spanning every aspect of our lives – including medicine, business, security, sport and wellbeing, climate change and net zero, social and political studies, and even modern art.
We are also addressing the numerous ethical and policy-making issues relating to AI.
Sport, health and wellbeing
AI and cognitive technologies have the potential to revolutionise how athletes train, how doctors decide on appropriate treatment strategies, and guide improvements to our mental and physical health.
For example, AI can analyse successful game strategies and guide coaching decisions; smart nanobots can remedy our health problems without surgery; and smart devices can help us to plan our daily exercise and activity.
Climate change, urban environments and transport
To ensure our planet’s survival and our quality of life, we have to tackle climate change. We must cut our carbon emissions, ensure the optimal use of natural resources, develop our use of sustainable energy, and enhance the comfort and resilience of our built environments.
AI and cognitive technologies have a vital role to play in this critical and urgent activity. They can help us to optimise power generation and distribution, guide the design of smart homes, and create advanced automated systems for navigating our complex urban environments.
Our research in this area spans autonomous systems in precision agriculture and renewable energy, building design, aerodynamic design acceleration through machine learning, transport and mobility, battery health estimation, battery manufacturing circular economy, smart meter data techniques, neural networks to predict flow conditions for fluvial bedforms, and deep learning for flood modeling.
Fundamental AI, smart materials, devices and robotics
Biological and artificial systems use very different computational principles.
Working with our partners, we are addressing ways to improve the hardware and software architectures, materials, energy efficiency and miniaturisation of cognitive devices – enhancing their capabilities and performance.
We are exploring the fundamentals of intelligence and autonomous systems. This includes machine lifelong learning, aerospace industrial inspection, energy-efficient AI for edge-computing, the development of artificial cortex, advanced driver-assistance systems, quantum AI, and applying machine learning to literature reviews for material discovery.
Vibrant and inclusive communities and AI ethics
Ethical AI systems must be inclusive, explainable, have a positive purpose and use data responsibly.
We are exploring the many questions fundamental to the ethics of AI. Could artificially intelligent systems experience feelings as we do? Could they positively resolve complicated social challenges, and help us to understand the past?
We are investigating the application of AI within the cultural heritage sector and digital archives, avoiding bias in decision-making, sentiment analysis, harnessing miscommunication to support smart homecare, human-robot collaboration, explainable AI, user-experience design for AI, and using AI and robotics in education and training.
Featured centres
Capabilities
Discover more
This page provides an overview of just some of the research capabilities we have in this field. To find out more, please get in touch.
