AI research and education at UCD and career opportunities in Ireland
UCD School of Computer Science is launching a new MSc in Advanced Artificial Intelligence, so we sat down with the Course Director and some of the lecturers, as well as some recent graduates working in AI roles. Here is the transcript of (opens in a new window)the short video that we made.
Associate Professor Brian Mac Namee, UCD Site Director at the Insight Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Data Analytics
Q. Tell us about the AI research that's going on around UCD
I think it's fair to say that UCD is Ireland's leader in AI research. We have the greatest concentration of world-leading academics working in the field. A lot of those are involved in the Research Ireland Insight Centre for Data Analytics, which is Ireland's largest nationally funded research centre. At UCD, we have over 100 researchers working in AI applications, fundamental AI technologies, the next generation of algorithms, tools and techniques that are gonna drive the field forward.
Associate Professor Neil Hurley, Head of UCD School of Computer Science
Q. Where does this new programme fit within the school's strategy around AI?
Because of the rapid advancement of AI it is becoming more and more necessary to have people with very high level skills. So we saw it as important to introduce a new Master's which focused on advanced AI. That allows us to bring in people who have some basic knowledge of AI which is now being found in many curricula at the bachelor level, but to drive that forward.
Assistant Professor Deepak Ajwani, UCD School of Computer Science. Course Director MSc Advanced AI.
Q. What makes studying Advanced AI at UCD unique and special?
When you join this master's program, you join the AI ecosystem in UCD which consists of students, past graduates, research centres and industry collaborations.
Q. What are you looking for in prospective students for this course, the Master’s in Advanced Artificial Intelligence?
We expect that applicants will have an undergraduate degree with a 2-1 honours bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, or information technology, or mathematics or physics. And then we expect them to have a basic understanding of the AI concepts, and we expect them to know the basics of programming and basic mathematical background. Most importantly, we expect the students to have a lot of passion for this field of artificial intelligence and a keen curiosity to learn more and dive deeper into the advanced AI concepts.
Q. What will the students learn in this program?
Students will learn the foundational mathematical concepts and the technological side of artificial intelligence. So, they will take modules such as deep learning, advanced machine learning, optimization, generative AI and large language models to get a solid grounding in artificial intelligence. Then, they will also learn how to apply these techniques into application domains such as health, such as time series data, such as recommender systems and so on.
Professor Mark Keane, UCD School of Computer Science
Q. What career prospects, in academia or in industry, do you see for people going through the MSc Advanced AI?
Traditionally what education is about is equipping people with the knowledge to deal with the changes that occur in the work context. So I would hope people coming out of the course would have a sort of deep but broad knowledge of many aspects of AI and that that would enable them to deal with the changes which are going to come down the line. I think we're probably going to enter a period where people will be defining their own jobs in this space. And we need to get to a point where it's clear which aspects of these models work and which don't. And the jobs will then coalesce around them.
Associate Professor Neil Hurley, Head of UCD School of Computer Science
Q. What are employers looking for from graduates coming into artificial intelligence roles?
The techniques that have been developed in recent years in artificial intelligence, they're very exciting. We have been marvelling at what they can achieve but they are not simple models to understand. You need expertise to understand them, to apply them and in particular to apply them correctly, to know the pitfalls of the algorithm because the algorithm may not achieve its goals if it's not applied correctly. These are the sort of fundamental skills that we expect to teach our Masters students and they are the fundamental skills that are needed out in industry.
Stephen McAleese, Software Engineer at Kreoh (MSc Computer Science 2024)
Q. Tell us about some of the AI-related modules that you did when you studied at UCD
During my time at UCD, I studied modules such as machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI, and I learned a variety of theoretical and practical concepts, and I also completed a dissertation in the field of Explainable AI.
Ojas Ninad Rane, Research Assistant at Insight Centre (MSc Computer Science 2024)
Q. Tell us about some of the AI-related modules that you took.
So at UCD, in the second semester, I first took advanced machine learning. So the module was mainly about basic concepts of deep learning. I got a head start on concepts on ANN, RNN, CNN, which are the basic building blocks for then studying AI in future.
Sahil Pradhan, Machine Learning Engineer at Intel (MSc Computer Science 2022)
Q. If you think about careers in the area of artificial intelligence, what do you see out there in Ireland at the moment? Describe some of the different jobs, situations that you see.
I work in Intel and my domain within Intel is industrial automation. So like I said, we use AI solutions to make the lives of engineers easy. And it's a very big field within Intel. Also Honeywell. Honeywell also has a huge AI market and they want to solely use AI for their industrial automation needs. Training models to predict how soon machinery might go bad. And that is really very, very important right now. Point being to reduce the dependency on humans. So it's, we call a “lights out” strategy. Yeah, I think it's really booming. And that involves generative AI, computer vision, time series forecasting. These are all kinds of different things within AI, but they're all very much in demand at the moment I feel.
Q. So tell us about some of the AI related courses that you did in your studies at UCD?
I did deep learning. I did connectionist computing. I did text analytics and I did machine learning with Python. And all of these really stayed with me because they had one thing in common. They taught us the math behind all the algorithms that we use and it sort of really helped me understand these algorithms better and it really stayed with me.
Bhawna Singh, Data Scientist at CeADAR Ireland’s National Centre for Applied AI (MSc Computer Science 2022)
Q. Tell us about some of the AI-related courses that you studied at UCD, and which were the best and what were they like?
In my time at UCD, I got to study a lot of modules which were related to artificial intelligence, like machine learning, deep learning, and all these modules were designed in a way that helped me to gain the practical exposure, as well as to gain the theoretical knowledge. And apart from that, I did an internship as a part of my course. So that really allowed me to gain industrial exposure in Ireland, which was brilliant, I think.
Sahil Pradhan, Machine Learning Engineer at Intel (MSc Computer Science 2022)
Q. So what do you remember best about your time at UCD?
I had a couple of modules in the first semester which had weekly assignment submissions. So what used to happen is, even though we had other modules in the semesters, these would keep us on our toes the whole time. And we really got used to it. At the time, it might seem stressful, but now that I think of it, it made me able to brainstorm at any given point of the day. I remember, as classmates, we would hang out late in the evening around the UCD lake and decide not to talk about assignments for some time because we wanted to break. But when chit-chatting about random stuff, suddenly a solution would click in our head in one of the assignments and we would just open our laptops, regardless of the weather, and we would solve it then and there. So that was very nice, I remember, and I cherish that memory a lot.
Professor Mark Keane, UCD School of Computer Science
Q. For someone who might be considering doing a Masters in advanced AI and following that with a career in AI, what would you say to have any advice for them at this moment?
There's an awful lot of hype around what's going on. And I think that that's got to a level that's not healthy, as it were. So I think, you know, working in the area, you should maintain a sort of critical or sceptical attitude. And I think that will be more important as time goes on, because you have to be able to debunk the stuff that's rubbish and, you know, separate it from the work that actually is a real scientific advance.
Associate Professor Brian Mac Namee, UCD Site Director at the Insight Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Data Analytics
Q. And are you working with companies in industry?
One of the exciting things about doing AI and machine learning in Ireland is we have a concentration of the world leading companies in this field. So we have Google and Meta and OpenAI and all of the other big names that people will be familiar with working here in Ireland. And we have collaborations with all of those companies here in UCD. Those collaborations range from sponsored student projects to deep research collaborations where we're working with those companies to take the research ideas that we're developing here in UCD and bring them out to those companies and then out to the rest of the world.
About the new MSc Advanced AI
The overwhelming demand for our new MSc in Advanced Artificial Intelligence underscores the critical need for advanced AI expertise. This rigorous one-year programme offers graduates a unique opportunity to develop the skills necessary to excel in AI-driven roles across research and industry. Through an intensive curriculum encompassing cutting-edge topics, students will learn the mathematical foundations of AI techniques and also learn to apply AI techniques to solve complex real-world problems. The students will collaborate with industry, researchers, and a select cohort of talented peers, fostering a strong sense of community and shared learning.
Full course details and applications and enquiries here https://hub.ucd.ie/usis/!W_HU_MENU.P_PUBLISH?p_tag=COURSE&MAJR=T413
Why study Advanced AI at UCD? (opens in a new window)https://youtu.be/9WtMfcN1Kr8
Short promotional video (opens in a new window)https://youtu.be/CNSeYbW_0Qs
20 February 2025