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Selfie of me and a Chinese girl who is wearing full academic regalia and holding a bunch of flowers.

Amidst all the marking and end of term teaching my very first PhD student graduated (or at least the first for whom I was primary supervisor). I didn't actually manage to get to her graduation (because teaching) and missed her at the after graduation party (I had to leave for more teaching before she arrived) but she swung by my office at the very end of the day.

She's currently in limbo, having got a job in Germany in early summer, but is still waiting for a visa to arrive. It's getting increasingly hard in the UK to employ Chinese researchers in topics related to autonomous systems or robotics so I have my fingers crossed that this will work out.

I think I mentioned that I gave a keynote talk at a workshop in Århus in September and that they gave me LEGO flowers. Well, I have made them.

Flowers made from LEGO in a blue vase.

Here are some photos of my new lab at work:

( Photos under the Cut )

My colleagues in Engineering who three years ago were all moved into a ginormous custom-built state of the art building where there is not enough room and they have to share offices are all a bit gob-smacked by how I managed to get this much space. I'm not honestly sure I know either - I forsee spending the rest of my career defending my territory.

Academic Poster by Helen Smith from the UKRI TAs Node in Functionality and the University of Bristol. It documents her thesis journey through literature review to looking separately at the legal and ethical aspects of the use of AI in clinical decision-making. There are QR codes and references for key publications: Artificial intelligence use in clinical decision making: allocating ethical and legal responsibility, PhD thesis, 2022. Clinical AI: opacity, accountability, responsibility and liability, AI & Society 2020. Artificial intelligence in clinical decision-making: Rethinking liability, Medical Law International 2020. Exploring Remedies for Defective Artificial Intelligence Aids in Clinical Decision Making in post-Brexit England and Wales, Medical Law International, 2022. Clinicians and AI use: where is the professional guidance? Journal of Medical Ethics, 2023. AI in healthcare: promise, serial and professional responsibility. Journal of Medical Ethics Blog 2023. Artificial intelligence in clinical decision-making: rethinking personal moral responsibility. Bioethics 2023. There is a little captioned image of two robots one saying 'It's your fault' and the other saying `No, it's your fault.'

The workshop last week included a poster session and, as is the way of these things, one can't always get to speak to all the poster presenters one would like to. This one had included handy references and QR codes so I just snapped the poster and moved on - now need to decide which papers to add to the large virtual "to read" pile.

A small pumpkin shaped pot. In front of it are two ceramic mushrooms in colour-coordinated shades of orange and purple. They are standing on a pale spotty tablecloth.

We moved Marmalade Sparrow out of college accommodation and into a student house at the weekend. We bought her a fair amount of kitchen equipment to support the move (and because my Mum wanted to purchase her saucepans as a birthday present). However, we let her her buy her own halloween themed crockery - particularly since I've no idea what her use case is a for a small ceramic pumpkin pot and she already has a perfectly good salt grinder and pepper grinder (the mushrooms are a salt and pepper pot). They did look quite decorative on her kitchen table though.

I'm currently on a research visit to York. One of the academics I'm visiting spotted my Tardis broach and mentioned that the nearest petrol station had a Tardis, two Daleks and a Cyberman. Since this was not far off the walk from my hotel to the campus, naturally I detoured that way this morning.

A Tardis next to a sign advertising petrol costs and a costa shop. A Shell garage is in the background.

A Tardis next to a sign advertising petrol costs and a costa shop. A Shell garage is in the background.

A Cyberman stands, on arm upraised, on a flat roof, flanked by Daleks.

A red dalek stands on a flat roof. Below it a sign advertises Costa, a Kitchen shop and a Nisa Local.

A group of people in overalls holding hard hats, squinting into the sun. Most of the overalls are bright orange. I am at the front. We are standing in front of a building signed Jacobs 210 C Technology and Innovation Centre.

There is a genre of research project photos that could be categorised as "PDRAs in Hard Hats". There is, in fact, only one PDRA in the above image and none of us are actually wearing our hard hats, but still. This was in aid of a new "Prosperity Partnership" project, Centre for Robotic Autonomy in Demanding and Long-lasting Environments (CRADLE) with a company called Jacobs. It will pay for a bunch of PhD students and a smattering of PDRAs looking at deployment of autonomous robotics. I'm leading the work package on Assurance.

This is us visiting Jacobs where the engineers were very excited by all their test environments. It was pretty cool but, sadly, I don't think I will have much to do with setting robots loose in them.

Copy of Verifiable Autonomous Systems by Louise A. Dennis and Michael Fisher on top of a cardboard box. More copies can just be seen inside the box.

An open cardboard box containing books. At least two are An Introduction to Optimisation on Smooth Manifolds by Nicolas Boumal.

As part of writing a book CUP offered myself and my co-author free copies. So today I took receipt of 13 copies of someone else's book. Apparently CUP do not want this back so I'm not sure what to do with them - I suspect the local charity shops will not want.

Wisteria against a red brick wall in a flower bed containing shrubs. A barbecue is visible on one side.

A shady garden. View through to a sunny lawn, pot plants and a steamer chair.

A picturesque lake in the sunshine with wooded mountains beyond.

Phone screenshot of a grid of buildings with bubbles over them

This is Evony:The King's Return which advertises itself all over my twitter feed as a puzzle game. It is not a puzzle game. It is a city building game with war gam aspirations and a bit of puzzle solving on the side. I downloaded it last summer in the middle of a frustrating visit to my mother. I took this screenshot last week when one member of my alliance and I were trying to figure out what was going on precisely - server lag meant we were getting conflicting information.

Anyway, that's a thing I saw last week.

A decorated Christmas tree on a small table in front of a window. A Dalek is in the fairy position.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/744330.html

I have been going into work occasionally to meet with an MSc student (the university is encouraging/allowing meetings with taught postgraduate students). I was amused on my last visit to see a whole load of new signs:

A4 paper sign saying Replacement Covid Signage to go here. It is next to a sign for the disabled toilet and a hand sanitising station.

A4 paper sign saying Replacement Covid Signage to go here. It is next to a sign for the disabled toilet and a hand sanitising station.

We've had communications to the effect that a managed return to work will start on September 1st and we will hear more from our line managers. Our line managers are mildly bemused by this information. Presumably once the replacement covid signage is decided upon our line managers will also be told something.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/732926.html

Photo of myself taken in the mirror with long hair over one shoulder

I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow, so this is as long as the pandemic hair will get. Growing it has been an interesting exercise but I'm largely bored of it now, and it's started to shed quite a lot.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/719412.html

Magnolia in full bloom against a blue sky.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/714929.html

A green bud shaped Pokemon on the kitchen flaw, being photo-bombed by a vaguely sheep like Pokemon

It's been one of those weeks where Pokemon Go encourages you to take lots of photos of Pokemon. Have a buddew being photo-bombed by a smeargle.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/703417.html

Jigsaw of the history of Dr Who up until the end of the 11th Doctor in the style of the Bayeaux Tapestry

Himself purchased this for me as a late Christmas present. We did it this weekend. It's very cool even if a) it places Genesis of the Daleks after Talons of Weng Chiang and City of Death and b) doesn't include The Daleks at all.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/700457.html

PhD Student

LEGO Flowers

New Lab

Seen in Cambridge

Artificial intelligence use in clinical decision-making:allocating ethical and legal responsibility

Seasonal Crockery

Doctor Who Petrol Station

A Sub-genre of Postdocs in Hard Hats

Finally!

13 Copies of the Wrong Book

The Wisteria is in Bloom

The Garden at my Parents' House

Lugano is very Pretty

Evony: The King's Return

Christmas Tree

Replacement Covid Signage

As long as it gets

The Magnolia is pretty much at its Peak

I saw this Last Week

Jigsaw Accountability

Profile

May 2025

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