This year, luck smiled on us - we found the gold coin in the Vasilopita! Just as finding the gold coin brings good luck and prosperity, the APRIL AI Hub continues to strike gold by fostering new collaborations, expanding our network and progressing with our research developments.
|
|
|
|
|
This month alone, we welcomed fantastic new staff members and pillar leads, launched a new seed funding seminar series, which was very well-received, hosted engaging workshops on publishing and the EDI Engine, and were shortlisted for the Community Award at the AI & Robotics Research Awards 2026!
If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, our internship applications are now open and close next March. Apply here.
We’re excited to see what the rest of 2026 has in store.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Google DeepMind Research Ready Internship Scheme 2026
|
|
|
The APRIL AI Hub is delivering a transformative eight-week internship programme supported by Google DeepMind, The Hg Foundation, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, will enable the delivery of funded research placements for undergraduate students from socio-economically disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds. The aim is to support access, confidence, and progression into research careers in AI and engineering.. The programme will be hosted in-person at the University of Edinburgh commencing 1st June 2026.
|
|
|
|
|
Applicants must:
-
Be an undergraduate student (penultimate year, final year, or recently graduated)
-
Be studying a degree with a strong focus on AI, machine learning, data science, or a closely related field
-
Be interested in pursuing research and/or a career in AI or engineering
-
Be eligible to work in the UK for the duration of the placement
The programme is specifically aimed at students from socio-economically disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds, including (but not limited to):
-
First-generation university students
-
Students from low-income households or areas of low participation in higher education
-
Students who were eligible for free school meals
-
Care-experienced students
-
Students with caring responsibilities
-
Students from underrepresented ethnic groups
-
Disabled and/or neurodivergent students
Applications are now open until 17th March 2026! Interviews will be held on w/c 30th March. For more information on eligibility and details on how to apply click here.
For any questions, please contact APRIL@ed.ac.uk.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This month Prof. Sir Peter Mathieson, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Guangzhao Mao, Head of the School of Engineering, and Lindsay Beevers, Professor and Chair of Environmental Engineering, visited the Centre of Electronic Frontiers offices and labs, getting to learn more about APRIL and our latest research and tools.
|
|
|
|
|
The CEF team and our guests
|
|
|
Following this we all got to have some delicious Vasilopita cake (a New Year’s Day cake tradition in Greece which contains a hidden coin giving the receiver good luck for the year) baked by our very own Eleni Tselepi! The lucky recipient of the coin was our wonderful administrator, Aisyah Noor Mohd!
|
|
|
|
|
|
India-Scotland Leadership Summit
|
|
|
Our brilliant researcher, Dr. Pratibha Verma, represented at the India-Scotland Leadership Summit organised by the Indian National Students Association (INSA). Pratibha moderated the ‘From Education to Meaningful Contribution’ panel as an INSA representative.
|
|
|
|
|
Pratibha at the India-Scotland Leadership Summit
|
|
|
“The consensus from the panel was that the transition from education to the workplace isn’t just about technical skills, it’s about mastering the ‘unwritten rules’ of the Scottish boardroom. From navigating AI’s impact on entry-level roles to fostering ‘Scottish Grit’ and resilence, the focus for 2026 is moving beyond just hiring talent to empowering the next generation of industry leaders and job creators” - Dr. Pratibha Verma.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This month APRIL and CEF have welcomed two Members of Scottish Parliament (MSP) to visit our labs and offices to see our state-of-the-art facilities and to meet our researchers who are pioneering the use of AI to design and test new electronic devices. We welcomed Daniel Johnson MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Business and Fair Work, and Miles Briggs MSP Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We are thrilled that our PhD researcher, Semih Vazgecen, was given the Best MEng Student Project award! This remarkable achievement is a testament to his hard work, dedication, and innovative spirit but also his amazing mentorship from APRIL researcher Dr Cristian Sestito.
|
|
|
|
|
Semih and family, and Themis with his award for Best MEng Student Project
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An expert in ultra-low-power CMOS integrated circuits (IC) and systems for wireless communication and AI/ML. He leads the Analog Intelligent Circuits and Systems Lab at King’s College London. Kai Xu is an Assistant Professor of Electronics Design in the Department of Engineering, King’s College London, U.K. His research interests span analog and mixed-signal design, AI-assisted wireless circuits and systems, and energy-efficient AI accelerators for edge computing. He has co-authored over 35 papers in peer-reviewed IEEE journals and conferences.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This month we have welcomed Bruce R. Rae to our Independent Advisory Board! Bruce is STMicroelectronics, Imaging, Edinburgh Site Manager and transversally manages end-to-end product development from technology and design through to characterisation and validation. In this role, he supports product execution and the development of ST’s imaging technology and product roadmaps. He also works with external collaborators on advanced R&D projects. He has extensive experience in the development of image and depth sensors and single photon counting systems. Bruce received the MEng and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from The University of Edinburgh, UK, in 2005 and 2009 respectively. He is a currently Chair of the IEEE ISSCC Image Sensors and Display sub-committee and a member of the IEEE VLSI Symposium Technical Program Committee.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ali’s work uses AI to estimate hardware resources such as area and energy, supporting automated pipelines. Furthermore, as researchers explore LLMs for RTL code generation, his methods can take generated RTL and rapidly predict implementation costs. He also builds lightweight models for neuromorphic hardware, specialising in spiking neural networks. In addition, he explores metaheuristics such as Grey Wolf Optimisation to accelerate design space exploration.
|
|
|
