Nick is a scientist working to deploy Artificial Intelligence technology on robots, with the aim of producing intelligent robot systems to provide services for future generations. This covers areas such as understanding language, machine vision, automated robot planning, navigation and mapping, and behaviour control. The resulting robots will range from entertainers and cleaners in our homes and offices, to security guards and caregivers in our institutions. 

To achieve this Nick studies tools and techniques for the integration software (creating the software necessary to program and control robots), ideas (ways to connect different AI techniques to each other) and people (putting together diverse teams to work on complex design problems). Nick also has experience in AI characters for games and virtual worlds, having originally trained to develop AI for the games industry with his PhD sponsored by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

A keen science communicator, Nick has presented on the ideas behind his work, and on the impact future AI technology will make on society, for the New Scientist and for Cheltenham Science Festival (as a Royal Academy of Engineering *Engaging Engineers* trainee). He was also part of the London Science Museum's Festival of Robots event in December 2011, which saw him interviewed live on BBC Breakfast.

Value-based pricing                       Predictor Podcast Ep 20, Ideas Lab, 2011

If Henry looks familiar it may be because you've seen him on Time Team - he's been a member of the team for nearly 10 years and worked on well over 100 programmes. Henry has also worked on shows for Channel Five, the Discovery Channel and the BBC.

Henry's particular specialism is in prehistory, and the relationships between climate, environment and people in the past.   He's currently the Director of the Visual and Spatial Techonology Centre ; Institue of Archaeology and Antiquity.

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A researcher on male and transgender sex work, Nicola has found plenty of evidence that there are lots of men selling sex and lots of people (both men and women) buying it.

Nicola is particularly interested in the lived experiences of males and transgender sex workers and how those lived experiences are being made invisible in academic, political and legal debates about the sex trade.

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Russell leads the Advanced Interaction Group in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. As a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) specialist, his interests range broadly across the border between computing and communication systems and society, with a particular focus on using artificial intelligence in interactive systems, usability and design. He is also Director of the new HCI Research Centre at the University.

As BUPA Translational Research Manager for the Centre for Obesity Research, Eliot is responsible for driving new collaborative, interdisciplinary research initiatives, and for working with internal and external partners to develop and promote research excellence in the area of obesity. The Centre brings together researchers from across the whole campus, including medicine, sport, psychology, education, and economics, to address the causes and consequences of obesity, to devise new methods of prevention and treatment, and to evaluate existing ones.

Eliot has a degree in Genetics, a Research Masters in Immunology & Oncology and a PhD in childhood leukaemia research, after which he went on to hold a Medici Fellowship in the commercial application of scientific research. He also runs the pioneering ‘Obesity Ambassadors’ scheme, through which members of the public are involved in the Centre’s work.

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Anna is an RCUK Research Fellow and Health Psychologist based in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. She investigates how factors such as ageing, stress, bereavement, depression and being a caregiver impact our immune system and therefore our health.

For example, she’s researching why older people who have a hip fracture and depression are more prone to infection than younger people with the same injury. She’s also looking into whether vaccinations can be made more effective by giving them at different times of day.

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Rebecca is NIHR Research Fellow in Health Service Research based in the Rheumatology Research group. Rebecca’s area of expertise is in applying psychology to health, illness and medicine. She has conducted psychological research in the areas of pharmacy, diabetes, and palliative and cancer care, for example finding out about the way that people with multiple illnesses manage their many medicines.

Having recently joined the University of Birmingham, Rebecca is currently working on a project to identify the reasons why people with rheumatoid arthritis delay in seeking help. This is an important area of research, not only because the earlier people seek help for arthritis and receive treatment, the less joint damage and disability they face in the future, but because there may even be a critical window in the first three months from the onset of symptoms during which rheumatoid arthritis can be controlled or even ‘switched off’. Rebecca and the team are working on how to develop the public’s understanding of arthritis and how to encourage people to seek help sooner.

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Jess is an expert in mood disorders triggered by childbirth. Her research focuses on the spectrum of bipolar symptoms that can occur following childbirth, from mild transient elation ('the highs'), which may be followed by postnatal depression, to severe episodes of bipolar disorder or psychosis (often called ‘puerperal psychosis’ or ‘postpartum psychosis’) that require urgent hospital treatment.

Jess is based in the Birmingham Mother & Baby Unit, where she works with a small team of academics and a national network of women who have suffered from episodes of postpartum psychosis, to: raise awareness of these severe episodes, improve their management, and increase the understanding of their causes.

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Jon is Director of the University of Birmingham’s Health Services Management Centre.  He specialises in joint work between health and social care and regularly provides analysis and advice on policy. He’s written articles for the Guardian as well as a series of leading textbooks on health and social services.