Biography:Nick Jennings (computer scientist)

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Short description: British computer scientist (b.1966)


Nick Jennings

CB FRS FREng FCGI FIET FBCS MAE CEng CITP
Nick-jennings-lboro.jpg
Jennings in July 2022
Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University
Assumed office
October 2021
Preceded byRobert Allison
Personal details
Born
Nicholas Robert Jennings

December 1966 (age 57)
London, England
EducationWeymouth Grammar School
Alma mater
Salary£350,723 (2022–23)[1]
Known for
  • Regius Professor of Computer Science
  • Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security
Spouse(s)Joanne Jennings
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Loughborough University
ThesisJoint Intentions as a Model of Multi-Agent Cooperation (1992)
Doctoral advisorAbe Mamdani
Doctoral students
Websitewww.lboro.ac.uk/services/vco/smt/vc-prof-jennings/

Nicholas Robert Jennings CB FRS FREng FCGI FIET FBCS MAE CEng CITP is a British computer scientist and the current Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University.[3] He was previously the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise at Imperial College London, the UK's first Regius Professor of Computer Science, and the inaugural Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government on National Security.[4] His research covers the areas of AI, autonomous systems, agent-based computing and cybersecurity.

He has been involved in a number of startups including Aerogility,[5] Contact Engine,[6] Crossword Cyber Security,[7] Darktrace,[8] and Reliance Cyber Science.[9] He is currently the chair of the judges for the Manchester Prize for AI,[10] and a judge of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.[11]

Education and early life

Jennings was born in London.[12] He grew up on the Isle of Portland in Dorset and attended Weymouth Grammar School. He studied for an undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of Exeter and his PhD was from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London.[13]

Research and career

His research focus is on developing AI systems for large-scale, open and dynamic environments. In particular, on endowing individual autonomous agents with the ability to act and interact in flexible ways, and with building systems that contain both humans and software agents that work together in partnership.

His systems have been used to save lives in the aftermath of disasters, to win Olympic medals for Team GB, and to monitor the impact of climate change on glaciers.[14]

In undertaking this research, he has attracted grant income of £33M, published more than 700 articles (with over 480 co-authors[15]) and graduated over 50 PhD students (including two winners and one runner-up of the British Computer Society (BCS)/CPHC Distinguished Dissertation Award.[16]) He has over 95,000 citations in Google Scholar[17] and an h-index of 134.[18]

From 1988 he was at Queen Mary, University of London, where he was a PhD student, lecturer, reader and professor.

In 1999, he moved to the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton where he was the Deputy Head of Department, the Associate Dean (Research and Enterprise) for the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Maths, the Head of the Agents, Interaction and Complexity group and the Head of Department. He was appointed the UK's first Regius Professor of Computer Science in 2014.

From 2010 to 2015, he was the UK Government's first Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security.[19]

In 2016, he moved to Imperial College to be the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise),[20] as well as a Professor of Artificial Intelligence.

In 2021, he was appointed as the 9th Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University.[21]

Awards

Jennings was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to computer science and national security science.[22]

  • 1999 (1999): IJCAI Computers and Thought Award
  • 2000 (2000): IEE Achievement Medal for contributions to agent-based computing
  • 2003 (2003): ACM Autonomous Agents Research Award for contributions to the field of agent-based computing[23]
  • 2004 (2004): Team leader of winning agent in the 20th Anniversary Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Competitions
  • 2007 (2007): Team leader of winner of Trading Agents Competition on Mechanism Design (CAT)
  • 2007 (2007): ARGUS II project winner of The Engineer's Large Company / University Collaboration Award
  • 2007: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Special Recognition Award for “Intelligent agents: theory and practice” in The Knowledge Engineering Review[24]
  • 2008 (2008): Winner of "Best Industrial Demonstrator" award at International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Systems Conference
  • 2009 (2009): Winner of The Engineer Award for Best Aerospace and Defence Project for ALADDIN
  • 2010 (2010): Winner of Best Paper Award at International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (out of 685 submissions)
  • 2010 (2010): Winner 1st International Competitions on the Lemonade Stand Game
  • 2011 (2011): Winner 2nd International Competitions on the Lemonade Stand Game
  • 2012 (2012): Winner US State Department's TAG challenge on social mobilisation and rapid information gathering[25]
  • 2016: IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize (Honourable Mention) for “Theoretical and practical foundations of large-scale agent-based micro-storage in the smart grid” in Journal of AI Research
  • 2016: The Engineer’s “Collaborate to Innovate” Award for the ORCHID project[26]
  • 2018: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Influential Paper Award for “Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology” in ACM Trans. on Software Engineering and Methodology[27]
  • 2020: BCS Lovelace Medal

Fellowships

Personal life

Nick Jennings is married to Jo and they have two children. He is a keen sportsman; his football career peaked with a (unsuccessful) trial with Aston Villa and his cricket career with a tour in the West Indies playing for Shedfield cricket club.

References

  1. ↑ "Financial Statements for the Year to 31 July 2023". Loughborough University. https://www.lboro.ac.uk/media/media/services/finance/downloads/financialstatements/Financial-Statements-2022-23.pdf. 
  2. ↑ "AA Award". http://sigai.acm.org/awards/autonomous_agents_award.html. 
  3. ↑ "Professor Nick Jennings, Loughborough University" (in en). https://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/vco/smt/vc-prof-jennings/. 
  4. ↑ "Chief Scientific Advisers". http://www.bis.gov.uk/go-science/science-in-government/chief-scientific-advisers. 
  5. ↑ "Aerogility | the future of decision making". http://www.aerogility.com. 
  6. ↑ "ContactEngine - Perfect Customer Journeys". http://www.contactengine.com. 
  7. ↑ "Crossword Cybersecurity". http://www.crosswordcybersecurity.com. 
  8. ↑ "Advisory Board". https://www.darktrace.com/en/advisory-council/. Darktrace
  9. ↑ "Reliance acsn - IT Security Experts". http://relianceacsn.co.uk. 
  10. ↑ "Frequently asked questions" (in en-US). https://manchesterprize.org/frequently-asked-questions/. 
  11. ↑ "Judges" (in en). https://qeprize.org/nominate/judges. 
  12. ↑ "Jennings, Prof. Nicholas Robert, (born 15 Dec. 1966), Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College London, since 2016" (in en). doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u286414. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-286414. 
  13. ↑ Jennings, Nicholas (1992). Joint intentions as a model of multi-agent cooperation in complex dynamic environments. soton.ac.uk (PhD thesis). Queen Mary, University of London. OCLC 940336317. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.336484. Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  14. ↑ "Nicholas Jennings". https://royalsociety.org/people/nicholas-jennings-25235/. 
  15. ↑ {{DBLP}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.
  16. ↑ "Distinguished Dissertations - Awards and competitions - Events - BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT". http://www.bcs.org/category/5820. 
  17. ↑ {{Google Scholar id}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.
  18. ↑ "Nick Jennings". https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=FX5CsuYAAAAJ&hl=en. 
  19. ↑ "Professor Nick Jennings" (in en). https://www.gov.uk/government/people/nick-jennings. 
  20. ↑ "Getting to know Professor Nick Jennings, Imperial's Vice-Provost for Research | Imperial News | Imperial College London" (in en). 2016-06-13. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/172951/getting-know-professor-nick-jennings-imperials/. 
  21. ↑ "Professor Nick Jennings announced as Loughborough University's next Vice-Chancellor" (in en). 2021-05-11. https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2021/may/nick-jennings-announced-as-vice-chancellor/. 
  22. ↑ No. 61450. 30 December 2015. p. N3. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/61450/supplement/N3 
  23. ↑ "AA Award". http://sigai.acm.org/awards/autonomous_agents_award.html. 
  24. ↑ "IFAAMAS: Awards: Influential Paper". http://www.ifaamas.org/award-influential.html. 
  25. ↑ "Researchers attempt (and win!) an 'impossible challenge' | Agents, Interaction and Complexity Research Group | University of Southampton". https://www.aic.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news/3973. 
  26. ↑ Excell, Jon (2016-09-08). "Collaborate to Innovate winners announced" (in en-US). https://www.theengineer.co.uk/collaborate-to-innovate-winners-annnounced/. 
  27. ↑ "IFAAMAS: Awards: Influential Paper". http://www.ifaamas.org/award-influential.html. 
  28. ↑ "Jennings, Prof. Nicholas Robert, (born 15 Dec. 1966), Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College London, since 2016" (in en). doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u286414. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-286414. 
  29. ↑ "Jennings, Prof. Nicholas Robert, (born 15 Dec. 1966), Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College London, since 2016" (in en). doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u286414. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-286414. 
  30. ↑ "List of Fellows". https://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows. 
  31. ↑ "Fellows" (in en-GB). https://aisb.org.uk/fellows/. 
  32. ↑ "Jennings, Prof. Nicholas Robert, (born 15 Dec. 1966), Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College London, since 2016" (in en). doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u286414. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-286414. 
  33. ↑ "IEEE Fellows Directory - Member Profile". https://services27.ieee.org/fellowsdirectory/getdetailprofile.html?custNum=mpjYevkU4I4rg4QFsLmc8w==&bccaptions=Alphabetical%20Listing%20&bclocations=/fellowsdirectory/home.html. 
  34. ↑ "Elected AAAI Fellows". https://www.aaai.org/Awards/fellows-list.php. 
  35. ↑ "DFKI Fellows" (in en-EN). https://www.dfki.de/en/web/about-us/fellows/dfki-fellows/. 
  36. ↑ "Home". http://www.cybsoc.org/. 
  37. ↑ "Nicholas Jennings". https://royalsociety.org/people/nicholas-jennings-25235/. 



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