Graduation: A future in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is expected to change the world but greater automation is being held back by a lack of skills in the UK.

Liverpool John Moores University is part of the solution – graduating computer scientists from several AI programmes including the in-demand Masters in Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning).

Today around 20 young people graduated from the course, including Sithu Ye Htun, from Myanmar, who achieved the prize for best dissertation and is already carrying out research into robotics.

Sithu believes AI is a “game-changer” for the world’s economy and wants to be at the heart of it.

“Since I was little, I have loved robots and I always wanted to explore what they can do,” he says.

As part of his Bachelor degree, he worked at ROM Robotics - his first encounter with AI – and was hooked!

Sithu is far from alone in his thinking. Last year 250 postgraduates applied to take the LJMU MSc – conscious of the growing opportunities for the AI cognoscenti with so many organisations needing skills in deep learning, natural language processing, robotic process automation and so forth.

Has the world gone AI crazy?

Understandably yes, says Sithu. “AI has the ability to automate tasks, make predictions and uncover insights from vast amount of data. Besides that, it has transformative potential across everything from healthcare to finance to transportation, making our lives easier. 

“No-one knows what the future will look alike or what we will be capable of. It is like a pandora box. And I’m intrigued by that.” 

Describing the MSc  as “phenomenal”, Sithu adds: “We worked with real-life problems which gave us insight about AI and how to deal with it. 

The best thing he learned was from supervisor Dr Denis Reilly, who, whenever he was about to give up, would say: “You’ll find a workaround, you just need a bit more time.”

“I’m really proud to be a LJMU graduate, after all the hard work and commitment, it’s worth it, and I enjoyed every single moment.”