The Turing Podcast

By The Alan Turing InstituteScience Social Sciences Physics

The Turing Podcast episodes

August 04Orbits in Focus: A New Era of Space Traffic Management
Space is getting incredibly crowded. With over 40,000 tracked objects zipping around at ten times the speed of a bullet, managing our orbits has shifted from a traffic problem to a critical national security mission.
In this episode, we discover Project Aemelia, a pioneering initiative funded by the UK Space Agency. We see how a collaboration between the Alan Turing Institute and the University of Birmingham is rewriting the rules of Space Domain Awareness (SDA).
Join host Amelia Jabry, Dr Victoria Nockles, Principal Investigator - Defence AI Research (DARe), and Professor Marina Gashinova, University of Birmingham, to explore:
The Space-to-Space Challenge: Why observing fast-moving satellites from other satellites is an engineering hurdle of cosmic proportions.
SAR vs. ISAR: How Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) is being used to map the 3D structures of uncooperative satellites, rockets, and orbital debris in real time.
Autonomous Missions: How researchers on project Aemelia are going one step further and not just looking at new imaging systems, but designing fully-autonomous space missions.
Whether it's defending vital communications satellites or dodging space debris, find out how autonomous digital twins are safeguarding our future above the clouds.
Read more about Project Aemelia here: https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/research-projects/aemelia
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/eese/gashinova-marina
Chapter markers
0:00 Intro – the tricky problem of tracking satellites in space
1:44 What is space domain awareness?
3:20 How much space is there in space, or, where are the satellites?
4:30 How do you traditionally monitor satellites in space?
5:50 Introducing Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging (SAR) and how it works
7:20 The ‘space-to-space’ challenge
8:00 Now invert it: Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging (I-SAR)
9:00 The challenge of using I-SAR in a space-to-space setting
10:40 dealing with extreme speeds in real-time
13:00 Introducing Project Aemelia
14:18 The multidimensional aspect of I-SAR: multistatic setups, varied polarisation, and high frequencies
17:40 Setting up an autonomous space mission as we move further and further from Earth
19:45 Applications of this new technology
22:30 The case of the inspector satellite: how to deal with threats in space
24:00 The second space race – an explosion of capability (cubesats and beyond)
26:20 Stop interfering! The electromagnetic interference problem
28:00 The journey behind AEMELIA – a successful marriage
31:00 What is next on the horizon for I-SAR and SDA?
32:30 A sci-fi anecdote
34:20 Where to find out more
37 min
July 22 Weathering Change: FastNet and the Future of UK Forecasting
In an era of increasingly unpredictable extreme weather, getting the forecast right is no longer just about what you need to wear during your morning commute. It’s about national resilience, food security, and technological sovereignty.
In this episode, host Amelia Jabry is joined by Dr Scott Hosking (Mission Director for Environmental Forecasting at the Alan Turing Institute) and Professor Kirstine Dale (Chief AI Officer at the Met Office) to introduce FastNet: a groundbreaking, home-grown AI weather model developed right here in the UK.
Together, they demystify how FastNet uses 3D geometry (specifically, an icosahedral mesh) to map our round planet, how it spots patterns across 40 years of climate data. They also explore why we still desperately need physics to prepare for unprecedented ‘Grey Swan’ climate events like a looming Super El Niño. They tackle the vital questions of making our AI sustainable, the critical importance of a diverse AI workforce, and why the UK must maintain its own independent weather modelling capabilities rather than relying on global tech giants.
Read more about FastNet here: https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/research-projects/fastnet

Chapter markers
0:00 Intro
1:04 Introducing Scott Hosking and Kirsten Dale
1:50 The Raucous Revolution in weather forecasting of 2022
04:17 how AI weather prediction models work and how they differ from traditional weather prediction models
05:15 Why traditional physics based models still remain important in forecasting
07:00 The training data AI models rely on
7:50 The uses of AI weather models and the advantages of being computationally light
09:16 Turing’s partnership with the MET Office – why is the weather important?
11:50 Introducing Fastnet: How cutting-edge weather models can tackle climate insecurities
12:30 How AI weather models differ from LLMs
13:15 How Fastnet uses an icosahedral mesh to map the Earth.
16:05 Grey Swan events and Super El Niño
19:40Comparators to Fastnet and introducing a regional model for the uk
20:30 Improving the accuracy of fastnet
24:55 Green AI
26:30 The importance of diversity in AI modelling
28:30 Why it is important for the UK to have its own weather model
30:30 The future of Fastnet
32:13 Outro and find out more
34 min
June 16 Cleared for Takeoff: Navigating the Future of AI Air Traffic Control
This special episode of the Turing Podcast revisits Project Bluebird – the project that featured on our very first ever episode on the podcast in 2020! Host Amelia Jabry is joined by Ben Carvell, an aviation researcher leading AI agent design on Project Bluebird, and Andrew “Andy” Pace, a London terminal air traffic control officer (ATCO), who describes ATCO work, sectorisation, radar-based operations, and the still-analogue reliance on voice. They examine the growing complexity of air traffic control as traffic returns to, and surpasses, pre-COVID levels and the added challenges from drones, new aircraft types, and emissions constraints, stressing human cognitive limits in a safety-critical environment. Bluebird is a multi-year partnership between the Alan Turing Institute, NATS, and the University of Exeter with three themes: building a high-fidelity digital twin, developing virtual controller agents using methods from rules to optimisation and reinforcement learning, and addressing trust/explainability. Join Amelia, Andy and Ben as they discuss the challenges and opportunities of building an AI system to assist ATCOs in one of the most safety-critical industries in the world.

00:00 The Hidden Chessboard at the heart of Air Traffic Control
00:37 Meet Ben Carvell and Andy Pace
03:20 What Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) Do
06:20 Safety Rules for aviation and the moral responsibility of ATCOs
08:00 Introducing Project Bluebird
08:52 3 Main themes of Bluebird’s research: Digital Twins, AI Agents for Air Traffic Control, and Trust
10:30 The legal and moral responsibility of Air Traffic Control
12:20 The Science: The Physics Informed ML (PML) behind Bluebird. Including dealing with variability and the unknown.
14:55 Rules Optimisation versus Reinforcement Learning (RL)
15:50 A blast from the past
17:40 A collaboration with Johns Hopkins University tackling the issue of explainability in RL introducing ‘Relevant traffic’
20:36 TRUST: Safety Minima vs Collisions in Airspace – what is ‘non-negotiable’?
23:40 Interrogating the AI’s logic and maintaining trust
24:00 A curriculum for machines? The AI’s and ATCOs final exam
26:00 Bringing an ATCO onto project Bluebird – tool support for ATCOs
30:00 Intuition vs learning – the ‘mystical ATCO scan’
32:30 The ever-crowding airspace and increasing challenges to ATCOs
33:30 They history of Bluebird: 2020 versus now
35:40 How ATCOs really feel about Bluebird
36:02 Introducing Falcon - Are humans the ultimate guarantor of safety, or is our cognitive limit the ceiling for system efficiency?
40:15 Move 37 and the potential for Discovery
43:20 Collaboration between institutions and the real outputs Bluebird has made (the game!)
44:22 Wrap Up and Find Out More
48 min
February 17The Survival of the Fittest Route: Genetic Algorithms in Shipping and Sustainability
How can the study of ant colonies and evolutionary theory help us ensure the resilience and sustainability of global shipping?
In this episode, host Amelia Jabry is joined by Professor Adam Sobey (Mission Director for Sustainability at the Alan Turing Institute) and Senior Applied Scientist Dr. Przemyslaw (Slaw) Grudniewski from Theyr. Together, they explore the ‘evolution’ of shipping route optimisation - from early concepts proposed by Alan Turing to cutting-edge Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms.
Discover how these ‘survival of the fittest’ models are being used to navigate the complex world of charter party agreements, fuel efficiency, and autonomous vessels. They also dive into the environmental impact of rerouting, discussing how a 1% change in fuel consumption can protect vital megafauna like whales, and what the melting Arctic means for the future of global trade.

Chapter Markers
0:30 | Co-Host Introduction: Professor Adam Sobey
Introduction of Adam Sobey, Mission Director for Sustainability at the Alan Turing Institute and Professor at the University of Southampton.
1:20 | Guest Introduction: Dr. Przemyslaw (Slaw) Grudniewski
Introduction of Slava, Senior Applied Scientist atTheyr
The history of Adam and Slava’s collaboration, starting from Slava's PhD in 2015.
4:30 | The Path to Genetic Algorithms
Why the team focused on genetic algorithms, including the influence of a talk at the University of Bristol on co-evolution mechanisms.
5:00 | Why Shipping Matters: The Ever Given Incident
The significance of global trade by sea (80-90%) and the 2021 Suez Canal blockage by theEver Given.
6:20 | The Sustainability Imperative
Shipping currently accounts for 2-3% of world emissions, emphasizing the massive need for reduced costs and improved sustainability.
7:15 | Defining Genetic Algorithms
Explaining unsupervised learning algorithms based on "survival of the fittest" and evolutionary mechanics.
8:40 | Applying Evolutionary Principles to Route Optimisation
How routes are treated as individuals that create "offspring" through crossover and mutation.
10:20 | Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithms
"There is no one best route"—balancing conflicting goals like voyage time vs. fuel consumption.
Explaining why multi-objective approaches provide a set of optimal solutions rather than a single answer.
11:00 | Charter Party Agreements & Alternative Fuels
The complexity of "rental agreements" (charter parties) and the shift toward net-zero fuels like ammonia, hydrogen, and nuclear.
12:20 | The Rise of Fully Autonomous Vessels
Navigating the challenges of crewless ships and how they allow for real-time route adjustments.
13:30 | Sustainability Benefits of Autonomy
Removing crew-related weight can lead to estimated fuel reductions of around 20%.
14:40 | Safety and Regulation
The role of the Alan Turing Institute and Lloyd’s Register in developing standards and validation for autonomous systems.
16:15 | Risks: Cyber Threats and Bad Actors
Addressing piracy, cybersecurity risks, and the safety of alternative fuel sources.
18:00 | Why Genetic Algorithms Win
Comparing genetic algorithms against local search methods like A* and Dijkstra for complex, real-world problems.
19:00 | Top Performance: cMLSGA
ThecMLSGA (Convolutional Multi-Level Selection Genetic Algorithm) and its 7-8% improvement over other models.
This represents a saving of 50 to 380 tonnes of fuel per day for large vessels.
20:20 | History: From Alan Turing to Today
How the field traces back to Turing’s 1948 ideas of "child-like" intelligence that learns and evolves.
22:20 | Ants, Tribes, and Co-Evolution
Using the study of ant colonies and human tribal behaviour to understand collective fitness and reproduction.
23:50 | Scaling Solutions through Collectives
Applying the concept of "collectives" to solve large-scale optimisation problems through collaboration.
25:25 | Multi-Level Selection
How "groups of individuals" (collectives) can compete and work together to look at different objectives simultaneously.
26:20 | Collective vs. Convergence-Based Algorithms
Why maintaining diversity in a population is more effective than focusing on a single "perfect" solution too early.
Diversity provides better and more informed choices with the data at hand.
28:00 | Success Stories: TVOS and Whale Protection
TheTVOS (Theyr Voyage Optimisation Software) and its real-world impact.
The importance of protecting marine life and megafauna.
29:50 | Navigating the Environment
The difficulty of rerouting massive ships and the role of deep learning vs. genetic algorithms in icy environments.
32:50 | The Arctic and New Trade Routes
How melting sea ice is opening new routes and the resulting need for specialized "ice-class" vessels.
35:50 | Industry Adoption and Client Surprises
Overcoming the lack of maritime background to deliver results that surprise industry veterans.
38:30 | The Future: Power Prediction Models
What’s next for the field, including more advanced predictive modelling.
41:00 | Summary and the Power of Collaboration
A hopeful look at how the Alan Turing Institute acts as a convening power for sustainability research.
44 min
November 06, 2025 Navigating Change: AI in Arctic Sea Ice Forecasting
The Arctic is undergoing rapid changes due to climate change, making sea ice forecasting increasingly important. In this episode of the Turing Podcast, hosts Amelia Jabry and Dr. Sophie Arana discuss the critical role of AI models like IceNet in predicting sea ice conditions and aiding conservation efforts. Featuring Dr. Ellie Bowler from the British Antarctic Survey, the conversation dives into the technical details of IceNet, its applications for wildlife conservation, and the challenges of predicting sea ice dynamics. The discussion also covers the importance of these predictions for indigenous communities and wildlife that rely on the frozen Arctic landscape. Learn how AI is revolutionising our approach to these urgent environmental challenges.
Read more about our environmental forecasting work here: https://www.turing.ac.uk/blog/democratising-environmental-forecasting-age-ai
Explore IceNet: https://icenet.ai/
Find out more about Dr Ellie Bowler's publications: https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/eller/
Read more about Dr Sophie Arana here: https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/dr-sophie-arana

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Arctic Climate Change
00:39 Meet the your host Amelia and co-host Dr Sophie Arana
00:57 Understanding the Role of a Research Application Manager
01:47 Introduction to ICE Net
02:47 AI vs. Traditional Physics-based Forecasting Models
03:40 Human Expertise and AI Collaboration
04:56 Introducing Dr. Ellie Bowler and her sea ice and caribou migration forecasting research
06:21 Challenges in Sea Ice Forecasting
10:01 Caribou Migration and Conservation
12:30 Impact of Human Activities on Arctic Wildlife
16:38 Innovative Conservation Methods
23:25 Future of ICE Net and AI in Conservation
26:54 Conclusion and Further Resources
29 min
July 02, 2025The Cyber Cold War: How AI is Defending Our Critical National Infrastructure
New podcast - defending our critical national infrastructure.

Podcast host Amelia Jabry is joined by co-host and Turing Principal Research Scientist, Vasilios Mavroudis to explore how AI is reshaping both the defence and attack of vital systems like healthcare, energy and transport. With the help of special guest, Microsoft’s Director of Global AI & Cybersecurity Policy Nicholas Butts, they ask: how vulnerable are our power grids, water systems, and communications networks in the age of advanced AI? And what are organisations like the Alan Turing Institute and Microsoft are doing to protect these essential services?

Episode Notes
Please find below a list of resources and news articles that were mentioned in the podcast:
Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024
Glossary - AIRC
Staying ahead of threat actors in the age of AI | Microsoft Security Blog
https://www.thestack.technology/ai-agent-whisperer-liberates-llm-to-spout-filthy-cardy-b-lyrics/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0el31nqnpvo
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czx1qp64wrno
49 min
November 12, 2024 Defining AI safety
Ed and David chat with Professor Ibrahim Habli, Research Director at the Centre for Assuring Autonomy in the University of York, and director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Safe AI Systems. The conversation covers the topic of defining and contextualising AI safety and risk, given existence of existing safety practices from other industries. Ibrahim has collaborated with The Alan Turing Institute on the "Trustworthy and Ethical Assurance platform", or "TEA" for short, an open-source tool for developing and communicating structured assurance arguments to show how data science and AI tech adheres to ethical principles.
55 min
July 04, 2024 The cutting edge of emotional and cognitive neuroscience
On this episode, Bea and Jessie are joined by Becky Inkster and Mark Sheppard, co-founders of The Laß; a fusion of science, creativity and personal reflection.
Collaborating with famous musicians, dancers and members of the public, Becky and Mark use EEG brain activity technology to visualise poignant moments. They hope to offer both internal and external reflection opportunities to nurture personal growth and community bonds.
For more information visit -
https://www.beckyinkster.com/the-lab

Don't forget to explore our shorter AI news podcast - too long didn't read
46 min
May 03, 2024 AI for Cyber Defence (AICD) research centre
To what extent can a computer network be actively managed and defended by intelligent autonomous agents?
In this episode, Ed and Anneca talk to Vasilios Mavroudis and Chris Hicks explore this question and more.
Vas and Chris lead the Turing’s AI for Cyber Defence (AICD) research centre which seeks to fundamentally transform the way in which we secure digital systems through the development and application of cutting edge, deep-learning based approaches to intelligent agents.

Find more information about AICD here

Don't forget to explore our shorter AI in the news podcast - too long didn't read
47 min
April 16, 2024 Our AI Futures - Lord Chris Holmes and the AI Bill
On this episode of The Turing Podcast Bea and Anneca are joined by Lord Chris Holmes, Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer and an active member of the House of Lords with a policy focus on digital technology for public good.
Connect with Lord Holmes on Linked In

Explore our regular news AI news podcast, too long didn't read
34 min