Oxfordshire

Professor Daniel Wilson, MA, DPhil
Professor of Infectious Disease Genomics

Artificial intelligence promises to transform medicine, but in the fight against infection, being able to predict something is not the same as understanding it. In this talk, Danny Wilson shows how machine learning and traditional statistics each help “genome detectives” read bacterial DNA: tracing food poisoning back to its source, uncovering why bugs we carry harmlessly sometimes turn deadly, and predicting which antibiotics will still work. Along the way he asks what AI can and can’t tell us, why the best predictions aren’t always the best answers, and why there is cause for hope against bacterial infections that claim millions of lives each year.

Danny Wilson is Professor of Infectious Disease Genomics at the University of Oxford. He is Director of Studies in Data Science at Oxford Lifelong Learning, based at Rewley House, and a Fellow of St Cross College. He leads a research group at the Big Data Institute, part of Oxford Population Health, where his research combines data science, statistics and genomics to understand where bacterial infections come from, why they cause disease, who is most at risk, and how resistance to antibiotics arises. He works with the Modernising Medical Microbiology and leads Bugbank, a project linking microbiology data to UK Biobank and Our Future Health.

Agenda

18:30 – In person Reception
19:00 – Branch Announcements and Special Guests
19:30 – Christmas Lecture

BCS Oxfordshire hosted its Summer Social and Networking Event on Wednesday 10 June at Rewley House, Oxford. It was a relaxed and friendly evening, bringing together BCS members, local IT professionals, committee members and guests from the wider Oxfordshire technology community.

Around 20 to 25 people attended, creating a welcoming atmosphere with plenty of opportunity for informal conversation and networking. The evening was a chance to meet new people, catch up with familiar faces and share more about the branch’s plans for the year ahead.

One of the highlights was hearing about Getting Oxfordshire Online, a local initiative supporting digital inclusion across the county. It was a great reminder of the positive role technology can play in helping people connect, access opportunities and take part in the digital world.

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the evening such an enjoyable one. We look forward to welcoming both familiar and new faces at future BCS Oxfordshire events.