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The inaugural CfAA Symposium is a celebration, showcase and collaborative event which brings together leading experts from academia and industry who are committed to advancing safe autonomy and AI. Taking place across three days at both the Institute for Safe Autonomy and the Malmaison in central York, the Symposium features our BIG Argument, AMLAS, and SACE as well as insightful panel discussions around safety cases for AGI, the expansion of harms and the engineering challenges around safe AI.

Symposium Agenda*

Day 1 (optional) - Institute for Safe Autonomy, University of York, Tuesday 23rd September

Morning session: 09:30am - 12:45pm, Afternoon session: 13:45pm - 17:00pm, catering included

Join our 1-day tutorial workshop, taking place immediately before the Symposium. The day will focus on how safety engineering principles can be applied to complex, autonomous and AI-based systems and will be led by York's highly experienced team of educators. Attendees will gain a deeper knowledge of the processes around understanding risks of autonomous and AI based systems and how to balance this whilst exploiting their massive potential for positive impact in our daily lives. Prior experience in safety engineering or AI is not required.

The content presented in this workshop is directly derived from our sought-after portfolio of continuous professional development (CPD) modules. The CfAA team will be on hand afterwards to discuss bespoke CPD needs, answer your questions, and discuss current best practice. 

The topics covered in the sessions will include: 

• Core concepts such as risk, assurance arguments and safety analysis and why these arguments apply to the latest generation of AI-based autonomy
• An introduction to our guidance suite featuring the BIG Argument, SACE, AMLAS and PRAISE
• An overview of the current regulatory and standards landscape in a number of key sectors including automotive, healthcare, and maritime
• How AI safety standards are currently being developed

Places are limited to 40 participants

Cost: £180

Day 2 - Malmaison, York City Centre, Wednesday 24th September

Morning session:

09:00am - 09:30am Symposium opening address from Centre Director, Professor John McDermid, OBE, FREng

09:30am - 12 noon (with break) CfAA Spotlight SACE: Assuring Autonomous Systems in the Real World

Dr Richard Hawkins is joined by Andrew White, Superintending Nuclear Inspector from the Office for Nuclear Regulation and industry safety specialists from the maritime sector to discuss how our SACE guidance is being applied in industry real-world scenarios. More details to follow. 

12:00 noon - 13:30 Poster session and networking lunch

Curious about our recent and upcoming research? In this extended lunch session, we will be showcasing how broad and diverse the projects can be at the Centre. Led by Senior Researcher, Dr Victoria Hodge, attendees will network with our team of researchers and walk through our interactive poster presentation to gain a deeper understanding of our work on safe AI and autonomous systems across sectors like, health and social care, automotive, and energy and how the CfAA can support and address emerging industry challenges. 

Afternoon session:

13:30pm - 14:45pm Industry challenges - the CfAA Fellows' view

Our Fellowships play a critical role in ensuring that our research concepts and industry guidance are fit for purpose and that we really understand and address the issues affecting industry. In this session led by Dr Philippa Ryan, Lloyd’s Register Foundation Senior Research Fellow (Safety of Autonomy and AI), our current Fellows explore the key challenges in their own sectors and how we build better bridges between industry and academia to encourage the adoption of safe AI practices. 

14:45pm - 16:30pm CfAA Spotlight: AMLAS - Assuring ML as part of autonomous systems

Dr Colin Paterson is joined by Dr Markus Borg, CodeScene and Jonathan Thurwell, Principle AI policy lead at Ofgem to look at the evolution of AMLAS, from idea to practical solution, and its growing adoption across multiple sectors. More details to be announced. 

16:30pm - 17:15pm Panel discussion: Safe AI - a safety engineering challenge 

Chaired by Professor John McDermid OBE FREng, panel speakers tbc

Evening session:

19:00 Symposium dinner to be held at the Merchant Adventurers' Hall in central York

Day 3 - Malmaison, York City Centre, Thursday 25th September

Morning session:

09:00am - 11:15am CfAA Spotlight: The BIG Argument - how to assure a system which includes AI?

Led by Professor Ibrahim Habli, one of the authors of the BIG Argument this session offers a deep dive into our BIG research. Hear from industry partners, Odd Ivar Haugen, Principal Researcher at DNV Group Research and Development, Dr Ernest Lim, Director of Science at Ufonia, and CfAA Research Associate Dr Kate Preston, on how BIG is already being applied in real-world scenarios and its future potential to solve one of the biggest challenges around AI safety.   

11:15am - 12:30pm The Human in Human-AI Teaming: whose voices are missing?

Researcher Dr Nathan Hughes is joined by Dr Holly Sutherland, Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge and guests to be confirmed. Session details coming soon! 

12:30pm - 13:00pm Lunch

Afternoon session:

13:00pm -14:00 pm Panel session: Extending harms in the context of AI Safety

Chaired by Dr Laura Fearnley, Research Associate in Safe and Ethical AI, this session explores AI safety specifically in the context of expanding harms as the technology develops. The panelists will explore the harms generated by AI systems, especially those that are overlooked, poorly understood, or difficult to measure. From social and psychological impacts to systemic and technical failures, we’ll ask which of these harms should be considered relevant from a safety perspective, and how our current frameworks might need to adapt. Panelists will bring a range of disciplinary insights to help identify emerging risks and challenge assumptions about what it means to keep AI systems safe.

Speakers: 

• Professor Magda Osman, University of Cambridge and Leeds Business School
• Dr Jenn Chubb, University of York
• Assistant Professor Roel Dobbe - Technology, Policy & Management at Delft University of Technology

14:00pm - 14:30pm Closing remarks from Professor John McDermid OBE FREng

Symposium ends

 

Additional information:

Full catering is provided on all three days. 

Location:

University of York, Institute for Safe Autonomy, Deramore Lane, York YO10 5FT
Malmaison, 2 Rougier Street, York, YO90 1UU

 

*Please note some timings on the agenda may be subject to change.

 

 

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