Our Judges

Each Manchester Prize has a Judging Panel comprised of leading experts across artificial intelligence and the thematic area of the prize. These experts, supported by a cohort of expert assessors oversee the judging process, evaluating entries based on set judging criteria to determine the finalists and grand prize winners for each prize.

Meet the Judges for the First Manchester Prize

The First Manchester Prize awards the most innovative and impactful AI solution which demonstrates social benefit by overcoming challenges in the fields of energy, environment and infrastructure. The Prize’s Judging Panel comprises eight UK leading experts representing a number of areas of expertise including; disaster response, climate change mitigation and adaptation, societal change, decarbonisation of systems, exponential technologies, and more.

Nick Jennings (Chair)

Nick Jennings is an internationally-recognised authority in the areas of AI, autonomous systems, cyber-security and agent-based computing. In particular, he is interested in how to endow individual autonomous agents with the ability to act and interact in flexible ways and with effectively engineering systems that contain both humans and software agents.

Dr Hayaatun Sillem

Dr Hayaatun Sillem is CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation. She co-chairs with the Science Minister the government’s Business Innovation Forum and co-chaired with Sir Lewis Hamilton his Commission on improving Black representation in motorsport.

Azeem Azhar

Azeem Azhar is the founder of Exponential View, a research group exploring the impact of AI and other radical technologies on our economies. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School. He also co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future’s Council on Complex Risks.

Dr David Smith

Dr David Smith is the National Technology Adviser, and advises the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the best approach to building and enhancing the UK’s technology strengths. Dr Smith will work across government to champion the science and tech industries and build networks across industry and academia to draw the best minds into policymaking.

Professor Emily Shuckburgh

Professor Emily Shuckburgh is Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge’s major climate change initiative. She is also Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology.

Professor Larissa Suzuki

Professor Larissa Suzuki is a Visiting Researcher at NASA, and an Honorary Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at UCL, founding the UCL Society of Women Engineers. Larissa is an expert in AI Ethics and has worked to engineer AI and Machine learning solutions across space science, healthcare, finance and smart cities.

Samik Chandarana

Samik is the Head of J.P. Morgan’s Digital Banking Group and is responsible for driving the digital agenda across Banking, optimizing the use of technology platforms, ensuring operational excellence, and leveraging data science and AI to better anticipate and serve clients’ needs.

Tabitha Goldstaub (MBE)

Tabitha is an advisor to government, academia, philanthropy and business on all things AI and author of How To Talk To Robots – A Girlsguide to a World Dominated by AI. She is currently Exec Director of Innovate Cambridge, a public private partnership driving the Innovation Strategy in The Greater Cambridge Region.

Through my career in artificial intelligence, I’ve seen its immense potential to transform the world for the better. In the next few years, we will undoubtedly see fascinating and impactful applications of AI that will have a profound impact on our lives, society and the planet. That’s why I’m delighted to joina the Manchester Prize as chair of judges. I look forward to seeing the creativity this new annual prize stimulates, rewarding UK-led AI innovations that work for public good. But I also hope it fosters wide discussion and diverse thinking about this emerging field of technology. Science and technology are at their best when multiple perspectives and ideas come together. Encouraging that innovation and collaboration is the aim of the Manchester Prize, and I can’t wait to see who enters.

Nick Jennings, Chair of the Manchester Prize Judging Panel

Assessment partners

We work with topic experts to assess entries to the prize and to provide our judging panels with a high-quality portfolio of submissions for consideration.

For the first Manchester Prize, we partnered with a cohort of academics from Manchester University and Imperial College London.