The STAI CDT Annual Retreat 2024 took place over two days in July and was an opportunity to bring all 5 cohorts and aligned students together away from their normal environment for team building, workshops and tutorials. 52 of our students took part alongside the management team at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor.
The first day featured ‘Master the Task’, where students and staff mixed together in small teams to take on challenges inspired by the tv show ‘Taskmaster’. The challenges were fun and bizarre, and required communication and teamwork to get through them. All teams took on each other to try to become the overall winner – and an exciting rocket launch at the end helped decide this!
Our students were also central to activities on the first day as STAI CDT PhD students Peter Tisnikar and Lennart Wachowiak led a discussion on LLMs as Decision Makers and STAI CDT PhD students Mackenzie Jorgensen and Gabriele Le Malfa led a discussion on Identity, Privilege and Social Justice.
The second day was a chance to hear more from our students about their varied career experiences. Four STAI CDT students and alumni formed an informative panel:
- Madeleine Waller (2021 cohort) – Shared her recent experience of being part of the Turing Enrichment Scheme.
- Sophia Kalanovska (Alumni – 2019 cohort) – Shared her experience of finishing her PhD and starting her new company, Tromero.
- Sophia Worth (2023 cohort) – Shared her policy and research experience from her previous roles at the Open Data Institute.
- Ben Batten (2020 cohort) – Shared his experience of completing an internship at JP Morgan.
The students offered great insights from different sectors and experiences, and it was lovely to welcome back our STAI CDT alumni, Sophia, and hear more about her experience of her start-up. The panel also provided an opportunity for fellow students to ask questions and think about potential career options after their PhDs, as well as to reflect on opportunities they might want to gain through internships during their training.
Finally the retreat was finished with a thought-provoking ethics session run by Cumberland Lodge that asked staff and students to examine where ethics come from and question ethics related to AI.
The Annual Retreat was a great success and a sun and fun-filled couple of days with plenty of opportunities for collaboration, rest and learning. We look forward to next year’s retreat already!