MRes AI and Machine Learning

The MRes AI and Machine Learning is a one-year postgraduate degree, designed for graduates who want to become artificial intelligence researchers and innovators.  If you are enthusiastic to learn to develop novel and innovative AI for a custom problem, then this programme is for you.

With artificial intelligence increasingly embedded in many areas of business, scientific practice, and public life, people are needed who combine theoretical grounding in AI with the ability to imagine, lead, and deliver research and development projects at the cutting edge of AI and machine learning.  The MRes AI and Machine Learning gives you the opportunity to gain these skills.

MRes award holders would be able to, for example:

• Apply broad knowledge of state-of-the-art AI and machine learning to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of a range of research and innovation approaches. 

• Apply the principles of fairness in machine-learning algorithms, implement methods for explainable AI, discuss the impact of modern AI on ethics, and consider the alignment of machine learning models.

• Create software for advanced AI and machine learning using appropriate computing languages (e.g., Python) and frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, Tensorflow). 
• Identify key advances, uncertainties and opportunities in AI methods and the evidence on organisational, business and human factors for applications.

Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computing

The Department of Computing at Imperial College London has active research groups in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Visual Computing. Many other groups and members of our research staff also work on theory, methods and applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and there are many collaborations with other departments at Imperial, as well as with industry.

We also house dedicated research centres, including the Dyson Robotics Lab, the Data Science Institute, the Centre for Integrative Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, the Hamlyn Centre for Medical Image Computing and Robotics, and more. Also, see the Imperial AI network for coordinated AI activity and collaboration throughout the college.

Graduates of the department with a focus on AI have gone on to work in the AI sections of such leading companies as DeepMind, Facebook, Google, and Twitter; many also progress to PhD research at Imperial and elsewhere. A graduate of the department recently had an AI company he co-founded valued at $1 billion, and two other graduates sold their AI startup to Twitter for $150 million.

Throughout the year, leading companies visit the department to give presentations on the Applications of Computing in Industry.  Many of these are on AI, and are a great opportunity to learn about the relevance and application of what you are studying, and speak directly with people working on industrial applications.  We also have dedicated extracurricular tutorials on Machine Learning from guest lecturers, and a seminar series on Applications of AI which has included talks on subjects ranging from state-of-the combinations of machine learning with symbolic AI, to the ethical implications of using AI to extend human cognition.

Degree structure

The MRes is a one-year, full-time degree.  It is designed to provide concentrated training in AI, in the form of a degree-long, supervised research project that will result in developing exceptional analytical skills and a broad range of competences.  The MRes also includes taught-module lectures and assessments in the first and second terms.  These supplement your work on the project by providing training in essential research skills, the ethical and safety context of current AI systems, and technical material of relevance to your project.

Project

The degree is built around one large research project, which runs from the first term through to the end of the degree in the following September.  The large scale of this project lets you learn a wealth of knowledge and skills needed to bring AI/ML ideas into practice. 

Students on the MRes work on a wide range of AI topics, and benefit from the interdisciplinary, cross-departmental nature of project supervision for the MRes.  This offers the opportunity to work at the leading edge of many areas of AI, with academics from around Imperial conducting research into AI applications in domains such as health, business and finance, communications, and energy or product supply systems.

The research project is assigned in the first term of the academic year, and you then work with a single main supervisor, possibly supported by other experts where necessary or industrial collaborators, for the duration of the degree.

Taught modules

Students on the MRes AI and Machine Learning take the following compulsory modules:

• Simulated Research and Development Project Proposal
• Research Tutorial
• Ethics, Fairness, and Explanation in AI

Further, students pick one of the following optional modules (these may vary slightly from year-to-year, subject to availability):

• Deep Learning
• Python Programming
• Natural Language Processing
• Reinforcement Learning
• Quantum Computing
• Machine Learning for Imaging
• Mathematics for Machine Learning
• Robot Learning
• Robotics
• Computer Vision
• Statistical Information Processing
• Deep Graph-Based Learning
• Computational Neurodynamics
• Introduction to Symbolic AI
• Modal Logic for Strategic Reasoning

Applying and entry requirements

Applications for entry in October 2025 are now open, and will close no later than July 31, 2025.  However, we do reserve the right to close applications sooner.

Applicants for this degree must possess a first-class degree, or accepted international equivalent, in: computer science, mathematics, physics, or branches of engineering, economics or other disciplines with a substantial mathematics content.  It is recommended to have a grounding in linear algebra, calculus, probability, and statistics.  It is not necessary to have studied computer science previously.

English language requirements apply to applications for the MRes.

Scholarships for degrees in the department can be searched for using the Imperial Scholarships Search Tool.

You can apply for the MRes AI and Machine learning here.  As part of your application, you will be asked to write a research statement  (1-page maximum, excluding references) describing a hypothetical, one-year research project; this will contribute to enabling us to evaluate your research potential.  Please note that the content of this hypothetical proposal does not correspond to the project you will do if admitted to the MRes—it is for the purpose of admissions assessment only.

Please note that international applicants may need to apply for ATAS for this degree.