This year 2025 will once again see innovation at the centre of business trends. Our undergraduate and postgraduate students will continue to address real-world problems through research and innovation and showcase these at the Innovation Fest from 13 - 23 May 2025. This is a unique event that celebrates the creative talents of innovators from around the world, fosters entrepreneurship and helps to develop the skills needed to be a future global change-maker.
In terms of business support 2025 offers opportunities for businesses to grow their leadership and workforce. With two part-funded skills bootcamps, focused on understanding climate literacy and developing your business leadership in the face of digital transformation, this is a good year for professionals to develop their skills.
Finding recruitment challenging in a difficult job market? Birmingham City University Business School are offering support at their breakfast networking event, showing how graduate talent can help fill skills gaps and drive future business growth. BCU is also planning a new series of built environment/construction CPD breakfast briefings to run from our new Centre for Future Homes - watch this space for more details.
The Innovation Fest in May 2025 builds on the success last year of our BCU AI Symposium 2024, held over two inspiring days from 16–17 December. This was a significant event that highlighted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence while fostering collaboration between academia and industry. The symposium served as a hub for innovative ideas, engaging discussions, and cutting-edge advancements, marking a significant milestone in the field of AI.
The symposium featured five main events:
- Co-organized with Hassan II University, Morocco.
- Featured talks from industry leaders.
- Highlighted innovative AI projects from BCU researchers and industry partners.
- Offered participants an opportunity to solve real-world challenges creatively.
- Conducted by experts from Coventry University, Amazon, Microsoft and Ofsted.
The event drew a total of 115 attendees, with 70 participating in-person and 45 joining online. It featured 12 keynote speakers, including Prof. Akram Alomainy (Queen Mary University of London), Prof. Mohamed Gaber (Birmingham City University), Prof. David Brown (Nottingham Trent University) and Associate Professor Syed Aziz Shah (Coventry University). Complementing these were impactful industry talks by industry leads and experts, including Stuart Okin (Ofgem), Paul Hingley (Siemens), Martin Esugo (BCU), Luke White (Ofsted), Chris Dye (Amazon), and Stephen Chege (Microsoft), who shared insights on real-world AI applications.
The event was a major highlight, attracting 91 submissions from authors across 20 countries. Of these, 46 papers were accepted, including 12 from BCU, that were presented in 6 parallel sessions.