Professor Elena Simperl
Professor of Computer Science
Research interests
- Computer science
Biography
Elena Simperl is a Professor of Computer Science at King's College London. She is also the Deputy Head of the Department of Informatics, and the department's Enterprise and Engagement lead for the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences. In March 2023 she was appointed Director of Research for the Open Data Institute (ODI) where she will lead on the Institute’s research strategy. She is also a Fellow of the British Computer Society and features in the top 100 most influential scholars in knowledge engineering of the last decade.
Professor Elena Simperl obtained her doctoral degree in Computer Science from the Free University of Berlin, and her diploma in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich. Prior to joining King’s in 2020, she was a former Turing Fellow, and held positions in Germany, Austria and at the University of Southampton.
Her research is at intersection between AI and social computing, helping designers understand how to build smart sociotechnical systems that combine data and algorithms with human and social capabilities. Professor Simperl has been involved in forty European and national research projects, including more recently QROWD, ODINE, Data Pitch, Data Stories, and ACTION.
She is currently the scientific and technical director of MediaFutures, a Horizon 2020 programme that is using arts-inspired methods to design participatory AI systems that tackle misinformation and disinformation online.
Elena’s interest in leading initiatives within the scientific community has also taken form through chairing several conferences in her field, including the European and International Semantic Web Conference series, the European Data Forum, and the European Semantic Technologies conference. She is the president of the Semantic Web Science Association.
Research interests
- Knowledge graphs
- Knowledge engineering
- Semantic technologies
- Human and social computation
- Crowdsourcing
- Open data
- Human data interaction
- Data storytelling
- Human-centric AI
Public engagement
- Computerphile - Knowledge Graphs
Further information
Research
Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Understanding AI in social and economic contexts where an intelligent entity may be interacting with other entities
Data Springboard
An innovative data sharing initiative focusing on the Strand-Aldwych redevelopment.
Project status: Completed
Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) London
Supporting interdisciplinary research and innovation in and for London
Centre for Data Futures
Bringing together interdisciplinary experts to focus on participatory infrastructure throughout the life of data-reliant tools.
Arts & Creativity Hub
The Arts & Creativity Hub is composed of researchers interested in applying Informatics research to creative domains such as art, music, games, storytelling and theatre
KingsCAT: Capture and Analysis Tool for Social Media Research at King’s College London
KingsCAT is an instance of the open source 4CAT: Capture and Analysis Toolkit set up to support interdisciplinary and collaborative social media research.
Project status: Ongoing
News
King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence appoints new co-Directors
Professor Sir Bashir M. Al-Hashimi and Professor Elena Simperl will start in June 2025
King's scientists' plans for AI-ready National Data Library could turbocharge economy
A new paper outlines the framework necessary to help “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK economy safely and responsibly.
King's scientist joins prestigious AI Advisory Group
Professor Elena Simperl joins leaders from business, academia and the third sector in OpenUK’s advisory board to report and research on the technology.
King's part of major project to empower regulators and end-users to make AI safer
The project is the first of its kind to give people without a technical background the tools to audit AI systems
Siemens funds Kings Computer Scientist to develop more trustworthy and reliable AI
Elena Simperl has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to help create AI technology in line with evolving regulation.
King's hackathon explores solutions to making generative AI more trustworthy and accurate
The hackathon brought together researchers and practitioners with an interest in using the latest advances in pre-trained language models (PLMs) and...
Boost for citizen science
Welcoming Impetus for citizen science
Strand-Aldwych data springboard
An innovative data sharing initiative with Westminster City Council.
The ACTION Final Conference
The future of citizen science: two days of networking and sharing
Impact story: crowdsourcing tool for matching company data
Most governments across the world run programmes that aim to provide microenterprises and SMEs with better opportunities to compete with big business
Events
The UK National Data Library Symposium: Supporting Science and Innovation for Public Benefit
We will discuss the transformative role of data in research, policymaking, and innovation.
Informatics Research Showcase 2024
The 2024 Informatics Research Showcase provided a unique opportunity to meet with King’s academics and Informatics students.
Please note: this event has passed.
Fostering responsible AI with MLCommons
Professor Elena Simperl deep dives into Croissant, a metadata format to standardise machine learning datasets and improve the quality of future AI.
Please note: this event has passed.
Informatics Inaugural Lecture: Professors Carmine Ventre and Elena Simperl
Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
Meet: Professor Elena Simperl
Meet: Professor Elena Simperl
King's students work with Amazon Web Services to create community change
The students showcased their digital solutions to solving some of London’s most pressing problems at an event in the spring
King's part of global cross-sector initiative to standardise machine learning datasets
Industry support from technology giants like Google and Hugging Face makes datasets easily discoverable and usable to AI model makers.
2024 will be the year of democracy - or disinformation
RESHAM KOTECHA & PROFESSOR ELENA SIMPERL explore how AI might shape or harm democracies in this year of elections.
"I don't know why we weren't thinking of this sooner": King's students tackle community issues with Amazon Web Services
Informatics students partnered with public sector organisations to solve real-world issues with digital solutions
Improving the world's data commons
Investigating the provenance of Wikidata facts across languages at scale
Research
Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Understanding AI in social and economic contexts where an intelligent entity may be interacting with other entities
Data Springboard
An innovative data sharing initiative focusing on the Strand-Aldwych redevelopment.
Project status: Completed
Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) London
Supporting interdisciplinary research and innovation in and for London
Centre for Data Futures
Bringing together interdisciplinary experts to focus on participatory infrastructure throughout the life of data-reliant tools.
Arts & Creativity Hub
The Arts & Creativity Hub is composed of researchers interested in applying Informatics research to creative domains such as art, music, games, storytelling and theatre
KingsCAT: Capture and Analysis Tool for Social Media Research at King’s College London
KingsCAT is an instance of the open source 4CAT: Capture and Analysis Toolkit set up to support interdisciplinary and collaborative social media research.
Project status: Ongoing
News
King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence appoints new co-Directors
Professor Sir Bashir M. Al-Hashimi and Professor Elena Simperl will start in June 2025
King's scientists' plans for AI-ready National Data Library could turbocharge economy
A new paper outlines the framework necessary to help “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK economy safely and responsibly.
King's scientist joins prestigious AI Advisory Group
Professor Elena Simperl joins leaders from business, academia and the third sector in OpenUK’s advisory board to report and research on the technology.
King's part of major project to empower regulators and end-users to make AI safer
The project is the first of its kind to give people without a technical background the tools to audit AI systems
Siemens funds Kings Computer Scientist to develop more trustworthy and reliable AI
Elena Simperl has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to help create AI technology in line with evolving regulation.
King's hackathon explores solutions to making generative AI more trustworthy and accurate
The hackathon brought together researchers and practitioners with an interest in using the latest advances in pre-trained language models (PLMs) and...
Boost for citizen science
Welcoming Impetus for citizen science
Strand-Aldwych data springboard
An innovative data sharing initiative with Westminster City Council.
The ACTION Final Conference
The future of citizen science: two days of networking and sharing
Impact story: crowdsourcing tool for matching company data
Most governments across the world run programmes that aim to provide microenterprises and SMEs with better opportunities to compete with big business
Events
The UK National Data Library Symposium: Supporting Science and Innovation for Public Benefit
We will discuss the transformative role of data in research, policymaking, and innovation.
Informatics Research Showcase 2024
The 2024 Informatics Research Showcase provided a unique opportunity to meet with King’s academics and Informatics students.
Please note: this event has passed.
Fostering responsible AI with MLCommons
Professor Elena Simperl deep dives into Croissant, a metadata format to standardise machine learning datasets and improve the quality of future AI.
Please note: this event has passed.
Informatics Inaugural Lecture: Professors Carmine Ventre and Elena Simperl
Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
Meet: Professor Elena Simperl
Meet: Professor Elena Simperl
King's students work with Amazon Web Services to create community change
The students showcased their digital solutions to solving some of London’s most pressing problems at an event in the spring
King's part of global cross-sector initiative to standardise machine learning datasets
Industry support from technology giants like Google and Hugging Face makes datasets easily discoverable and usable to AI model makers.
2024 will be the year of democracy - or disinformation
RESHAM KOTECHA & PROFESSOR ELENA SIMPERL explore how AI might shape or harm democracies in this year of elections.
"I don't know why we weren't thinking of this sooner": King's students tackle community issues with Amazon Web Services
Informatics students partnered with public sector organisations to solve real-world issues with digital solutions
Improving the world's data commons
Investigating the provenance of Wikidata facts across languages at scale