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
The group explores the use of 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: Ongoing
Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) London
CUSP London is a collaboration between King’s College London and New York University, which brings together researchers, businesses, local authorities and government agencies, to apply data science and visual analytics to challenges in and for London.
Centre for Data Futures
Bringing together interdisciplinary experts to focus on participatory infrastructure throughout the life of data-reliant tools.
News
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...
Strand-Aldwych data springboard
An innovative data sharing initiative with Westminster City Council.
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
King's investigates the use of quantitative modelling to predict innovation programme success
A team of researchers from the Department of Informatics have been exploring how quantitative modelling and machine learning techniques can be used to predict...
The ACTION Final Conference
The future of citizen science: two days of networking and sharing
Boost for citizen science
Welcoming Impetus for citizen science
Professor of Computer Science Elena Simperl named in top 100 most influential Artificial Intelligence researchers
Elena Simperl, Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Informatics, has been recognised by ArnetMiner (AMiner) as one of the most influential AI...
Events
Informatics Research Showcase 2024: Discover how to innovate with us
A showcase of the computational and interdisciplinary research carried out in King's College London's Department of Informatics.
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
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
The group explores the use of 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: Ongoing
Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) London
CUSP London is a collaboration between King’s College London and New York University, which brings together researchers, businesses, local authorities and government agencies, to apply data science and visual analytics to challenges in and for London.
Centre for Data Futures
Bringing together interdisciplinary experts to focus on participatory infrastructure throughout the life of data-reliant tools.
News
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...
Strand-Aldwych data springboard
An innovative data sharing initiative with Westminster City Council.
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
King's investigates the use of quantitative modelling to predict innovation programme success
A team of researchers from the Department of Informatics have been exploring how quantitative modelling and machine learning techniques can be used to predict...
The ACTION Final Conference
The future of citizen science: two days of networking and sharing
Boost for citizen science
Welcoming Impetus for citizen science
Professor of Computer Science Elena Simperl named in top 100 most influential Artificial Intelligence researchers
Elena Simperl, Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Informatics, has been recognised by ArnetMiner (AMiner) as one of the most influential AI...
Events
Informatics Research Showcase 2024: Discover how to innovate with us
A showcase of the computational and interdisciplinary research carried out in King's College London's Department of Informatics.
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
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