Masterclass on Applying AI to Improve Project Delivery: Myths and Realities

We have all heard the narrative that using Artificial Intelligence in project and programme delivery will improve performance beyond our wildest dreams. We are told that AI will use our data to yield insights into our projects and programmes that were previously inconceivable. And we are told that we can accrue these benefits immediately – all the technology we need is already available.

Are these perspectives realities or dangerous myths?

This masterclass uses the expertise of decades of experience in The Leeds Centre for Projects and Oakland in using data in projects. It combines this expertise with cutting-edge technologies to help attendees negotiate their way through applying AI to their own projects and programmes. It looks at what needs to happen with generative AI to make unstructured data, like ‘lessons-learnt’ logs, reveal sensible and actionable findings. It examines the poor state of current project data and how pipelines can be created to improve data quality so that AI techniques like machine learning can be applied using real cost and schedule predictions. It also reminds us of the issues that we have always known but have allowed ourselves to forget: that project performance is as much about tacit experience as it is about explicit and codified rules and knowledge.

Prof Naomi Brookes is an inspirational communicator with a global reputation for her work on the cross-sectoral comparisons of the performance of large and complex projects and programmes. She began her working life in the aerospace industry and completed her PhD with Imperial college whilst working full time on complex project delivery with Rolls-Royce. She moved from industry into academia and has taken up roles in both business and engineering faculties whilst still maintaining very strong links with practice. She has been the executive director of the Centre for Project Management Practice in Aston Business School, the European Construction Institute whilst at Loughborough University and was responsible for creating the Project Praxis centre at the University of Warwick.

She has received invitations to disseminate her research findings internationally to organisations such as the World Economic Forum, the European Investment Bank and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. She has also undertaken collaborative research with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, the National Audit Office and the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency.

Her recent research projects have looked at using data analytics in complex project delivery. She has collaborated with organisations such as Network Rail, Severn Trent and the Department for Education and has received funding from the Turing Institute amongst others.

Andy Crossley is the Chief Technology Officer at The Oakland Group. He is an experienced consultant who focuses on helping organisations get more from their data and information. Helping to spot data quality problems, opportunities to better exploit information or design the capabilities to enable digital transformation.
He focuses on business improvement, leading complex change programmes and technology change that helps managers understand, develop and use information systems to drive improvement. Andy advises clients on how best to use data and analytics to improve efficiency, costs and the customer experience. He works in highly regulated industries where data and information is often not understood as a key business asset, and markets where organisations rely on a lot of complex data to make real time decisions, to help clients focus on what is important and capture the data that can make a real difference to performance.

Yixue Shen is a Lecturer in Project Management at the Leeds Centre for Project. Her research focuses on digital transformation in project management, project data analytics, and the adoption of machine learning to improve project delivery. Her PhD specifically focuses on applying data analytics and machine learning techniques to predict cost and duration performance in construction projects. She is an active member of APM, PMI and IPMA. She has collaborated with organisations such as Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Severn Trent and the Department for Education on AI-related research projects. Her work has been recognised and granted by the Alan Turing Institute.

The masterclass will be relevant to all who have the responsibility for project and programme delivery.

18:00-18:30 Arrival and networking
18:30-19:30 Masterclass incl. Q&A
19:30-20:00 Networking and close

This masterclass is sponsored by . The Oakland Group is a full stack analytics, process and governance company who offers a range services from data strategy to data governance, data platform build to implementing data analytics and artificial intelligence. We are grateful to The Oakland Group for supporting this event and for the continued collaboration.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Woodhouse, United Kingdom