The next Machine Learning Academy cohort starts Monday 17th April 2023.

Applications close Friday 24th March.

The Machine Learning Academy is a free programme designed to introduce founders, entrepreneurs and startup employees who don’t come from a technical background to the basics of machine learning. The programme aims to help you understand how you can incorporate machine learning successfully into your company. All sessions take place in person at IDEALondon, with free pizza and networking afterwards.

The course is primarily taught by Dr Alastair Moore who teaches Predictive Analytics at UCL and is Head of Analytics and Machine Learning at Mishcon de Reya. Guest presenters include companies currently using cutting edge ML applications who will explain practical examples of how it is currently being applied, potential future applications, and what is theoretically possible with this technology, providing participants with a real world context for the academics they’re taught.

The course will delve into the major techniques and technologies under the umbrella of artificial intelligence. We will walk you through the main types of machine learning (namely supervised and unsupervised learning), as well as neural networks and deep learning models.

By the end of the course, you will have a solid understanding of the business use cases of main algorithms under each type as well as key concepts of model training and optimisation strategies in developing a machine learning pipeline.

Once we’ve covered the basics and attendees have grasped an initial understanding of what machine learning is and how it functions, we will move on to how to actually apply ML in your own business. We will prepare you to think about transforming a business to adopt the power of artificial intelligence, or as an entrepreneur, how to launch an AI-driven business. During lectures, you will gain hands-on experience from heads or senior managers of data science and analytics on how to develop AI strategy, build and manage an in-house AI team, provide broad AI training, and more.

The programme is extremely popular: previous cohorts have usually received 200+ applications! The programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and free to start-ups and scale-ups who meet the ERDF SME criteria. Attendees will be selected based on those who genuinely wish to apply ML in their business. We limit places to a maximum of two people per company in order to ensure a diverse crowd and to enable us to provide this course to the maximum amount of people. We suggest you therefore apply as a company, and specify in your application how many places you are applying for. 

We strongly discourage applicants who cannot commit to all of the sessions. If you attend the course and cannot complete the required minimum number of sessions, we cannot provide you with a certificate of attendance. 

To apply for a place, you must meet the following requirements:

• Your company must be an SME registered on Companies House with a London address OR an SME that has proof of trading in London.
• Your company must be an SME employing fewer than 250 people, with an annual turnover below €50m, and a balance sheet below €43m.
• We cannot accept your application if anyone from your company attended the previous MLA