18:30 Wed 1 Oct 2025, BCS London & online: From Transformers to Tomorrow - Five Years of Deep Learning and What’s Next

[Immo Hüneke]

BCS Software Practice Advancement specialist group
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SPA-405: From Transformers to Tomorrow - Five Years of Deep Learning and What’s Next 
Speaker: Sylvain Viguier, Graphcore
When: Wednesday 1st October 2025, 18:30 - 20:00 BST
Where: BCS London, 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP and also online 
Price: Free
Booking Link: https://1October2025SPA.eventbrite.co.uk

Your confirmation email will provide the next step to enable you to access the webinar. 48 hours and 1 hour prior to the event reminder emails will be sent to those registered, with the non-transferable URL needed to gain access. The session will be recorded. If you do not wish to feature in the recording, please keep your microphone muted.

AGENDA

* 6:00pm - networking in BCS London over refreshments
* 6:30pm - presentation begins, leading to an "ask me anything" open discussion
* 8:00pm - networking in BCS London (pizza & refreshments)
* 8:45pm at the latest: everyone off the premises - adjourn to The Old Doctor Butler's Head to continue discussion if desired

SYNOPSIS

Over the past five years, deep learning has been transformed from breakthrough models to systems that shape industry, science, and society.

In this session, Sylvain Viguier, Director of AI at Graphcore, will guide us through the key milestones - from the rise of transformers and generative models to advances in scaling, efficiency, and deployment. The talk will also explore the challenges ahead: compute limits, environmental impact, alignment, governance and the future of AI hardware and software.

Following a 30-minute presentation, we will open the floor for an interactive debate, inviting participants to discuss where deep learning is heading next. Time permitting, the session will include a demonstration of coding with AI.

Notify the presenter in advance if you have a burning question to which you would like an in-depth answer: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/h5r68gBsN4

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Sylvain Viguier is Director of AI at Graphcore, where he leads a team of machine learning engineers developing large-scale AI applications and advancing hardware-software co-design.

With over a decade of experience spanning Qualcomm, Entia, Zühlke and UCL, he has built expertise at the intersection of research, product strategy, and engineering. Sylvain has contributed to open-source AI projects such as Hugging Face’s BLOOM and co-authored work on the environmental impact of large models.

Passionate about empowering people and driving innovation, he blends technical depth with a commitment to responsible AI and impactful real-world applications.

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BCS SPA Home Page - http://bcs-spa.org/

Meetings Schedules
London - http://bcs-spa.org/index.php?page=london-meeting-programme
Cambridge - see http://http://softwareast.ning.com/events

Presentation materials from previous talks are available from the BCS SPA resources site: http://bcs-spa.org/resources.html
Also see YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKBhokJ0qd3_wlvr0j85YhmNfNj8ZJ8M-
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SPA London Meetings Programme Organiser - Immo Huneke, Zuhlke Engineering Ltd. [Im...@Huneke.Co.UK]
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Forthcoming meetings: We're looking for volunteers to present or lead workshops on topics of interest to software practitioners. Please come forward with suggestions!
5 November 2025: tba
3 December 2025: Eoin Woods, Renovate or Rebuild? Architectural Techniques for the Million Euro Tradeoff