AI in Action: Bridging Academia and Industry for Rail Innovation Group Summer Social

Last week, One Big Circle had the absolute pleasure of welcoming a fantastic mix of rail professionals, academics, students, and local businesses to our Bristol office for the Railway Innovation Group Summer Social 2025. In partnership with the Rail Innovation Group – a community we’ve proudly been part of for the past six years – we created an afternoon packed with insightful conversations, new connections, and presentations on this year’s headline theme “Artificial Intelligence: from Academia to Application.” This special event was a fantastic opportunity for guests to dive into the latest academic thinking while discovering real-world AI applications making an impact on the rail industry right now.

The Rail Innovation Group plays a key role in the rail sector, connecting businesses and individuals across the network and championing a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and new ideas. Their mission is all about building a thriving ecosystem where innovation can flourish and the future of rail is shaped by collective creativity.

Guests stand outside One Big Circle’s Bristol office, enjoying food, sunshine, and lively conversation at the Summer Social.

Despite a rainy and grey start, the skies soon cleared and the sun came out just in time for everyone’s arrival. We had a fantastic turnout with people arriving from far and wide, filling our office with plenty of chatter and new introductions. True to tradition, Curly Wurlies were our signature snack (a Rail Innovation Group favourite), and proved yet again to be the perfect way to kick things off before we tucked into a delicious BBQ that set the stage for the networking.

One Big Circle co-founder Emily Kent, gets the crowd involved with an AIVR-powered ‘guess the UK beach’ challenge.

The event officially kicked off with Emily Kent, co-founder of One Big Circle, providing an overview of the content to come on the AI journey, then getting everyone involved in an interactive icebreaker – challenging the crowd to guess a series of UK beaches locations captured by AIVR onboard trains.

Professor Andrew Calway from the University of Bristol shares new horizons for computer vision.

Professor Andrew Calway from the University of Bristol followed with a fascinating, thought-provoking talk that explored the latest breakthroughs in computer vision and data-driven innovation. Focusing on advances such as autonomous map reading and GPS-free street navigation, he illustrated how academic research is rapidly finding real-world applications. Professor Calway shared how collaborations between industry and academia are helping to solve real-world challenges – calling attention to the UK’s world-leading position in computer vision research and the tremendous opportunity for the rail sector to tap into university expertise and data to unlock rich data resources and research opportunities.

Rebecca Higgins breaks down the power of large language models for rail, showing how new technology can unify industry knowledge.

Our Project Manager, Rebecca Higgins, shared highlights from our recent Innovate UK-funded collaboration with Professor Calway, which used Bristol’s Isambard AI Supercomputer to build a Large Railway Language Model (LRLM), bespoke for the rail sector. She addressed the issue of siloed industry data and explained how advanced language models like the LRLM can unify information from across organisations, making valuable insights instantly accessible. With examples, Rebecca demonstrated how, thanks to recent leaps in AI maturity, language models can now deliver unified, real-world support for complex rail challenges – something that simply wasn’t possible even 18 months ago.

Jasper Roseland demonstrates how AIVR Focus brings advanced machine learning to the frontline of rail inspection, helping spot issues before they become problems.

Continuing the theme of turning ideas into real-world impact, our Engineering Manager, Jasper Roseland, demonstrated One Big Circle’s AIVR Focus line-scanning system. Using high-quality inspection footage and advanced machine learning, Jasper showed how this technology is already detecting faults such as cracked rails and broken fishplates. By transforming detailed imagery into actionable alerts for Network Rail, AIVR Focus is helping maintenance teams address issues more quickly and accurately – boosting both safety and efficiency across the rail infrastructure.

Martyn Shaftoe from Network Rail shares real-life wins from rolling out AI on the tracks and highlights the power of tech to transform day-to-day operations.

Martyn Shaftoe, Route Operations Performance & Projects Manager for Network Rail’s Western route, rounded out the presentations by sharing his practical experience of deploying AI-driven innovations across the rail network. He highlighted how AI-powered AIVR technology has transformed railhead contamination monitoring and automated lineside hazard detection – resulting in safer operations, reclaimed assets, and clear, measurable benefits for the network. Martyn emphasised the exciting potential of continued collaboration and AI adoption, especially as Great British Railways looks to create a more unified and passenger-focused rail industry.

Guests queue up for BBQ as networking continues into the evening.

The evening wrapped up with a lively panel discussion and Q&A, where audience questions sparked thoughtful conversations with our speakers. Afterward, guests headed outside to make the most of the sunshine, enjoy the BBQ, and continue networking in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Guests share a laugh and lively conversation.

Overall, the 2025 Railway Innovation Summer Social was a fantastic success, filled with fresh thinking, collaboration, and genuine enthusiasm for the future of rail. We’re hugely grateful to everyone who joined us, and we want to extend a special thanks to our incredible speakers for sharing their insights.