Finding My Place in the Future of AI
How an AICC scholarship helped Laura McGillicuddy build new skills, rediscover her confidence and take her career in an exciting new direction.
How an AICC scholarship helped Laura McGillicuddy build new skills, rediscover her confidence and take her career in an exciting new direction.
After many years working in technology and leadership, I wanted to deepen my technical understanding of artificial intelligence and explore not only what these systems can do, but how they can be developed and used in ways that are responsible, trustworthy and genuinely helpful to people. The scholarship made it possible for me to study the MSc in Artificial Intelligence at Queen’s University Belfast and turn that growing interest into a new direction for my career.
The course itself was challenging, fascinating and often wonderfully surprising. I developed skills across machine learning, natural language processing, AI for health, data analysis and software development, while also discovering the areas of AI that excite me most. My research project explored how different language models learn grammatical knowledge and how interpretability techniques can help us better understand what happens inside these systems. That work strengthened my interest in responsible and human-centred AI, particularly questions around transparency, trust and how people make sense of intelligent technologies.
For me, one of the most valuable parts of the experience was the confidence it gave me. I began the MSc hoping to learn more about AI, but I completed it with a much clearer sense of where I belong within the field and the kind of contribution I hope to make. Since starting the course, I have become more confident in sharing my ideas, developing my own AI projects, contributing to wider conversations about the technology and pursuing opportunities that bring together technical knowledge, ethics, education and meaningful human impact.
Completing the degree was also incredibly meaningful to me personally. I studied through a particularly difficult period of my life, so graduating felt like far more than an academic milestone. It was a joyful reminder that I was still capable of learning, creating and building something new. The scholarship did not simply give me access to postgraduate study; it gave me the space to rediscover my confidence, follow my curiosity and begin imagining a future in AI that felt both exciting and possible.
Opportunities such as the AICC scholarship are enormously important for developing AI talent in Northern Ireland. There is so much ability, creativity and ambition here, but postgraduate education is not equally accessible to everyone. Scholarships can open doors for people changing careers, returning to education or bringing experience from other industries into AI. That diversity of background and perspective is essential if we want to build technology that reflects and serves the people who will ultimately use it.
I am incredibly grateful to the AICC for the opportunity. The scholarship helped me gain new skills, shape my career direction and find a community and field in which I feel genuinely excited to keep growing. Most importantly, it helped me recognise that there is a place for me in the future of AI, and I cannot wait to see where that takes me next.
Connect with Laura on LinkedIn to follow her journey after graduation.
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