Cambridge Cancer Genomics is leveraging its AI platform in a new partnership designed to more accurately target tumours in precision clinical trials. It is working with Precision-Panc, a UK-wide network of over 20 hospitals that can offer such trials to patients with pancreatic cancer. The broad-based collaboration sets out to improve and standardise data analysis, distribution and sharing in platform these vital diagnostic programmes. Startup CCG.ai is building software for data-driven precision oncology and its technology forms the basis of the piloted standardisation infrastructure and will provide insights into Precision-Panc's large-scale, multi-centre, oncology trials. CCG.ai's platform – OncOS – automates the analysis of cancer DNA samples and matches suitable clinical trials based on the underlying molecular features of a tumour, simplifying and streamlining data sharing to accelerate translation into the clinic.

Luminance, which provides Artificial Intelligence software for law firms and in-house teams, is gunning for the Disruptive Technology accolade in the 30th Anniversary Business Weekly Awards. Based at the Maurice Wilkes Building at St John's Innovation Park, Luminance prides itself as being the only platform to bring true artificial intelligence to the legal profession. Its submission says: "By deploying a unique blend of supervised and unsupervised machine learning, the core technology'LITE' is able to read and understand language in a way that is similar to the human brain and then learns from lawyers' interactions with documents as they conduct their review. "Luminance has enhanced the lives of lawyers in 165 countries globally, including 17 of'The Global Top 100', such as Holland & Knight, Slaughter and May and Bird & Bird, as well as each of the Big Four accounting firms." The company's pattern-recognition technology reads, understands and learns from the interaction between lawyers and documents, pinpointing warning signs that would be missed during a manual review.

Cambridge's relentless technology gamechanger, Arm, is exploring the long-term potential of three emergent technologies – AI, 5G and secure IoT – at Arm TechCon 2019 in San Jose next month. Chief executive Simon Segars says all these technologies are converging to enable more meaningful data insights and fuel a shift into "a new era of total compute." At the epicentre of this convergence is the Arm ecosystem whose technologies spanning multiple sectors – including mobile, infrastructure, automotive, and more – will be showcased at Arm TechCon 2019 from October 8-10. It is Arm's 15th annual such event. Segars says Arm and automotive industry leaders will use the California platform to share insights on progress in developing safe, autonomous vehicle platforms.

With new ideas innovation continuing to drive Cambridge's businesses, Stephen Hodsdon – a partner, patent and trade mark attorney in the Cambridge office of J A Kemp – considers what engineering and IT fields may lead the way in 2019. It is a well-known statistic that Cambridge produces significantly more patent applications per head than any other area of the UK and this shows little sign of decreasing. As a patent attorney, this is of course unsurprising, but it doesn't happen by accident. The diversity of Cambridge-based innovation makes it hard to pick even a selection of sectors which will lead the way in 2018. However, gazing into my crystal ball (sadly neither real nor, as far as I can determine, a Cambridge invention), here are a few thoughts on the areas that could drive 2019's innovation output.

The round was led by Cambridge angel Simon Thorpe who has already demonstrated the Midas touch. He was an investor in Swiftkey and Vocal IQ – Cambridge-founded businesses bought by Google and Apple, respectively, for a combined $350 million. The new round was also backed by Angel CoFund, a VC fund that co-invests alongside angel investors. John Spearman, GW Asia Capital Ltd and Adrian Lloyd also participated, and all three non-exec directors from round one have re-invested. Quick access to expertise on demand is essential for growth and progress in everything from rare disease research to the development of sustainable fuels.

Cambridge has been chosen to host a new global forum designed to change the face of international healthcare. Gamechanging innovation will be centre stage at the Next Health World Innovation Forum – a new international healthcare conference which takes place in Cambridge from June 26-27, 2019. The Innovation Forum is partnering with Cambridge's pioneering Milner Therapeutics Institute to challenge the status quo and identify technologies that will revolutionise patient care across a range of disease areas. The event will incorporate the annual symposium of the Milner Institute, which is dedicated to transforming groundbreaking research into new therapies, by breaking down the barriers between academia and industry. Confirmed speakers include representatives from Servier, Pfizer, Innovative Medicines Initiative and Cancer Research UK.

The CEO of a Cambridge-based Artificial Intelligence startup is helping to fashion pan-European governance and regulation of the rocketing technology segment. Dr Loubna Bouarfa of OKRA Technologies is one of 52 thought leaders on the advisory brains trust – the EU High-Level Expert Group on AI – and spent a week at a Brussels summit. Discussions were held in the European Parliament covering topics from programming bias, data security, error accountability and responsible workflows. As the founder and CEO of OKRA, a St John's Innovation Centre company, Dr Bouarfa represents AI practitioners and the healthcare space in particular. She said: "It is an honour to represent the innovative AI startup ecosystem, balancing an operational mindset with my ethical convictions. In my work at OKRA and beyond, ethical considerations around responsibility, transparency and accountability are always top of mind."

Cambridge University is launching a DeepMind Chair of Machine Learning, thanks to a benefaction from the world-leading British AI company – Google's DeepMind – whose IP was born within the globally acclaimed seat of learning. The new chair, to be based at Cambridge's Department of Computer Science and Technology, will build on the university's strengths in computer science and engineering and will be a focal point for the wide range of AI-related research taking place across the university. Cambridge researchers are designing systems that are cybersecure, model human reasoning, interact in affective ways with us, uniquely identify us by our face and give insights into our biological makeup. The first DeepMind chair is expected to take up their position in October 2019, following an international search by the department. The chair will have full academic freedom to pursue research in the field of machine learning.

Investors from Shanghai have joined a completed $5.5 million Series A1 round for AI business Cambridge Touch Technologies which aims to build on hard-won attraction in Asia. CTT is developing AI-driven, 3D multi-touch sensing technologies for smart devices. Existing investors - Parkwalk Advisors, Cambridge Enterprise and Amadeus Capital Partners - participated in the round and were joined by new investors China Materialia of Shanghai and Downing Ventures of London. Ascendant Corporate Finance provided advice to CTT on the fund raising. The Cambridge UK company's technology uses what is regarded as the world's simplest architecture to deliver an all-screen, multi-finger 3D touch solution that can scale to all device sizes at a fraction of the cost of existing approaches.

Cambridge AI decision making platform, PROWLER.io, will be centre stage in California in May as the award-winning startup holds a provocative thought leaders' summit. Business Weekly's newly crowned Startup of the Year is bringing together a cohort of great minds to push the frontiers of AI thinking for a one-day event in Palo Alto on May 9. Founder and CEO Vishal Chatrath says it will be the first of many such think tanks talking about "AI taking decisions – leaving today's discussions about perception and classification in our wake." Chaired by David Rowan, editor-at-large of WIRED magazine, the event is designed, in Chatrath's words, "to share bold provocations on the future of AI." Guests will be drawn from academia, big tech, government, complexity theory, finance, gaming, quantum, safety tech and regulation. Speakers will give a 15 minute talk, ending with "a bold provocation around decision making and AI. "We are deliberately curating a wide-ranging agenda for the first of an annual event series for PROWLER.io," said Chatrath.