How Data Changed from the Victorian Era to Agentic AI

University-level study and support

During your time on the Oxford University Summer School for Adults you will:

• Study in small seminar groups with no more than 12 students, guided by expert tutors
• Receive two one-to-one tutorials
• Have the opportunity to attend guest lectures and participate in social events
• Have access to the on-site Bodleian Library and IT facilities
• Gain experience of studying at university level
• Develop new skills
• Experience a friendly and supportive learning environment
• Connect with a global community of lifelong learners

Seminars

Participants are taught in small seminar groups of up to 12 students, and receive two one-on-one tutorials with their tutor.

Sunday

Seminar 1

Data Detectives: The World’s First ‘Big Data’ Hack. Interactive role-play: manually mapping a historical mortality dataset to ‘hack’ a Victorian public health crisis.

Seminar 2

Data Storytelling: How to Persuade with Analytics. Translating raw statistics into visual campaigns; discovering how data visualisation influences human behavior and policy.

Monday

Seminar 3

The First Algorithms: From Punch Cards to World War II Codebreaking. Interactive ‘Human Database’ simulation and hands-on pattern recognition with historical ciphers.

Seminar 4

The Digital Footprint: Silicon Valley and the Business of ‘You’. Data journalism exercise: building psychological consumer profiles from anonymised, everyday digital traces.

Tuesday

Seminar 5

The Invisible Hand: How Algorithms Curate Our Reality. Brainstorming and debating the hidden ‘rules’ behind modern social media feeds and recommendation engines.

Seminar 6

Demystifying the ‘Black Box’: How Machine Learning Actually Works. A non-technical, physical simulation of how neural networks ‘learn’ from data.

Wednesday

Seminar 7

The Generative AI Revolution: Hacking ChatGPT. Live, interactive session prompting Large Language Models (LLMs) to expose hallucinations, capabilities, and system limits.

Seminar 8

Beyond Chatbots: The Rise of Agentic AI. Exploring AI agents that can act, reason, and execute tasks independently. Role-play: designing a helpful (and safe) AI assistant.

Thursday 

Seminar 9

Deepfakes and Synthetic Realities: Finding Truth in Artificial Data. Interactive quiz and debate on identifying AI-generated content and the future of digital trust.

Seminar 10

Algorithmic Bias: The Ethics of Automated Decisions. Hospital board policy role-play on the ethical dilemma of adopting highly efficient but historically biased AI tools.

Friday

Seminar 11

Algorithmic Bias: The Ethics of Automated Decisions. Hospital board policy role-play on the ethical dilemma of adopting highly efficient but historically biased AI tools.

Seminar 12

Architecting Tomorrow: Designing a Human-Centric AI Future. ‘Futures Wheel’ brainstorm, empowering students to envision how society can positively harness the next wave of AI.

Programme timetable

The daily timetable will normally be as follows:

Saturday

14.00–16.30: Registration

16.30–17.00: Orientation meeting

17.00–17.30: Classroom orientation for tutor and students

17.30–18.00: Drinks reception

18.00–20.00: Welcome dinner

Sunday – Friday

09.00–10.30: Seminar

10.30–11.00: Tea/coffee break

11.00–12.30: Seminar

12.30–13.30: Lunch

13.30–18.00: Afternoons are free for tutorials, individual study, course-related field trips or exploring the many places of interest in and around Oxford.

18.00–19.00: Dinner (there is a formal gala dinner every Friday to close each week of the programme).

Social programme

A range of optional social events will be offered throughout the summer school. These are likely to include a quiz night, a visit to historic pubs in Oxford, a visit to Christ Church for Evensong, and after-dinner talks and discussions.

Beyond the summer school, Oxford is a vibrant and cosmopolitan city with a busy cultural and social scene offering a wide variety of plays and shows, concerts, films and exhibitions.

Residential options are outlined below.

Please see the ‘how to enrol’ section below for guidance on how to book or request the right accommodation for you.

Residential option

This includes accommodation and all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner).

Our central Oxford accommodation combines the character of an historic building with the convenience of a modern hotel. All rooms are located in Wellington Square, a short walk to Oxford city centre, and include tea and coffee making facilities and free Wi-Fi.

View full details of Rewley House accommodation.

Non-residential option

We also offer places on a non-residential basis whereby participants can take classes and have meals (lunch and dinner) at Rewley House, having arranged their own accommodation elsewhere.

Course aims

This course aims to:

• Provide a comprehensive, non-technical understanding of the historical evolution of data science.
• It seeks to highlight how data collection and algorithms have transformed society from the Victorian era to the modern age of Generative and Agentic AI, fostering critical thinking around data ethics.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will have been given the opportunity to understand:

• The foundational history of data visualisation and its role in public health and social reform.
• The evolution of computing from early codebreaking to modern Generative and Agentic AI.
• The ethical implications, biases, and privacy concerns inherent in historical and modern data systems.
• How to apply critical thinking to evaluate the real-world impact of algorithms on their daily lives.

Teaching methods

The teaching methods on this course may include:

• Short lectures/presentations
• Physical handouts
• Seminars/group discussions
• Student presentations
• Interactive role-play, live software demonstrations, and non-technical data simulations

Participants will attend two one-on-one tutorials with their tutor during the week.

Pre-course assignment

Participants are required to undertake preparatory reading and complete a pre-course assignment of 1,500 words. Although this does not count towards credit, it is seen as an important way of developing your ideas and is mandatory. The pre-course assignment is typically due in the first week of June.

IT requirements

Students are encouraged to bring a laptop to Oxford to assist them with their studies.

For residential students, wireless internet access is available in all bedrooms; for all students, wireless access is available in communal spaces of the college.

All students will be eligible to use the computers and printer in the computer room at Rewley House.

Assessment methods

You will be assessed during the summer school by either a 1,000 word written assignment or a presentation supported by individual documentation. To successfully gain credit (10 CATS points) students should attend all classes and complete the on-course assignment.

Please see the ‘certification’ section for more details about CATS points.

Dr Amin Karami

Dr Amin Karami is an Associate Professor in AI & Data Science and the CDT PG Academic Lead at the University of East London (UEL). He serves as the Course Leader for the MSc in Big Data Technologies. Specialising in Big data, Distributed Systems and AI, his teaching and research focus not only on the technical dimensions of data but also on its broader historical, ethical, and societal impacts. Notably, between 2023-25, he secured £1.2m in Office for Students (OfS) funding to promote AI to non-STEM and far-STEM learners for underrepresented groups.

Website: https://www.uel.ac.uk/about-uel/staff/amin-karami

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8QxD8dkAAAAJ&hl=en

Certificate of Attendance

All participants who complete the course will receive a physical Certificate of Attendance.

Academic credit

OUSSA is an accredited summer school taught at undergraduate level; each one-week course carries 10 CATS (Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme) points at FHEQ (Framework for Higher Education Qualification) Level 4.

CATS points will be awarded to students who attend all classes and complete the on-course assignment to the required standard. Please see the ‘assessment methods’ section below for more details.

Certificate of Higher Education

Credit (CATS points) earned from OUSSA can be transferred towards our flexible Certificate of Higher Education. This part-time, award-bearing course lets you decide what, how and where you study by gaining credit from short courses, including short online courses, in-person weekly classes and OUSSA.

For full details, including transfering credit gained from OUSSA to the programme, see our Certificate of Higher Education programme page.

English language requirements

As students are expected to participate fully in seminar discussions and are required to produce written work, it is important that applicants can demonstrate an appropriate level of proficiency in the four language skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking.

If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence of your proficiency in the form of an original certificate, or a certified copy, that is not more than two years old on the date the summer school starts. You must satisfy one of the following requirements:

• IELTS Academic: minimum overall score of 7.5, with not less than 7.0 in each of the four components
• TOEFL iBT: minimum overall score of 110, with not less than 22 for listening, 24 for reading, 25 for speaking and 24 for writing
• C1 Advanced, formerly known as Cambridge English: Advanced or CAE: minimum overall score of 191, with not less than 185 in each of the four components

For further information on English language qualifications:

• IELTS
• TOEFL
• Cambridge English

The requirement to provide English language test scores may be waived in either of the following circumstances:

• If you have completed a full-time degree-level programme at a recognised institution where teaching and assessment throughout the course was undertaken entirely in English, and the programme was completed with a gap of no more than two academic years to the course to which you are applying. If you studied this course in a country that is not majority English speaking, you will need to provide evidence that the course was taught in English. This can either take the form of a link to the appropriate page of the institution’s website or a statement from the institution confirming this.
• If you have worked for a minimum of two years in a majority English-speaking country where the main language for the role was English, and your role involved daily professional use of each of the four language components: reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Visa requirements

The Department welcomes international students on all its courses. However, it is the responsibility of successful applicants to ensure that they comply with UK immigration law.

If you are not a UK or Irish national, you might need to apply for a visa before coming to the UK, depending on which passport you hold. You can check if you need a visa before coming to the UK on the UK Government’s website. We strongly recommend that you establish whether you will require a visa before submitting your application.

If you do not require a visa to come to the UK for a short period of study, you will need to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).

The Programme Administrator will provide non-UK/Irish nationals enrolled on the summer school with a standard-format PDF letter by email confirming enrolment and course details once their fees have been paid in full. These letters are issued on request only.

If you require a visa, you should ensure your summer school application is submitted as early as possible to allow yourself sufficient time to complete the visa application process. See current visa processing times.

For legal reasons, the Programme Administrator is not permitted to provide any visa advice to applicants; any queries should be addressed to student.immigration@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Information about visiting the UK to study is available on the UK Government’s website and Oxford University’s Student Immigration website.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have taken the necessary steps to enable you to be admitted to the UK. The University takes no responsibility for a visa being denied at any point before or during a course.

Please note that the standard cancellation policy applies in all cases. See ‘Cancellations’ in the section below.

Fees

Payment

Payment terms:

• If enrolling online: full payment by credit/debit card at the time of booking
• If submitting an enrolment form: full payment online by credit/debit card or via bank transfer within 1 calendar month of invoice date. Where payment is made by bank transfer, enrolment is accepted once cleared funds have been received by the University.

If payment is not received within 1 calendar month of the invoice date, we cannot guarantee that your place will continue to be held. Where a course or accommodation option has a waiting list, the place may be offered to another applicant.

Funding

Concessionary rates are available on a non-residential basis for those that qualify.

The concessionary fee is for non-residential attendance only; participants will then be responsible for finding their own accommodation. For full details, including eligibility, see our OUSSA FAQ page.

Recommended reading

Steven Johnson, 2006, The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic, Riverhead Books

Cathy O’Neil, 2016, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality, Crown Publishing

Caroline Criado Perez, 2019, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Chatto & Windus

Mustafa Suleyman, 2023, The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma, Crown Publishing

Module code: O26I604SSR

Most courses fill quickly so early registration is strongly recommended. If your preferred course is fully booked, you may wish to add yourself to the waiting list and the Programme Administrator will contact you should a place become available.

Please note, the programme is only open to those over the age of 18.

Online enrolment (single person accommodation and non-residential)

Single accommodation, double room for 1 person and non-residential places should be booked online by clicking on the ‘Book now’ button on this page.

Online enrolments require payment in full at the time of registering.

Enrolment form (multi-occupancy or accessible accommodation)

Those requiring twin, double or accessible accommodation (including ground/lower floor accommodation) should complete an enrolment form as these rooms cannot be booked or requested online.

Please send the completed enrolment form to the email address below. Both the PDF and Word option of the form below are editable, so you can complete them online before saving and sending to us as an email attachment. You do not need to print and scan them. (Please use these forms only if you are making a twin or double booking for two people.)

Enrolment form:

• PDF
• Microsoft Word

Please send your completed enrolment form to oussa@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Accessibility and disability support

Disabled students who have registered for, or are planning to attend, the OUSSA summer programme should contact the Programme Administrator by email at oussa@conted.ox.ac.uk to discuss any support needs.

Students with a mobility impairment can consult the University Access Guide and should contact the Programme Administrator at oussa@conted.ox.ac.uk to request any accommodation they need in this regard.

There is a special access ramp and a self-contained bedroom suite on the ground floor at Rewley House, equipped for use by people with mobility problems, with an adjoining room for carers. Two public disabled parking bays provided by Oxford City Council are situated on Wellington Square close to the Department. If you need this accessible room, please indicate this on your enrolment form, or contact the Programme Administrator prior to your arrival. Please also let us know of any support needs you may require.

If you need a room on a ground or lower floor, please indicate this on your enrolment form or contact the Programme Administrator prior to your arrival.

If you would like more information about support available to students with disabilities, please see our support page.

Terms and conditions

View our terms and conditions

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact us at oussa@conted.ox.ac.uk.

You may also find our frequently asked questions help page useful.

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