Edinburgh set to welcome tech training group Cambridge Spark

Specialist data science and artificial intelligence (AI) training group Cambridge Spark has announced that it is bringing its bootcamp initiative to Edinburgh in September.

CEO and founder Raoul-Gabriel Urma, pictured far left with some of the Cambridge Spark team. Picture: Andrew Wilkinson.

The overall mission of the group – whose corporate clients include JP Morgan, HSBC, Barclays, the BBC, BP and Arm – is to “accelerate the tech capability of both individuals and organisations”.

It was founded in 2016 by Raoul-Gabriel Urma – who has worked on large-scale engineering projects for Google, Oracle, eBay and Goldman Sachs – and it has trained more than 2,000 people to date.

Urma said: “Edinburgh has all the ingredients we are looking for – top universities producing high-quality PhDs and research and a business scene that wants to invest in its people in what is one of Europe’s most exciting tech hubs.

“We are already building a strong network in Scotland and will be looking to grow that over the next few weeks and months.”

The Edinburgh Bootcamp starts on 12 September at The Balmoral hotel.

Cambridge Spark’s career-development programmes and corporate training are underpinned by an AI platform called Kate, which has already been deployed in Cambridge, London, Amsterdam and New York.

Urma added: The bootcamp is run part-time to allow people to re-skill while continuing to do their day-to-day jobs, while our Kate platform helps our cohort improve their skills and reiterate their code without a teacher present. As you would expect, we are also experiencing increased interest and demand in Kate due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.”