Techy Talks and other events coming up in January & February ^JB

Events for teachers, schoolkids, families, general public

This is an occasional post highlighting some talks and events that touch on computer science or computing-adjacent tech and which are not aimed solely at an academic audience (e.g. I’ve not included university seminars). This isn’t a complete list (an impossible task!) but is drawn from a range of venues and organisations, some already computer-focused, some that have a wider focus but who sometimes host computing events. If you have a suitable event, that the public / schools can get tickets for, please let me (Jo) know, thanks.

For teachers

NCCE / STEM Learning
I Love Computing Conference 2023
(this one is for computer science schoolteachers, primary or secondary)
Saturday 25th February, all day, in-person North London
Tickets and information
FREE

Coming up in January

Centre for Computing History
TechTalk: Shahid Ahmad – Life of a Bedroom Coder
Thursday 12th January 2023, 7 – 8pm
In person (Cambridge)
Tickets and info
£6
Shahid Kamal Ahmad discusses his career in video games, including writing his own, converting code for the Commodore 64, up to his current career.

Imperial College
Metabolism Meets Machine Learning: Computational Metabolomics
Wednesday 18th January, 5.30 – 6.30pm
In person (London) and online
Tickets and information
The inaugural lecture of Professor Timothy Ebbels, Professor of Biomedical Data Science in the Faculty of Medicine.
FREE

Quantum Computing and how you can get a career in it, on Wed 18th January 2023 from 7 to 8.30pm

BCS
Quantum Computing and how you can get a career in it
Wednesday 18th January, 7 – 8:30pm
Online webinar
Tickets and info
FREE

UCL
Public Lecture: Computational co-design for resource efficient building structures
Friday 20th January 2023, 12 – 1.45pm
In person (East London)
Tickets and information
FREE

“Join Professor Jan Knippers to explore how computational co-design may help exploit the full potential of digitalization in architecture, structural engineering and construction.

Gresham College
Lottery-winning maths
Tuesday 31st January, 1pm
Online or in-person (London)
Tickets and info
FREE – “The field of probability started when a French nobleman asked the mathematician Blaise Pascal to solve a dispute for him about a game consisting of throwing a pair of dice 24 times. Pascal discussed this and other problems with fellow mathematician Pierre de Fermat, in a series of letters in which they arrived at the basic principles of probability theory. This lecture looks at dice, cards, lotteries, and other games of chance. Can mathematics help us win?”

Coming up in February

Imperial College
Can robots help us understand who we are?
Wednesday 1st February, 5.30 – 6.30pm
Online and in-person (London)
Tickets and information
The inaugural lecture of Professor Thrishantha Nanayakkara , Professor of Robotics in the Faculty of Engineering.
FREE

Centre for Computing History
TechTalk: Jon Honeyball – The Internet, and how we got it all so wrong
Thursday 9th February, 7pm
In-person (Cambridge)
Tickets and information (£6, £0 for passholders)

“The Internet has been a wonderful thing, from its earliest days of joining up the world, through to the almost miraculous capabilities today. But it has a very bad side, and its all our fault…” Jon is the founder and a contributing editor of PCPro Magazine.

The Turing Lectures: How to speak whale, in partnership with the Royal Institution (event is hosted there). Tuesday 14th February 2023 from 2 to 3.30pm.

The Turing Institute & Royal Institution
The Turing Lectures: How to speak whale
Tuesday 14th February, 2 – 3.30pm
Online or in person (London)
Tickets / Information
Price varies depending on whether you are in-person (at the Ri ~£7/16) or watching online.

Gresham College
What’s The Problem With Encryption?
Tuesday 14th February, 6pm
Online or in-person (London)
Tickets and info
FREE

“End-to-end encryption secures messages before they leave a device, preventing them from being read in transit. Increasingly the default protocol for messaging apps, neither governments nor the platforms on which it operates can access unscrambled communications and message content. Some governments have demanded ‘back doors’ for criminal investigations, while others have exploited workarounds to access the encrypted messages of political dissidents.

This talk considers the current public discourse on online surveillance and privacy, and where society might go from here.”

Banner for the 'Do you know PICO?' event at the Centre for Computing History

Centre for Computing History
Do You Know Pico? (Raspberry Pi Pico)
Wednesday 15th February, 2-4pm (please arrive by 1.45pm)
In-person (Cambridge)
Tickets and information (£15 per participant, for under 14s an adult accompanying ticket is £10)

“Get hands-on with Raspberry Pi Pico in this fun workshop. With the Pico, a few wires, LEDs, and buttons you can start controlling the world!

For participants under the age of 14, we require an accompanying adult to attend the workshop alongside them. Accompanying adult tickets can be purchased for the normal museum entry price of £10.”

BCS
Hybrid event: Getting into Project Management
Wednesday 22nd February, 6:30 – 8:00pm
Online or in person (London)
Tickets and information
FREE

Gresham College
Big Data in Business
Monday 27th February, 6pm
Tickets and info
FREE

“Big data has really taken off over the past decade because of the presence of ubiquitous sensor technology everywhere. For example, we are all constantly monitored by our phones, smart doorbells, heating systems, televisions, watches and jewellery. These devices generate a constant flow of information about us. But this data is pretty much meaningless without context.

This lecture talks about how data needs to be processed to make it useful to business.”