Week Three – Saturday 15 March 2025

This page was updated on Monday 10 March 2025.

Please let Jo know if you can’t attend this session: j.brodie@qmul.ac.uk. Please don’t rely on telling teachers as they might not have my contact details, thank you.

1. What

Unplugged Computer Science with Prof Paul Curzon

Artificial intelligence: but where is the intelligence
“We all know the movie plots where evil robots and computers take over the world, but what is the reality? This workshop explores artificial intelligence, the field of science that tries to build ‘thinking machines’.

How are they built? Are they really intelligent? And what is intelligence anyway? We will also ask some interesting questions about a well-known ‘thinking machine’, you! Along the way we will play some games including building a working brain out of rope, tubes, and you, and playing snap with it.”

The session is adapted from this booklet (which is itself aimed at a younger audience).

Artificial Intelligence…but where is the intelligence?

Paul mentioned Richard Garriott who’s visited the International Space Station, the North Pole, the South Pole and the Mariana Trench (deepest point in the ocean). He created a very popular social game.

Find out about ‘motes‘, dust-sized computers and about robotics at Queen Mary University of London.

2. Where

We will be in the same building and room as Weeks One and Two.

We will be in the Engineering Building which is on Mile End Road. The entrance looks like this.

What3Words for the building entrance: https://what3words.com/preoccupied.fish.party

Note: the post code (E1 4NS) is not very informative as we are a campus university so all post arrives centrally before being redistributed, and we are some distance from the post code ‘point’.

3. When

Saturday 15th March 2025.
Registration will be from 9.45am but you can come to the building any time after 9.30am.
The class begins at 10am and ends at 12.30pm.
I will wait with any student who hasn’t been collected but please collect everyone by 1pm, thank you.

4. Please bring a snack

We will have a mid-morning break at some point during the workshop. Please bring with you a snack and drink if you would like one. There is a Sainsbury’s on Mile End Road just across the road from the venue (also one near Stepney Green station, and a Co-op).

5. Venue directions

There is no public parking at QMUL but please contact Jo (above) if that will make things difficult for you and I’ll see what I can do. Otherwise please use public transport, thank you.

CityMapper is a great free app for planning a journey – as well as the phone app you can use it on a web browser too.

From Stepney Green tube station [NEAREST]

The nearest tube station is Stepney Green tube station. Exit the station and turn left (you are now on Mile End Road (A11) and Globe Road (B120) is on your left (you’ll cross Globe Road). If you need to get a snack you have Sainsbury’s on your left (on Globe Road) and a Co-op in front of you once you’ve crossed Globe Road.
Keep walking up Mile End Road, cross Bancroft Road, carry on up Mile End Road for a short distance and slow down when you see the bus stop – we’re in the glass-fronted Engineering Building to the left.

If you are arriving by bus it’s the 25 or 205 which will drop you closest, at Bus Stop D.

From Mile End tube station

Mile End station is a little further away (but not much).
If you want to take the bus (25 or 205) Stop C is to your right as you exit the station
If you want to just walk then turn left as you exit the station (you are on Mile End Road) and keep walking in that direction – there are plenty of shops on the way including a Sainsbury’s that’s close to the venue.
You can cross to the other side of Mile End Road at the Sainsbury’s and keep walking in the same direction.
When you cross the road you’ll be looking at a very large white building called the Queen’s Building, the Engineering Building is to the left, past the People’s Palace, next to Bus Stop D.

You can alight at Bus Stop E (Queen Mary University of London) for the Sainsbury’s.

Other bus routes that go nearby include 309 (Stepney Green station) and 339 (passes part of Mile End Road).

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