Presentation – Year 13, Sam Harding

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Presentation – Year 13, Sam Harding

This week’s presentation was on the topic of infinity and the different types of it that occur throughout mathematics.

After a brief historical introduction, Sam showed us the famous tortoise and hare problem. That was followed by a discussion of improper integrals and fractals which provided an opportunity to introduce some of the Year 12s to calculus and the exponential function. The talk finished with a brief discussion of aleph-null and cardinality of different sets, followed by planning for our lecture trips in the coming weeks.

Joe Clarke from Cambridge Intelligence

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Joe Clarke from Cambridge Intelligence.

The Computer Society were very happy to host a visit from software developer Joe Clarke from Cambridge Intelligence who visited the school and the Society this month.

His visit was timed in order to catch Year 13 students before their study leave begins so they could benefit from some realistic and current careers advice. Cambridge Intelligence specialise in building data visualization technologies; supporting law enforcement, cyber security and fraud detection. Joe had kindly pre-prepared for his presentation with an excellent Powerpoint explaining more on KeyLines and Graph Visualization as well as giving an overview of the company. Joe made his subject extremely accessible to the students which included some younger pupils which was really helpful. He also gave us some excellent careers advice regarding pathways, training and work experience and after an animated Q & A, we thanked Joe for his time and trouble and for making the journey from Cambridge.

Freddie Jonas, Year 13
TBSHS Computer Society

Computing Society Visits Jesus College, Cambridge

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Computing Society Visits Jesus College, Cambridge

On Monday 18th March the Computing Society took a trip to beautiful Jesus College, Cambridge to participate in a lecture by Dr Ulrich Schneider, University Reader in Many-body Physics, and Fellow & Director of Studies, Jesus College.

The talk was held at the College’s West Court Lecture Theatre and proved insightful for the students, and gave good background to what quantum computers are versus their counterpart classical computers. These novel machines which fully harness the ‘weirdness’ of quantum mechanics are supposed to soon outperform all classical computers and change the world! What was particularly interesting though, was when Dr Schneider spoke about what quantum computers could open up for us in the future and specifically how RSA encryption could be broken in a matter of seconds versus the thousands of years that is presently required to break encryption. Dr Schneider also spoke about the time that is needed before quantum computers become part of our everyday life, and how perhaps one day they could be incorporated into devices we carry around every day and although that’s not currently possible as the technology has yet to develop – it could quite easily become a reality in the future.

After a Q&A with Dr Schneider, we walked into Cambridge city centre where we purchased a meal at a local burger restaurant and our discussions continued – where might quantum computers lead us? What are the realistic prospects of quantum computers?

We thank the Cambridge University Science Festival for hosting and running this fascinating lecture, we feel fortunate to have secured tickets and listen to the eye-opening address by Dr Schneider.

Former Student Visits Computing Society

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Former Student Visits Computing Society

On Tuesday 5th March, the Computing Society welcomed ex-student Charles Lockie back to school after leaving TBSHS in 2018 to study Computing Science with Electronics at Bristol University.

The session was well attended by sixth form students, with a number of avid and eager Year 11 students also joining us.

Charles spoke about his current university studies, and the type of projects that he’s currently working on. He also spoke about the importance of Computer Science in the future, and how Electronics is key to how Computers are used and built. Charles also talked about his life at university, and the type of clubs and societies he’s currently joined, all of which were insightful into the life of a Computer Science university student.

The session ended with a Q&A, with students asking a range of questions from how useful TBSHS was for preparing Charles for university and student life, to his future career prospects as a Computer Science graduate.

The Computing Society thanks Charles for the enormous time and trouble he took to return back to school, and we wish him all the best for what we’re sure will be, a very bright future.

Computer Society see Prof. Brian Cox

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Computing Society see Prof. Brian Cox

Students come face-to-face with AI.

Students within The Computing Society have just enjoyed their first outreach trip; we all travelled to London to see a Royal Society production of a lecture ‘You and AI’. The evening took place at the Barbican Hall and was presented by Professor Brian Cox. This unique presentation invited the audience to consider and question what challenges and opportunities AI (artificial intelligence) will present us within the next decade. The event brought together a panel of experts of AI who answered questions sent in by the audience which proved to be both interesting and insightful with some very thought provoking issues being raised – plus plenty of real world examples to illustrate how and what the changes are that AI is bringing and may bring – to our lives.

One example given was by Vivienne Ming, who quoted a recent event that took place at Columbia University where there was a competition between human lawyers and their artificial counterparts in which both read a series of non-disclosure agreements with deliberate loopholes in them. The AI found 95% of the loopholes, and the humans just 88%. However, the interesting aspect was that the human took 90 minutes to read and find them, whilst the AI took just 22 seconds! This indicates perfectly just how AI will cause labour market disruption, not just for factory jobs, but also for brain workers.

During the train journey home, we found ourselves discussing many of the topics raised in the lecture and it was interesting to compare opinions and thoughts with one another and whether we agreed with the Barbican panel. One thing is for sure, our world will see rapid technological change in the next 20 years and AI is here to stay. Thank you to all Year 13 Computer Scientists who went on the trip and entered into the spirit of the lecture.

Dr Gopalan Visits from Imperial College

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Dr Gopalan Visits from Imperial College

Last Tuesday, the newly-formed TBSHS Computer Society were very privileged and happy to welcome its second guest speaker, Dr Anandha Gopalan, a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computing at Imperial College, London.