Birmingham Branch Home Page
The Branch exists to support BCS members in the Birmingham Area. Together
with the Coventry and Wolverhampton Branches the aim is to help BCS members
in the West Midlands to have the opportunity:
-
to disseminate information about recent developments affecting IS
professionals
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to provide a platform for the discussion of issues affecting members
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to encourage the networking of BCS members in the West Midlands
BCS Birmingham Branch Facebook Group
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The Job site for IT Professionals
http://www.bcsrecruit.com
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Birmingham Branch, British Computer Society Events; 2008-2009
http://birmingham.bcs.org/prog.htm
News
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BLETCHLEY PARK & THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
An illustrated presentation by Dr Mark Baldwin (www.enigmatixuk.com)
Tuesday 16th September 2008 - 18.00 for 18.30 - Lord Knights Suite,
Tally Ho Sports & Conference Centre, Pershore
Road, Birmingham B5 7RN
One of the Second World War's most fascinating stories, is that of the
Enigma machine, a portable encryption device widely used by the Germans,
which they believed to be totally secure. Nevertheless, by mathematical
analysis and modern technology (and a certain amount of good luck), the
Allies devised techniques for 'breaking' Enigma codes, and thus read
hundreds of thousands of German messages, providing a wealth of reliable
intelligence.
Much of this work was carried out at Bletchley Park, today open to the
public as a museum site, which explains and illustrates the history of
the of the attack on Enigma, initiated by the Poles in the 1930s and
later perfected by the British. The intelligence gained was of immense
value to the Allies in virtually every theatre of war, but nowhere more
so than in the Battle of the Atlantic, that gruelling conflict which
lasted nearly six years at a cost of over 60,000 allied lives. Dr
Baldwin uses the Battle of the Atlantic to exemplify the importance of
code breaking in winning the war. The efforts to break Enigma and other
German codes in the 1940s are also historically important as precursors
to the modern discipline of computer science.
After the lecture, the audience are invited to take part in a hands-on
practical demonstration of one of the few surviving Enigma machines.
Only about 200 are known to survive worldwide; of these, only about a
dozen are in public collections in Britain. There is no other machine on
tour, so Dr Baldwin is providing a unique opportunity for the audience
not just to view, but also to operate, an original 4-rotor Enigma
machine, made for the U-Boat service in 1944. This is of particular
interest, as there is no working machine on permanent public display
anywhere in England north of Bletchley Park, and nowhere at all in
Wales, Scotland or Ireland.
Agenda
18:00 - 18:30 Light refreshments (tea or coffee with biscuits)
18:30 - 20:00 The Enigma Machine Presentation
20:00 - 20:30 Questions & Answers
Please contact Chris Green,
chrisgreen430@hotmail.com, by 5th September 2008 if you
intend to be present at this event, so we can advise the caterers of the
correct numbers requiring refreshments.
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VISIONS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Imperial College London, September 22-24 2008
The programme
The first BCS international academic conference has announced its
programme, which features seven ACM Turing Award winners. The event
promises to be a fascinating in-depth discussion of key issues in the
realm of computer science today. The topics have been set deliberately
broad to reflect the rich texture and intellectual vigour of current
computer science.
Day one highlights include:
Michael Rabin on 'Practically Efficient Zero Knowledge Proofs of
Correctness of Computations and Financial Cryptography'.
Joseph Sifakis on 'Component-based Construction of Heterogeneous
Real-time Systems in BIP.'
Richard M Karp on 'Understanding Science through the Lens of
Computation.'
Day one sessions are on 'AI and semantic web' and 'Automata and
algorithms'.
Day two highlights:
Fran Allen on 'Languages and Compilers for the New Parallel Systems,'
Tony Hoare on 'A Vision for the Science of Computing.'
Day two sessions are on 'Medical and bioinformatics', 'Logics and
foundations of computation', 'Decentralised complex systems', 'Computer
vision and pattern recognition', 'Computer architecture and digital
systems' and more.
Day three highlights:
Vint Cerf on 'Research Issues and the Internet.'
Robin Milner on 'The space and motion of large systems.'
Day three sessions cover: 'Networks', 'Programming languages' and 'Grand
challenges'. There will also be a discussion session on 'Visions for
Computer Science'.
More information on the programme:
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.10114
"Visions of computer science" takes place at Imperial College
London, September 22-24 2008.
Book your place here:
http://www.bcs.org/visions
There are special rates for students, BCS members and
IET members.
Speaker biographies:
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.19111
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The Professional Institute Network, West Midlands (PINWM)
The BCS Birmingham Branch has recently signed up to the Professional
Institute Network West Midlands (PIN WM) organisation.
"PIN WM is an Association of Professional Bodies based in the West
Midlands for the purpose of :
- Networking between professionals
- Promoting CPD Events with Key Speakers
- Raising the profile of the member Institutes"
to quote the website at
http://www.pinwm.co.uk.
You can read more about PIN WM at
http://www.pinwm.co.uk/about.aspx
and about events being organised by PIN WM members at
http://www.pinwm.co.uk/courses.aspx.
Staffordshire University Diary of Business, Computing and E-Commerce
around Staffordshire and Neighbourhood
http://www.soc.staffs.ac.uk/cbp1/colin.html
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