Computer Science in Action

On Wednesday the 29th November 2023, twelve A level Computer Science students attended ‘Computer Science in Action’, accompanied by Mrs Poddar and Ms Bonny, held at the picturesque Emmanuel Centre, in London.

The day consisted of four lectures, which explored the different avenues that Computer Science offers to students beyond the classroom. This event was hosted by Matthew Leeke, a renowned Professor in Computer Science at University of Birmingham.

The first speaker was Katrina Dargel, an experienced Lead UX Researcher, workshop facilitator and speaker, who globally specialises in uniting product design and strategy. She has worked with major companies like Ford and Airbus, and now helps executives and leaders enhance their product development. Dargel gave a very engaging talk about Navigating UX Design: ‘From Basics to Growth Mindset’. She explored the user interface design process and explained how “thinking outside the box” has led to growth in the process beyond our imagination. She also discussed the ethical considerations of the UX design. Next on the programme, Matthew Leeke showed how state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and the smart devices we use daily can solve some huge societal problems to design smart cities.

Following on from this, there was a special session by Dr Nic Harrigan, a physicist with PsiQuantum, on Quantum computing, which explored how computing has forever changed our lives and what we are capable of as a species: from arguing across the world, to making Harry Potter fashionable. Harrigan also explained that despite this, equally important applications remain fundamentally impossible for traditional computers. Harrigan then explained how quantum computers will slowly be able to change this, by processing information in entirely new ways.

After lunch, our students had an informative talk giving exam tips and tricks to help them with their A Level Computer Science course. This was followed by a lecture entitled ‘Behind the Scenes of App Development’ by Lyndsey Scott, who is a software engineer and coding educator. 

The students had a wonderful day, with Parveen, Year 12, telling us: “It was an amazing experience and truly inspiring to gain insight from incredible scientists about their amazing work.”

Luvai, Year 13, said: “It was an enjoyable, engaging and educational experience. It gave us many ideas about different career paths in Computer Science.”