Cancelled: Introduction to the world of Crypto 26/1/2012

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled due to ill health of the presenter.

For more details of forthcoming BCS Northampton events please visit 

http://northampton.bcs.org/forthcoming_events.php?menu_id=4

Booking now taken for Introduction to the world of Crypto

Book your place at  https://events.bcs.org/book/159/

Presenter: Sarith Chandra MBCS CISSP Security+ MSc(Info Sec) MSc(Eng) BEng(IT)

26th January 2012

Time: Evening session for 2 hrs - 18:30 registration, 19:00 start, 20:30 end, 20:30 - 21:00 Q&A + Networking session
Location: Room NW205 in The Newton Building, Avenue Campus, University Of Northampton, NN2 6JD

Objectives:
- Introduce Cryptography for Beginners
- Refresh some Crypto concepts for Experts
- Learn some Best practices
- Interactive session with "Crack some code" examples

Target Audience: Students, Fresh graduates, IT professionals, Developers/DBAs and anyone with general interest in Cryptography. All welcome.

Detail: 
- Cryptology
- Cipher Exercise
- Cryptography
- Cryptanalysis
- Some Best Practices
- Database Encryption
- Crypto Challenge (competition)

Pre-requisites:
- You need to only have general awareness of IT and Computer Security concepts
- Willingness to learn about this field and its concepts
- This session does not delve into the mathematics of cryptography and is suitable for absolute beginners
- If you like solving puzzles then you might enjoy some of the exercises during the interactive session


For further queries please contact - csarith@bcs.org

• Newton Building, University of Northampton

Book your place at  https://events.bcs.org/book/159/

Why Computing deserves to stand alone

Originally published at: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/expertsatnorthampton/2012/01/12/why-computing-deserves-to-stand-alone/

Recently there has been a lot of interest in the news on more programming and computing  in schools (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929). I believe this is very likely to be seen positively by a lot of the computing profession. The British Computer Society (BCS) have been  campaigning about computing being seen as a separate subject to information and communications technology (ICT), or computing – at the very least – as an option within ICT in the National Curriculum.

So what is the problem? Computing is more than ICT; there is a belief that people are being put off computing by the difference not being clearer. Common myths include:

• Everything has been done. This is not true, it’s an area where new things come along all the time. This is one of the exciting challenges of being a computing professional.
• It is all about using databases and spreadsheets . Using databases is important but so is the theory of them. Spreadsheets, in a computer science course, only play a very minor role and may not even be taught.
• It is all about business analysis. That is just one aspect, other aspects included but certainly not limited to are:
• Programming
• Games and other graphics. Who writes the software in the first place?
• Hardware. Someone has to write the programs that go into aircraft or cars.
• Mobile applications A growing area at the moment.
• Web based applications. Webpages can be produced without a lot of computing knowledge, but making the pages do some of the more ‘clever’ things does.
• Security. All those online transactions we all do, understanding where the loopholes are, programming tricks that hackers will or could try, takes some computing knowledge.

What role can universities play? Even before the recent news articles, universities have been actively going into and working with schools, trying to bring in a different perspective of computing. Examples from this University include.

• Junkbots: Using a real programming language to program Lego robots. This has been successfully carried out in primary and secondary schools reaching over 150 students.
• Be Switched On: An on-campus activity giving Year 12 and 13 examples of computing at university. Activities include programming robots or building 3D computer models.
• Women into computing: presenting an alternative face to computing by school students meeting female computing professionals and computing students.

It is in the best interest of universities to do this.  Undergraduates who know something about programming and computing before they start would make the courses even more intellectually stimulating.

As an aside, personally I find ideas tried in outreach activities sometimes inform or lead to activities I do with undergraduates, as well as the other way around.

Example presentations from Ceisie2011

Goingmobile

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Ceisie2011 conf

View more presentations from Scott Turner

An online version of THE PROCEEDINGS OF 7TH CHINA - EUROPE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SOFTWARE INDUSTRY- ORIENTED EDUCATION held at the University of Northampton, May 2011  is available online at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf

Northamptonshire’s application software creators

Re-blogged from The Chronicle and Echo on 31/12/2011: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/features/the_chron_finds_out_more_about_northamptonshire_s_application_software_creators_1_3378231

The Chron caught up with a few of the county’s own app creators.

THE PROCEEDINGS OF 7TH CHINA - EUROPE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SOFTWARE INDUSTRY- ORIENTED EDUCATION

An online version of THE PROCEEDINGS OF 7TH CHINA - EUROPE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SOFTWARE INDUSTRY- ORIENTED EDUCATION held at the University of Northampton, May 2011  is available online at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf