As a contribution to the celebration of the Alan Turing Year, the School hosted an afternoon seminar for students, staff and the general public on 14thNovember 2012, attracting an audience of almost 200. The seminar, considered Turing’s wider contributions to computing including the relationship of his work to that of other figures in the history of computing, to establishing the correctness of programs, and to the development of an early computer, Pilot Ace, and to its place in the development of the computing industry.
In addition to Professor Randell, who described his investigation in the 1970s into Turing’s work during World War II at Bletchley Park, and the development of Colossus, the speakers were Doron Swade MBE, formerly Assistant Director of the Science Museum in London, and a world authority of the works of Charles Babbage, considering the links and possible influence of the 19th century works of Babbage and of Ada, Countess of Lovelace, on those of Turing a century later; Cliff Jones, Professor of Computing Science at Newcastle, analyzing a 1949 Turing paper on program correctness, and its possible links to the hugely influential 1969 work of Professor Sir Tony Hoare; and Martin Campbell-Kelly, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, on Turing’s post war work at the National Physical Laboratory on the design of his other Universal Turing Machine, Pilot Ace, which gave rise to the manufacture of the DEUCE computer series by English Electric.
Prof Martin Campbell-Kelly, Dr Doron Swade MBE, Prof Brian Randell, Prof Cliff Jones
Read the handout for the event and see the event poster.
Thanks to Budi Arief for capturing the photographs at the seminar.
The School of Computing website reported the event thus:
Centenary Celebration: Alan Turing, pioneering computer scientist.
Alan Turing, associated in the public mind with breaking the German Enigma code in World War II, and with stories of his tragically early death, and to computer science with the concept of Universal Turing Machine, was born on 23rd June 1912. As its contribution to the celebration of the Alan Turing Year (http://www.turingcentenary.eu/), the School hosted an afternoon seminar for students, staff and the general public, attracting an audience of almost 200. The seminar considered Turing’s wider contributions to computing including the relationship of his work to that of other figures in the history of computing, to establishing the correctness of programs, and to the development of an early computer, Pilot Ace, and to its place in the development of the computing industry. Finally in the highlight of the afternoon, Brian Randell, Professor of Computing Science at Newcastle recounted his – almost cloak and dagger – part in revealing, in the early 1970s, Alan Turing’s contributions and the role of computers in breaking the German Enigma and Lorenz coding systems, including the development of Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic digital computer. The seminar ended with the demonstration of an original 1940 Enigma coding machine, loaned to the School for the occasion. Coincidentally, on the day of the seminar, another Enigma machine, of similar vintage and condition, was sold in auction at Bonham’s in London for more than £85,000 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20328104, http://www.bonhams.com/press_release/11890).
In addition to Professor Randell, the speakers were Doron Swade MBE, formerly Assistant Director of the Science Museum in London, and a world authority of the works of Charles Babbage, considering the links and possible influence of the 19th century works of Babbage and of Ada, Countess of Lovelace, on those of Turing a century later; Cliff Jones, Professor of Computing Science at Newcastle, analyzing a 1949 Turing paper on program correctness, and its possible links to the hugely influential 1969 work of Professor Sir Tony Hoare; and Martin Campbell-Kelly, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, on Turing’s post war work at the National Physical Laboratory on the design of his other Universal Turing Machine, Pilot Ace, which gave rise to the manufacture of the DEUCE computer series by English Electric.
The University Library has prepared a guide to Turing-related resources: http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/turing/.
Readers may wish to view a modern illustration of the concept of the Universal Turing machine, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3keLeMwfHY. An illustrative model, using Lego, is viewable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYw2ewoO6c4