Science Lectures: The 2014 Friday Series

The first lecture this year was on Friday 17th January, by Dr Charles Walkden, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Manchester. His talk was entitled ‘Shuffling Around: why you should never play cards with a Mathematician. This was attended by Sixth Formers (and staff!) with particular interests in Maths. It was a fascinating introduction to ‘base number’ maths, as illustrated by shuffling of cards, as well as giving students an insight into the application of mathematics to the analysis of everyday situations.

The second lecture (pictures above) was on Friday 7th February, by Professor Steve Furber FRS, CBE. Professor Furber is Chair of the Computer Science department at the University of Manchester. His lecture was about ‘Computers and Brains’, attended by Sixth Formers and Year 11 students. He gave a fascinating insight into the development of modern computers, including the importance of British scientists in the design of computer chips at the heart of portable computers. He introduced students to the differences in the way brains and computers work and gave us a glimpse into how new computer systems can be developed by modelling aspects of brains.
Forthcoming lectures include: