Benevolent Machine Learning

A recent presentation by Dr Scott Turner of the University of Northampton to BCS Northampton branch discussed the idea of Benevolent Machine Learning. This can be summarised as
- we don't know whether machine learning (and by extension AI) is going to be good, but we can try to ensure by taking issues around the safety of machine learning seriously and put steps in places to stop it being a problem.

The slides are available below:

Benevolent machine learning from Scott Turner

The talks lead to an interesting and wide-ranging discussion; which the speaker would like to pass on his thanks to all those who took part for.

Two books that the speaker mentioned that provide a good background to this area:

The title of the came from a modification of phrase in Max Tegmarks's book Life 3.0 which is discuss the concept of Benevolent Artifical Intelligence. 

The other book mentioned is the brilliant and accessible book Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry, which provides  balanced arguments on this area.



All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Digital Northampton aims to halt town’s brain drain of tech graduates

Taken from: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/digital-northampton-aims-to-halt-towns-brain-drain-of-tech-graduates/

An ambitious project to develop, connect and promote Northamptonshire’s digital industries could play a major role in preventing the brain drain of tech graduates from the area.

Digital Northampton is a new independent organisation designed to support digital innovation in the area, and one of its aims is to keep the University of Northampton’s digitally savvy graduates from leaving the town to pursue a career elsewhere.

Digital talent cultivated at the University is all too often lured away to areas more commonly associated with digital innovation, meaning the town loses out on skilled workers and the potential to grow the local digital economy.

But Digital Northampton is looking to change that, by making graduates more aware of the opportunities on their doorstep, including jobs, industry placements and helping to forge a more connected digital community.

Iain Douglas, Senior Lecturer in Games Design at the University, said: “Northampton is a sleeping giant. It’s perfectly placed between the established digital cultures in Oxford, Leamington Spa, Cambridge and Birmingham and it’s on a direct line to London. For the most part it remains an affordable place to live and to start a business. Everyone involved in the Digital Northampton project recognises its massive potential and passionately wants to see the county take a position leading digital and social change.”

There are three proposed stages for Digital Northampton:

Stage 1 – digital connectivity

This has taken the form of a Twitter account and website, to promote what is happening in Northampton. The Twitter page has already connected more than 85 digital companies and there are plans to capitalise on this by holding a series of business breakfasts to help networking between all parties.

Stage 2 – symposium

The University of Northampton and partners will host a day long event in June, designed to bring digital creators together, establish connections, promote new technologies and their uses and establish interest in a regular series of larger events.

Stage 3 – physical hub

The creation of a digital hub for Northampton. This managed space would be a place for digital start-ups to use, a venue for events that promote local digital businesses and also the home of an incubator space. This space would be for students to use for their start-up companies and hold group projects which emulate the working environment.

Follow Digital Northampton on Twitter and visit the website for updates.


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Coding Buddies

Taken from: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/students-and-school-pupils-buddy-up-for-coding-club-initiative/ 

Students and staff from the University of Northampton are buddying up with secondary school pupils at a series of computer coding clubs across the town.

Code clubs for Year 7 and 8s have been set up at three Northampton schools, with each having University staff and student coding buddies present, to help the pupils to raise their coding skills.

While the school pupils get to bolster their computing knowledge, the students get to develop their leadership and communication skills which help to give their CVs a boost.

The clubs also form part of a wider University programme which aims to raise the attainment of pupils at schools in communities with lower-than-expected progression rates into university

Schools hosting the code clubs, which are supported by the University, include Thomas Becket Catholic School, Boothville, Weston Favell Academy and Northampton International Academy (NIA).

NIA pupil, Aisha Hussain, has been attending the code club, and said: “We did a little bit of coding at primary school and I really enjoyed it, but I would have liked to have done more.

“So when I heard about the coding club I wanted to join and I am really enjoying it. The code buddies are really nice, and very helpful.”

Code buddy Andreas Thiersa, who is a final year International Accounting student, feels the experience has a number of positive benefits.

He said: “Working with the school pupils has been really inspiring for me. We’ve been able to learn from each other. They are building up their skills in logical thinking, while I have been impressed with their creativity and different way at looking at things. It’s helped to open my mind to the fact everybody is worth listening to, as everybody has a different perspective.”

Fellow code buddy, Ella Smith-Gibbs, who works in the University’s Student Records department, said: “Being a code buddy has been really beneficial, not only for my personal development, but also my professional development as it equips me with new skills and is helping to broaden my horizons, career-wise.

“The pupils have been brilliant and I’ve really enjoyed supporting them and giving them some guidance.”

Tim Marston, headteacher at Northampton International Academy, said: “By teaming up once again with the University of Northampton, it’s fantastic that we are able to offer our young people a chance to develop their IT and coding skills.

“By working with the university students, it also enables our pupils to learn more about higher education and can raise aspirations amongst those who might not otherwise have considered going to university.”

Dr Scott Turner, Associate Professor and Principal Lecturer in Computing at the University, said: “This is a great opportunity for the University, and helps to demonstrate to our students and school pupils that computing is enjoyable, relevant and something they can do.”

Linda Davis-Sinclair, Schools Engagement Lead at the University, added: “The programme is part of a number of initiatives that aim to measure the impact on pupils’ learning and encourage them to explore the wide variety of careers and study opportunities open to them in the future. Our own students benefit too as it develops skills that they would not normally get in the classroom, and provides them with opportunities to be good role models in the schools.”

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Evolutionary Algorithm Posters #1 : 3rd Year Computing Students

As part of their studies in Artificial Intelligence, some of the students have produced posters on aspects of Evolutionary Algorithms. The task was to produce a poster explain an aspect or an application of Evolutionary Algorithms to a 16-year-old Computing Student. 

All the posters are shown with the permission of the students.


Poster 1: Asad Sayed; Thivya Thevakumar and Samuel Dauda

Poster 2: Amna Hira Mahmood, Tony Carelley, Josh Challand

I don't pretend this is a new idea but I will be using it again.


All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Young Coders Competition 2019

via GIPHY

Young Coders Competition 2019

The Young Coders Competition is a new competition for primary schools aimed at helping teachers to become more confident with teaching coding skills . Any teacher can run the competition whether they are familiar with coding or completely new to it. All the session planning is done for you so you can learn alongside your pupils. The resources include 12 weeks of lesson planning for absolute beginners (children and teachers!) or a shorter 6 week version for those who already have a little experience with using Scratch. The resources can be used for computing lessons or to run an after-school club.

It is open for children in years 4, 5 and 6 working in teams of 3 - 6 children. The aim is to create a short computer game using Scratch featuring super heroes who use their super powers for good.

As well as planning, the pack also includes:

·         Introductory assembly slides and script to launch the competition/club in your school

·         A3 poster to remind children about the competition

·         Educators FAQs with all key information you need close at hand

·         Student ‘cheat sheet’ with all the key rules on, so you don’t have to keep reminding them!

To register for the competition and access all the resources click on this link http://bit.ly/YoungCoders2019

The Young Coders competition is a collaboration between the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, University of Northampton and the STEM Ambassador Hub East Midlands.

By taking part in this competition, the children get a chance at becoming the Young Coders Crew 2019. Each child in the winning 3 teams will receive personalised certificates and all children will receive certificates of participation.

Competition Rules

·         You must be in years 4, 5 or 6 to enter.

·         You must have a team of 3 to 6 children to enter.

·         You must create a game in Scratch relating to the theme: Superheroes who use their powers for good.

·         Any violence, even for the greater good, will mean automatic disqualification.

·         After you have finished making your game, you must create a 2 minute video explaining what you did, how it works and how your game meets our marking criteria.

·         Videos must be submitted by Friday 23^rd May

·         The judging criteria is as follows:

Functionality and innovation (50%)	Marketing (25%)	Community responsibility (25%)
Does the game work as intended? Is the game easy to use? Is the game imaginative? Does the game include original and well written code?	Aesthetics of the game – Does the game display correctly and look nice? Creativity and design of your game’s name Presentation of your game on the video	Is your game accessible for its target audience? I.e., is it suitable for the age range you built it for? How does your game address the theme of Superheroes doing good?

To register for the competition and access all the resources click on this link http://bit.ly/YoungCoders2019

 All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon

Talking Problem Solving

Two members of the Computing staff, Drs Scott Turner and Gary Hill were honoured to be asked to lead a discussion on Teaching Problem-solving in Higher Education. This builds on the work developed over the last twelve years (see Problem Solving Research Outputs and Activities)

The discussion on 23rd January 2019 took place within the weekly Twitterchat #LTHEchat.  The aim of the chat was to consider how problem-solving skills are developed in various subjects and allowing participants to sharing ideas and experiences from a wider range of subjects; also allowing the exploration of similarities and differences.

It was a fantastic discussion providing me (and hope others) with some new insights into how this area is taught and developed in other areas, as well as seeing the different perspectives.

To see the discussion go to https://wakelet.com/wake/133fa962-8550-4d42-a9d5-1940990b9125

Using the fantastic #TAGS tool developed by the Martin Hawksey (see below) you can possibly see there was a lot discussion (lines shows people mentioned or replying to a particular person).

An interactive version of this, that lets you look at the hashtags, what people were saying can be found at this link

 All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with. Twitter: @scottturneruon