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Follow those ants
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Follow those ants

Ant colonies are really good at adapting to changing situations: far better than humans. Sameena Shah wondered if Artificial Intelligence agents might do better...

The first computer wizard
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

The first computer wizard

Christopher Strachey did a series of firsts in computer programming, and that was just when he was playing.

A Godlike Heart
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

A Godlike Heart

A short story by Rafael Pérez y Pérez of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México translated from the original Spanish

Mary Clem: getting it right
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Mary Clem: getting it right

Mary Clem was a pioneer of dependable computing long before the first computers existed. She was a computer herself, but became more like a programmer.

Black in Data
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Black in Data

Careers do not have to be decided on from day one. You can end up in a good place in a roundabout way. That is what happened to Sadiqah Musa, and now she is helping...

Reclaim your name
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Reclaim your name

In 2021 the Canadian government announced that Indigenous people would be allowed to use their ancestral family names on government-issued identity documents. For...

Al-Jazari: the father of robotics
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Al-Jazari: the father of robotics

Science fiction films are full of humanoid robots acting as servants, workers, friends or colleagues. The first were created during the Islamic Golden Age, a thousand...

A PC Success
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

A PC Success

We have moved on to smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, but for 30 years the desktop computer ruled, and originally not just any desktop computer, the IBM PC...

In space no one can hear you …
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

In space no one can hear you …

Johanna Lucht could do maths before she learned language. Why? Because she was born deaf and there was little support for deaf people where she lived. Despite,...

The last piece of the continental drift puzzle
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

The last piece of the continental drift puzzle

A computer helped provide the final piece in the puzzle of how the continents formed and moved around. It gave a convincing demonstration that the Americas, Europe...

Digital lollipop: no calories, just electronics!
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Digital lollipop: no calories, just electronics!

by Jane Waite, Queen Mary University of London Can a computer create a taste in your mouth? Imagine scrolling down a list of flavours and then savouring your sweet...

The tale of the mote and the petrel
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

The tale of the mote and the petrel

Biology and computer science can meet in some unexpected, not to mention inhospitable, places. Who would have thought that the chemical soup in the nests of Petrels...

Fran Allen: Smart Translation
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Fran Allen: Smart Translation

Computers don't understand the instructions they are given in programs. They have to translate them in to actual computer languages first. Fran Allen won the top...

A gendered timeline of technology
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

A gendered timeline of technology

Women have played a gigantic role in the history of computing. Their ideas form the backbone to modern technology, though that has not always been obvious.

Operational Transformation
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Operational Transformation

How do online word processing programs manage to allow two or more people to change the same document at the same time without getting in a complete muddle? One...

Engineering a Cloak of Invisibility: Manipulating Light with Metamaterials
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Engineering a Cloak of Invisibility: Manipulating Light with Metamaterials

by Akram Alomainy and Paul Curzon, QMUL You pull a cloak around you and disappear! Reality or science fiction? Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak is surely Hogwarts’...

Manufacturing Magic
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Manufacturing Magic

Can computers lend a creative hand to the production of new magic tricks? That's a question Howard Williams and Peter McOwan wrestled with.

Solving problems you care about
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Solving problems you care about

Programmable design challenge: sixth formers on @QMUL's summer internship came up with creative solutions to solve real world problems.

News you can trust
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

News you can trust

Having reliable news matters. Artificial Intelligence expert Sameena Shah gave news provider Thomson Reuters a head start with her Artificial Intelligence system...

Object-oriented pizza at the end of the universe
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)

Object-oriented pizza at the end of the universe

Object-oriented programming is a popular kind of programming. To understand what it is all about it can help to think about cooking a meal (Hitchhiker's Guide to...
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