England – Page 5 – David Kotz

Cambridge University

I made a quick visit to Cambridge University, to deliver a talk in the Computer Science department and to visit colleagues there and at the neighboring Nokia Labs. The schedule allowed me a little time to wander the courtyards of Jesus College, where I had spent the night, and its beautiful chapel – the oldest building still in use at Cambridge. (Astonishing, in this 250th year of Dartmouth College, to visit a university that was already five hundred and fifty years old when Dartmouth was founded.)

I decided to walk from there to the distant CS building, through the streets of Cambridge. (Sadly, most of the historic campus exists in walled compounds, like Jesus College, only open to members of the university.)

It was fascinating to walk along streets named after famous scientists, or for that matter, through the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematics. (Not far from the Bill Gates CS building or the Gordon Moore library, actually.) Lovely day!

More photos in the gallery.

Bletchley Park

A visit to Bletchley Park, the fascinating location where the British cracked the Enigma cypher during WWII.

Every computer scientist must visit Bletchley Park! And, for that matter, anyone interested in computing history, spycraft, or World War II. While on a short trip to London, we spent Sunday afternoon on a brief visit to this fascinating museum at the once-secret site where the British cracked the cryptographic codes of the Germans, during the war, and where, in effect, the modern computing era had its beginnings. The story was the subject of the recent movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Read on, and check out the photo gallery.

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Europe trips

Finland, Germany, and England.

In August-September visited Oulu, Finland to give a keynote talk a workshop, then flew on to Mobicom in Cologne, Germany. Then in October I returned to visit Brighton, England, for the SOSP conference.

See my photo galleries.

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