Technology networking in the heart of London
Every year the Real Time Club runs a series of dinners with distinguished speakers on current issues of the information age. Dinners are held under the Chatham House rule and robust and well-informed debate is explicitly encouraged.
Real Time Club dinners are open to non-members and everyone is welcome to attend.
IT’s their future – IT’s our present
How Young Rewired State is coding a better country through developing young programmers
We at the Real Time Club believe passionately that the future of this country lies in exploitation of information technology based products, and that more must be done to help young people develop the necessary expertise.
Innovation is a Team Sport: IP, collaboration and the role of engineers
Despite rumours to the contrary, innovation in the UK is alive and well. Professor Andy Hopper – a serial innovator and entrepreneur – will draw on his experience of academia and industry to make some observations and recommendations, including a more flexible interface between universities and business.
Why is My Laptop So Dumb?
In the face of mounting complexity and accelerating business activity driven by technology we find ourselves working harder and harder, and many have reached their human limit of cognition, creativity and output. They just cannot work any faster! And whilst a more powerful computers might realise a marginal gain, with faster networks complemented by smarter search engines that might add a few more percentage points to our productivity, the big ITC gains have been won. We have become the primary limiters not our technology and we need something more – much more!
The Start-Up Potential of London: The Google View
There is much current attention to the potential of start-up businesses, particularly in tough economic times that can limit the potential of traditional jobs, and with models for success like Google, Facebook, Groupon and Twitter, and some UK companies like ARM, Last.fm and Tweetdeck. But many have wondered why the UK, with a strong record of technology innovation, has been less successful building great tech companies. Yet there is evidence that this situation is changing, particularly in London where a vibrant start-up ecosystem is developing, including in East London near so-called Silicon Roundabout, and with strong links to the traditional media community in the West End. One of the most exciting recent developments in this trend has been the opening of Google Campus in East London. Sarah Butler, Google’s Head of UK Public Policy, will explain what Google thinks is exciting about the UK’s start-up scene and what Google is doing to support it.
How to grow smarter: the emerging science of learnable intelligence
The limits of a person’s intelligence may be circumscribed by a genetically-bounded envelope – but that leaves an awful lot that is open to influence. By choosing their activities, and engaging with their experience in certain ways, it is therefore entirely possible that people can grow their own intelligence (and, equally, their stupidity). But what, then, do we mean by ‘intelligence’? If, as has been claimed, intelligence is best understood as ‘the sum total of one’s habits of mind’, what are these habits, and how can they be grown? And vitally, how can parents and teachers capitalise on the emerging science of learnable intelligence, so that young people are launched on life with the desire and the capability to grow their own minds?
Cloud Computing
Will cloud computing and the subsequent change in how ICT is created and consumed spell the end of the traditional “suits and boxes” IT supply chain?
Will cloud computing and the subsequent change in how ICT is created and consumed spell the end of the traditional “suits and boxes” IT supply chain. The arrival of Cloud Computing has clearly grabbed column inches and created much debate. The debate is increasingly polarising into a choice between public and private implementations.
“Recent discoveries in physics, from Verlinde’s new theory of gravity to neutrinos that may move faster than light, show that the end of space and time is far from over.”
Robbert Dijkgraaf is Distinguished University Professor of mathematical physics at the University of Amsterdam, a position he has held since 2005. His current focus is on string theory, quantum gravity, and the interface between mathematics and particle physics. His research was recognised in 2003 with the award of the NWO Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. Robbert Dijkgraaf has been a visiting professor at many universities including Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and Kyoto. He is on the editorial boards of numerous scientific periodicals and on the scientific advisory board of institutes in Cambridge, Bonn, Stanford, Dublin and Paris.
You Can Collect Your Car at Prontaprint: The Fact and Fiction of 3D Printing
A recent cover in the Economist described additive manufacturing (better known as 3D printing) as “The manufacturing technology that will change the world”. Our speaker Siavash Mahdavi will describe the state of the art in additive manufacturing, and dive into exciting applications of this revolutionary design and manufacturing technique in sectors such as medical, aerospace and tooling. For example, 3D printing has led to breakthroughs in orthopaedics, and intricate lattice structures for light weight aerospace components. Siavash will also discuss the role of mass customisation of consumer products through new advances in software, which promise to allow consumers to becoming co-designers.
Flawless computing for the 2012 Olympics
Providing flawless IT for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games – the scale, complexity and responsibilities involved.
From its inception in 1989, the Major Events unit of Atos has been exclusively dedicated to the provision of IT solutions and services to large-scale events and international bodies. Atos is the Official Worldwide Information Technology Partner to the International Olympic Committee, for all Olympic Summer and Winter Games, from 2002 to 2016. This agreement covers consulting, systems integration, operations management, the provision of information systems and project management.
Tackling the ICT Education Crisis in UK Schools
A Dinner in Honour of Bill Freyenfeld (1928-2011), Past RTC Chairman and ICT Education Advocate
Computing is one of the richest, most exciting disciplines on the planet, yet any teenager will tell you that in the UK we are systematically teaching our children that ICT (as it is called in school – “information and communication technologies”) consists of little more than learning to use Word or PowerPoint. Over the last two decades, computing at school has drifted from writing adventure games on the BBC micro to writing business plans in Excel. This is bad for our young people’s education, and it is bad for our economy. It is also quite fixable, but the inherent inertia in the educational system requires a clear message and case for change, from the classroom right up to the Secretary of State. Our speaker will describe this challenge, outline solutions, and invite your participation in a debate about both ends (what are we trying to achieve?) and means (how can we effect reform?).