Bristol Branch

This is the first talk in our Security Mini Spring school.

Venue: University of Bristol , Room 1.11, Merchant Venturers Building

6.00pm arrival
6.30pm first talk
7.15pm second talk
8.00pm combined Q&A panel (both speakers)
8:30pm event ends

Please register for this event here. This event is free to members and non.members.

Declan O’Riordan “Application Security”

When I speak about application security everyone seems to get the idea, but not everyone has the tenacity to read my (free) security testing procedures or development guidelines, let alone start applying the ideas themselves. This talk will start with a brief recap on the deteriorating state of application security, but instead of leaving you feeling helpless we will verbally walk through a some real-world security tests. You will gain a clear understanding of some security tests that could be done by anyone, and enough insight into the tricky ones to know when to use security experts, and how.

Robert Pritchard “Risk & Threat analysis”

Making a case for cyber security used to be difficult, but now your business case can be snippets from the front page of newspapers. In other words hacking makes headlines daily. But understanding what matters to you and your organisation is challenging, as is deciding exactly what it is you should do. How do you prevent hackers getting into your network? Is it even possible to do that completely?

The talk will look at case studies, both from the media and from the speakers own working experience, and examine how you can learn from these. It will cover the criticality of incident response, and the benefits and additional assurance proper security monitoring can bring to your business. This will all be illustrated with demos of real live security threats.

Please register for this Event via Eventbright

This event is aimed at children, though adults are welcome as well.

The BCS is collaborating with @Bristol and the University of Bristol to bring you the Digi Makers
 

Speaker: Gary Palmer

Venue: University of Bristol , Room 1.11, Merchant Venturers Building

7:00pm Refreshments
7:30pm Main Talk

Please register for this event here. This event is free to members and non.members.

Critical Chain Project Management

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is fast becoming the project management method of choice for many organisations, removing the inefficiencies of conventional / traditional approaches and dramatically improving project performance. CCPM implementations in hundreds of companies across multiple industries consistently report significant improvements of:

• Faster Project Completion

• Increased Productivity
• Greater Throughput

In this presentation, participants will gain an understanding of the main elements of CCPM, its benefits, and how it differs from ‘traditional’ project management methods. Gary will explain:

• Why do we need another project management method?

• What causes projects to fail?
• What is CCPM?
• How does CCPM prevent project failure?
• Programme & Portfolio Management – CCPM in the multi-project environment

Please register for this Event via Eventbright

This is part of the Digital Bristol Week
 
Digimakers, has been asked by the BBC to organise a number of workshops in computing and electronics for 12-18 year olds. The event will form part of Digital Bristol week and will take place 10.00-16.00, Saturday 7 February 2015 at the Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Rd, Clifton. The list of workshops include:

• Introduction to Programming in Python for Girls (All ages welcome 8-80 years old !)
• Making an electronic musical instrument
• Introduction to building web applications
• Building web applications using 'Ruby on Rails'
• Making a Game using Unity 3D
• Introduction to Python
• Raspberry Pi drop in centre

To find out more and to sign-up via Eventbright
 

Speaker: Gillian Arnold

Venue: University of Bristol , Room 1.11, Merchant Venturers Building

7:00pm Refreshments
7:30pm Main Talk

Please register for this event here. This event is free to members and non.members.

Unconscious Bias

Gillian Arnold, Chair of BCSWomen will discuss the implications of Unconscious or Implicit Bias in the workplace and will throw light on how the BCS is working to ensure that the Institute is one of the gold standards for diversity in the IT Industry in the UK.

Come and check-out your own unconscious biases at this session.

Speaker: Roger Johnson

Venue: University of Bristol , Room 1.11, Merchant Venturers Building

6:30pm Refreshments
7:00pm Main Talk

Please register for this event here. This event is free to members and non.members.

Historical personalities: Andrew Booth – Britain’s Other Fourth Man

Andrew Booth is today a little known figure although his achievements deserve to put him amongst the UK’s key early computing pioneers. In 1948 he attempted to build a prototype disc and then built the world’s first working rotating computer store in the form of a drum. With his wife they were pioneers of natural language translation. He was the father of the UK’s first mass produced computer. However, his longest lasting achievement was to design the original Booth multiplier – still used in the majority of the world’s mass produced chips today. This talk will celebrate his life and work.

Speaker: Lukas Roper

Venue: University of Bristol , Room 1.11, Merchant Venturers Building

5:30pm Refreshments
6:00pm Main Talk

Please register for this event here. This event is free to members and non.members.

Tips to get into the games industry

Find out how to get in to the games industry with these useful tips from Lukas Roper, Senior Developer at Opposable Games

Lukas Roper is a Senior developer at Opposable Games. He qualified with a first class degree two years ago and with these tips he immediately had a job lined up.

He has worked on a number of titles including games for Channel 4 and ITV among other clients.

Please register for this Event via Eventbright

This event is aimed at children, though adults are welcome as well.

The BCS is collaborating with @Bristol and the University of Bristol to bring you the Digi Makers
 

Venue: University of Bristol lecture theatre 1.11 in the Merchant Venturers Building

Speaker: Julian Goddard & Ric Hill

6:30pm Refreshments
7:00pm Main Talk

Please register for this event here

Use of agile software development in the safety-critical domain.

The use of agile development techniques for software development have been growing for a number of years and, with its adoption by the public sector more recently, it can be regarded as mainstream. But there is an application domain it hasn't penetrated completely - the safety-related domain. Once the province of avionics, rail and nuclear, safety-related software is now commonplace in automotive, medical and industrial applications and, with the arrival of the IOT and growth in autonomous systems that can have safety implications, more and more software is safety-related. Can agile be used to develop it though?

Safety-related software development is governed by safety standards and certification, objectives to meet and outputs to produce. The standards don't mandate using the traditional V-model but it is the lifecycle model that 'fits' and tends to be used. When software can kill or injure, engineers are conservative and don't take risks.

Agile has brought a number of benefits to other application domains so why not the safety-related domain? Julian Goddard will be exploring whether agile techniques can be used to develop safety-related software. He'll be looking at how compatible agile is with the safety standards, and if, how and why agile could be used without compromising safety.

Agile Project Tracking

Many software projects either under-deliver, overrun or suffer spiralling costs. Agile purports to offer a solution to that, but it’s not necessarily a silver bullet and Agile development projects are still liable to result in disappointed stakeholders.

In this talk we explore the unique concerns about tracking progress on Agile projects, and how best to work out how far through you really are.

We will also look at some of the ways in which we can leverage technology to aid the tracking process, including options for if your team is distributed over multiple locations.

Venue: University of Bristol lecture theatre 1.11 in the Merchant Venturers Building

Speaker: Allan Kelly

6:30pm Refreshments
7:00pm Main Talk

Please register for this event here

Agile outside software?

Agile is most closely associated with software development, Agile software development to be precise. That's enough to put people off right there and then. But for those who listen long enough invariably ask the big question: "Does Agile work outside of software?"

In fact the "Does Agile work outside of software?" question is getting asked more and more often. Perhaps because, whether we develop software or not, software seems to be a bigger and bigger part of our lives.

In this presentation Allan Kelly will attempt to answer in this question. He will look at what Agile is, where it came from, where else we can find things like Agile, what examples we have of Agile outside of software and examine what lessons Agile gives for knowledge workers in general.