Posted: 25th September 2015

Ada Lovelace was the world's first computer programmer, and a century ahead of her time in understanding the potential of general purpose computers. In honour of her bicentenary, the Department of Computer Science has launched a series of annual lectures to be given by eminent female Computer Scientists from across the world. The inaugural lecture will be given by Barbara Liskov, Institute Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and winner of the 2008 Turing Award for Computing.  

Tuesday 27 October, 17:00, Andrew Wiles Building, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6GG.

THE POWER OF ABSTRACTION

Abstraction is at the centre of much work in Computer Science. It encompasses finding the right interface for a system as well as finding an effectivve design for a system implementation.  Furthermore, abstraction is the basis for program construction, allowing programs to be built in a modular fashion.  This talk will discuss how the abstraction mechanisms we use today to came to be and how they are supported in programming languages.

This lecture is generously supported by Facebook, and will be introduced by Maxine Williams, Head of Global Diversity. To book tickets for this event, please visit: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-inaugural-lovelace-lecture-by-professor-barbara-liskov-tickets-18758161165