Celebrating the life and work of Alan M. Turing

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the ACM’s A.M. Turing Centenary Celebration in San Francisco. It was a fantastic event, as one audience member put it – “it’s like opening a computer history book and having all of the characters step out of the page”.

The celebration featured a diverse range of talks and panels and really emphasised how much impact Turing had on the scientific field he’s arguably the Father of (not to mention the other scientific fields he influenced).

Judea Pearl, Barabra Grosz, Raj Reddy and Edward A. FeigenbaumRon Rivest and Adi ShamirVint Cerf"Information, Data, Security In A Networked Future" PanelDonald E. Knuth"The Algorithmic Universe" Panel
Niklaus Wirth"Programming Languages - Past Achievements And Future Challenges" Panel"Computer Architecture" PanelEdmund ClarkDana S. Scott"The Turing Computational Model And How It Shaped Computer Science" Panel
Alan C. KayFernando J. Corbato and Ken Thompson"Systems, Architecture, Design, Engineering, And Verification - The Practice In Research And Research In Practice" PanelButler LampsonRaj Reddy, Barabra Grosz, Edward A. Feigenbaum and Judea PearlEdward A. Feigenbaum
"Human And Machine Intelligence" PanelTelling Mrs Turing About The Turing AwardBlind ChessRhododendron Invitation"Turing The Man" Panel

Each panel and talk was recorded and webcast on the day and are now available online for viewing, I highly recommend viewing them!