We asked our staff to recommend resources that you may find useful or fun to look at before the official start of the course. There is no obligation for you to look at any of these but if you are at a loose end and looking for something to do, this might be a good place to start.
Books:
Recommended by Olaf Chitil, Lecturer in the School of Computing.
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter. Olaf says ‘I recommend this book to people interested in computability and AI. It is not an easy read and needs time.’
Recommended by Sarah Turner, a PhD student in the School of Computing
Click Here To Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World by Bruce Schneier – about the insecurities in the Internet of Things.
Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. Ostensibly about data, but really about how nothing is designed for women (or other groups that are not involved in the design process).
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil
Blogs and Articles:
Recommended by Stefan Marr, Lecturer in School of Computing
Amazon, Google, Microsoft – Who has the greenest cloud? by Daniel Oberhaus. A WIRED report card on the top three cloud providers shows how their environmental claims stack up.
Recommended by Sanjay Bhattacherjee, Lecturer in the School of Computing
Mathematics and Cryptography: A Marriage of Convenience? by Alice Silverberg, University of California. Also available as a talk given by Alice Silverberg at Eurocrypt 2020 on YouTube
Does one have to be a genius to do maths? by Terry Tao
Recommended by Shujun Li, Professor of Cyber Security
How to Beat the Cyber Criminals and Stay Safe Online by Professor Shujun Li and Dr Jason Nurse
Recommended by Orla Garratt, Marketing and Communications Manager
Good News Movement on Instagram. Kind acts, good news and heroes – because we could all do with some positivity right now.
TV and Films
Recommended by Sarah Turner, a PhD student in the School of Computing
Silicon Valley. Sounds silly, but it approaches the moral issues of what tech is for really well. Available on Amazon Prime Video
Mr Robot – ridiculously over the top drama about hacking, available on Amazon Prime Video
Devs recently aired on the BBC and is supposed to be really very good.