Computer Laboratory

Course pages 2012–13

Topical Issues

Topical Issues is a 12-lecture course that is meant to help bridge the gap between the academic Tripos and industry. The course aims to cover a series of current trends in the technology industry as well as providing basic knowledge of important systems (e.g. GPS).

It is not a traditional lecture course. The coverage may change at short notice to ensure content is topical. Lectures are not given by one person, but by a mixture of Faculty and industrial guest speakers.

Each year around half of the lecture attendees come out of interest rather than with an intention to take the exam question. This is perfectly acceptable.

Lecture Plan

Date Topic Lecturer
26 Apr Indoor Location Robert Harle, CUCL
29 Apr Development of machine communication and wireless systems Antony Rix, TTP
1 May Inertial Tracking Robert Harle, CUCL
3 May Wifi and NAVSOP Tracking Ramsey Faragher, CUCL
6 May GPS Ramsey Faragher, CUCL
8 May Building Large Distributed Systems at Google David Singleton, Google
10 May RFID and NFC Robert Harle, CUCL
13 May Developing the Kinect Jamie Shotton, Microsoft Research
15 May Big Data Jez Nelmes, Detica
17 May Computing Road Routes for Demanding Customers Alan Jones, Cotares
20 May From Wired to Wireless Networks Bogdan Roman, CUCL
22 May Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Julian Hill, BAE Systems

Examples Sheet

Latest version is here.

The unusual nature of this course (flexible syllabus, industry lecturers) makes it difficult to propduce an examples sheet in advance. Instead, the sheet will be updated as we go on.

Notes and Resources

Links to notes and materials will appear here after each lecture

Lecture 1: Badge and Bat

Lecture 2: Internet of Things

Lecture 3: Inertial Navigation

Lecture 4: WiFi and NAVSOP Tracking

Lecture 5: GPS

Lecture 6: Building Large Distributed Systems at Google

Lecture 7: RFID and NFC

Lecture 8: Developing the Kinect

Lecture 9: Big Data

Lecture 10: Computing Road Routes for Demanding Customers

Lecture 11: From Wired to Wireless Networks

Lecture 12: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

  • Not available (and not examinable)