A leading Welsh computer scientist will be in the limelight next week, helping to brief Welsh Government members, advisers and policymakers.
Dr Tom Crick, a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC), has been invited to speak at Science and the Assembly 2011 on Tuesday 24th May at the Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay.
The timing of the event could not be better for computer science in Wales, as work gets underway on the HPC Wales high performance computing project.
The £40 million project — which will provide a world-class super-computing network, a research and innovation institute and a skills academy — has been in the news lately for its new links with Fujitsu, Microsoft and Intel.
Science and the Assembly is an annual event organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry, designed to develop closer links between the scientific community in Wales and the Welsh Government.
Dr Crick said: “I will be discussing the importance of Computing in Wales, highlighting how it underpins modern scientific research and where it sits within the strategically important Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) agenda; Computing is the quintessential STEM subject, the so-called silent “C” in STEM, involving scientific enquiry, engineering design and mathematical foundations.”
Dr Crick is one of six invited speakers from across academia and industry, as well as the Welsh Government Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor John Harries, on themes heralded by the International Year of Chemistry.
This is a well-timed event with the recent Assembly elections, with a strong turnout expected from both newly-elected Assembly Members and policymakers.
In December 2010, the Welsh Government outlined a framework for Delivering a Digital Wales, a wide-ranging strategy to reflect the importance digital technologies now play in our lives, touching upon virtually every strand of public and private sector activity.
Dr Crick said: “Being able to innovate with technology will be a crucial part of the future economic strength of Wales.
“And therein lies the importance and relevance of Computing education: it is imperative that there is a clear strategy for Computing in Wales that distinguishes it from “digital literacy”, recognising it as a core discipline that embodies deeper computational thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills — these are skills that are relevant to everyone, in all disciplines and in all facets of life, not just underpinning modern scientific research.”
The seventh annual Science and the Assembly takes place on Tuesday 24th May at the Pierhead Building and the Senedd; registration is online: http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Parliament/Events/ScienceAndTheAssembly2011.asp
