Webinars

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO VIEW THE WEBINARS ON YOUTUBE.

NEXT-GEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: UNLEASHING GENERATIVE AI AND MACHINE LEARNING

Exploring the theoretical foundations of generative AI and ML, advanced code generation techniques, machine learning in predictive software testing, enhancing software quality, AI for automated documentation, and ethical considerations. The webinar aims to provide valuable insights and practical knowledge for professionals in the software development field.

EVENT DATE: July 2024

PRESENTED BY: Aryyama Kumar Jana

HOSTED BY: John Ellis FIAP

PROGRAMMING PROVOKING POETRY

Three poems by Paul Lynham, entitled “Rubber Ducking with a Cardboard Guru, “It Works on My Computer! and “The Pensiveness of Coding. The topics emerging from these poems include debugging code, the issues of getting software to run on target machines and good programming goals such as flexibility, simplicity, fidelity and the avoidance of brittle software and entropy.

EVENT DATE: June 2024

PRESENTED BY: Paul Lynham

HOSTED BY: John Ellis

WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY

With a focus on software engineering, first discussing the need for more women in the industry and next discussing the top five misconceptions that discourage women from tech careers, we will finish by acknowledging the gender disparity, and discussing how men can be allies to women who want to be part of this fantastic industry.

EVENT DATE: January 2024

PRESENTED BY: Chris Mercer

TECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE

We focus on the issues in the design of autonomous tractors. With software systems getting into every aspect of our industrial world, we take a look into a slightly different aspect of our development world. Agricultural use of software systems has moved forward in leaps and bounds over the last 25 years and now like the automated gardening robots you see mowing peoples lawns, automated vehicles are moving into the farming world. Toby Mottram discusses the issues around autonomous tractors which are now in use around the world and likely to be more widespead in the farming industry. Autonomous tractors and specialist agricultural vehicles are now on sale from a number of suppliers worldwide.

Many systems and companies will doubtless fail during this wave of development funded by optimistic visionary entrepreneurs. It is worth reviewing what is the purpose of these vehicles and discussing how the multiple applications on farms are changing as a result of innovations in chemistry and biology. Similarly concerns about soil management, carbon sequestration, energy consumption are quickly changing the design parameters. Software integration is well understood in other sectors with concepts such as containerisation and APIs and these techniques are particularly important in tractor design given the range of different processing machines required even on single crops. Mapping systems are vitally important as are standards such as ISOBUS. The safety of humans near moving machinery is still an open area for improvement.

EVENT DATE: October 2023

PRESENTED BY: Dr Toby Mottram

THE RISE OF AI

With recent AI developments including tools like ChatGPT, we ask, is the software development industry dying or is this just another fad that will die like the rest of the so called super tools? A panel of members who have a variety of views on the subject discuss how it will effect software developers, business and the future.

Panel members include Nathan Relevy, Fellow, who has a commercial and technology background spanning decades and has been providing solutions in private and public sector organisations using technology to streamline and automate business functions, including expert systems. Nathan worked with earlier AI developments since 1990s and continues to leverage this in diverse solutions. Samuel Aina, Fellow, with over two decades of experience in the IT industry who specializes in developing custom solutions and delivering complex systems across various sectors. Samuel’s ability to communicate highly complex information to non-technical stakeholders, along with his analytical skills and problem-solving aptitude, make him a valuable asset in the rapidly evolving digital industry. Michael Peters, Fellow, Technical Director at Mapsoft (an Adobe Partner) who are developing an AI-powered tool within Adobe Acrobat and Ben Collier, Fellow, a technical leader, developer, writer and researcher with over twenty years of experience in tech who is currently Head of Development at the UK Health Security Agency. Having previously worked on biologically plausible AI models, he now has an interest in some novel applications of AI technology in emerging fields.

EVENT DATE: May 2023

HOSTED BY: John Ellis

THE RASPERRY CLUB Pi FOUNDATION

Sarah Roberts and her colleague Steph Burton explain what Code Club and Coder Dojo are actually about and how IAP members can get involved. Code Club believe that all children should have the opportunity to learn to code. They work with a global community of volunteers, educators and partners to run free coding clubs in schools where 9-13-year-olds can learn to be creative with code and share their ideas at fun, informal sessions that take place outside of the normal school day. Children follow Code Clubs FREE step-by-step project guides to make their own games, animations and websites with code. As well as allowing young coders to develop their digital skills, these projects give them the opportunity to explore ideas that are important to them and develop soft skills like problem solving and teamwork. Learn how to get involved with Code Club and provide life-changing opportunities for children in your area.

EVENT DATE: March 2023

PRESENTED BY: Sarah Roberts & Steph Burton

HOSTED BY: John Ellis

PROGRAMMER VS DEVELOPER

Chris Mercer gives his views on the different terms used to describe people who create software professionally. Learn what the different terms mean and consider how they can help you build and be part of a multi-skilled team.

EVENT DATE: March 2023

PRESENTED BY: Chris Mercer

COMMENTING CODE

The Director General of the IAP, Alastair Revell and the President of the IAP, Paul Lynham, will lead a debate on code commenting. Alastair will make the case for well commented code, while Paul will play Devil’s Advocate and postulate the reasons for minimising comments in source code. After the initial debate, the floor is open to attendees to raise their own observations and opinions.

EVENT DATE: March 2023

LED BY: Alastair Revell & Paul Lynham

COMPEALING CODE CHEMISTRY

How can we assess compealing code? This webinar looks at three compealing aspects of source code and demonstrates a simple example of how the code can be improved so that it becomes compealing. Find out more about this IAP initiative at FURST.

EVENT DATE: May 2022

HOSTED BY: John Ellis

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

The results are in! We asked you to name the person (dead or alive) that you believe was the most influential person in software development. We had a lot of great nominations. Before announcing the person who took the crown for this prestigious place we asked three people to explain why they nominated their candidate and why they should win.

EVENT DATE: March 2022

HOSTED BY: Paul Lynham

WHAT IS AGILE LEADERSHIP?

Looking at the challenges we need to resolve that are preventing responsible agile leadership from being successful in the workplace in 2021 and beyond. As a technology and agile leader, Giles Lydsey, has identified and experienced many of these challenges throughout his 25 years career, working in both small companies and large enterprises. The talk revolves around several common themes that leaders may face in the workplace and what we should try to do to overcome them, so allow our organisational leadership to be as successful as possible.

EVENT DATE: March 2020

PRESENTED BY: Giles Lyndsay

THE UK CYBER SECURITY COUNCIL

We asked Budgie Dhanda, co-chair of the Cyber Security Council Formation Project, to talk to us about the CSC and it’s role for the future. The IAP is a founder member of the Cyber Security Alliance and John Ellis is a member of the CSC project board. He is also a member of several of the workstreams involved in setting up this body. Alastair Revell is also a member of some of the workstreams.

EVENT DATE: November 2020

INTERVIEW WITH: Budgie Dhanda

HOSTED BY: John Ellis

ARCHITECTURE STATE MODELLING

Modelling enables multiple architecture states to be understood, planned and managed. Matt and Paul discuss: bringing about significant change to complex architecture; why is target architecture going to bring benefits; the full roadmap from current to future architecture – the risks, actions, issues and decisions.

EVENT DATE: August 2020

PRESENTED BY: Matt Thomas and Paul Lynham

COMPEALING CODE

We read code many more times than it is written. It is therefore essential that we write it well the first time. Such factors as a good design and structure and the code being as readable as prose are important. But, what guidelines can we employ to determine if the code is compealing ie. comprehensible, appealing and compelling? Paul gives his take on improving code as part of a series on FURST (Fit, Unit, Reviewed, Standard, Timely). Find out more about this IAP initiative at FURST.

EVENT DATE: July 2020

PRESENTED BY: Paul Lynham