'Who Writes The Future?', a science fiction creative writing summer school for 14-17 year-olds at the Bodleian, is looking for computing researchers, broadly construed, to talk to students about future directions in their research and participate in group activities about the futures of computing. Research areas might include, but are not limited to: Artificial intelligence and machine learning; Quantum computing; Big data; Robotics; The internet and networking; Cybersecurity and cryptography.
This is an opportunity to engage the public with your work and gain insight into how young people understand the social and ethical dimensions of your research. The summer school will produce an anthology of short science fiction stories on the futures of computing, authored by the students, with the researchers also receiving credit. Researchers will spend one day, in the week commencing Monday 29 July, participating in the summer school. Your involvement will include an opportunity to briefly present your research to the students and the rest of the day will involve group discussions and predictions with the students about your research's future directions, helping to shape the students' short stories. Researchers will also attend an evaluation day in August where you will hear about students' experiences of the summer school and contribute your own thoughts.
The summer school will run from Monday 29 July to Friday 2 August 2019, with a follow-up roundtable on Tuesday 27 August 2019. Researchers should meet the following profile:
- Must be available for 1 day across Monday 29 July – Friday 2 August 2019.
- Must be available for the Tuesday 27 August 2019 follow-up roundtable.
- Research computing, broadly construed.
- Research at least at postdoctoral level.
Researchers invited to participate will be emailed ahead of time with more information about their participation in the summer school and the types of activities that they will take part in. To express interest in participating, please email Jacob Ward by Friday 14 June with:
- Your availability to participate on one of the days across Monday 29 July – Friday 2 August 2019.
- Your availability for the Tuesday 27 August 2019 follow-up roundtable.
- A brief summary of your research area and position at Oxford.