Artificial Intelligence expert Dr Barry Porter looks at how software can help change the relationship between humans and machines in a free public lecture at 7pm on Wednesday 28th November.

Every autumn, the Faculty of Science and Technology presents a series of talks held at The Storey in Lancaster.

This year there are five lectures on topics ranging from dark matter in the Universe to driverless cars, the psychology of decision making and the formation of the Himalayas.

Dr Barry Porter from the School of Computing and Communications said: “Modern software systems have become extremely complex, reaching tens of millions of lines of code, and are deployed into unknown environments with frequently changing conditions.

“Computer scientists have long sought to tackle this complexity, and in this lecture we reveal some of the latest research on software that takes responsibility for its own design.

“Using real-time machine learning, and a new kind of programming technology, we show how software can assemble itself from small building blocks – and can then observe and learn about its own behaviour in order to redesign itself to better suit the world around it.

“This technique can help reduce complexity in building software and also begins to redefine the relationship between humans and machines in achieving an objective - with humans offering guidance and creativity while the machine fills in the fine details.”

To book a place, please register using either the Eventbrite link below each lecture, or by contacting Kate Hutchinson on k.hutchinson2@lancaster.ac.uk or 01524 593952.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/self-designing-software-systems-by-dr-barry-porter-tickets-50684243938