The Alan Turing Year (2012): Turing Machine - the root of modern computer

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               JOINT SEMINAR
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Department of Computer Science and Engineering
The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology,

IEEE Computational Intelligence Chapter (HK)
                   and
HK Computer Society
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Speaker:        Cambridge WONG
                Wealth Bridge Asia Ltd
                Member, HK Computer Society

Title:          "The Alan Turing Year (2012): Turing Machine
                - the root of modern computer"

Date:           Monday, 12 March 2012

Time:           4:00pm - 5:00pm

Venue:          Lecture Theatre F (near lifts 25/26)
                The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Abstract:

2012 is Alan Turing Year, a centenary celebration of the life and work of
Alan Turing, a British mathematician and logician who makes significant
contribution to the 20thcentury in at least three areas: computer science,
WWII and artificial intelligence.  He lays the theoretical foundation of
modern digital computer in his 1936 seminal paper 'On Computable Numbers,
with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem'.  This paper is one of
the intellectual landmarks of the 20th century.  Although computer is used
by nearly everyone in our daily life, very few people knows about the
story of Alan Turing and his significant contribution to human mankind.

In this paper, he invented a hypothetical machine, Turing Machine, a tool
for proving a mathematical problem in first order logic.  This is the
beginning of a new field of research known as computation theory, a study
of the abilities and limitations (the halting problem) of digital
computer.  Further works have shown the equivalence of Turing Machine,
Lambda Calculus and Recrusive Function that leads to the generally
accepted Church-Turing Thesis.

The Turing Machine remains a popular topic for exposition and discussion.
Yet, Alan Turing's original paper describing his invention is rarely read.
The objective of this talk is to makes that paper and its ramifications
accessible to a much broader audience.


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Biography:

Cambridge has been in the IT industry for 30 years and has spent the last
24 years in the wealth management industry.  He joined Matheson PFC, a
Jardine Pacific company, as the head of IT in 1988 and had been with the
company till 2004.  His leadership was shown in managing a large scale
multi-million US Dollar project on unit trust portfolio management,
dealing and settlement system in mid 90s. This system enabled the company
to operate in a very efficient and scalable way, which enabled the company
to develop new line of business like fee based model portfolio management
service or unit trust monthly saving plan. This system is one of the most
powerful and comprehensive unit trust dealing and settlement systems and
is still highly regarded in the industry.

Prior to joining Matheson PFC, he also worked for Jardine Matheson Group,
Digital Equipment Corporation and The Hong Kong and China Gas Ltd in
various development and project management position. Cambridge is
currently the director of two companies, a back office outsourcing and
algo-trading development company for the finance industry as well as a
stock broker firm.

Cambridge is very active in community services and contributed his time to
various charity organizations for the last 12 years, such as Hong Chi
Association (mentally handicapped) and Barnabas Charitable Services
Association (drug rehabilitation and prevention).  In recent year, he also
developed his interest in popular science (on computer science and
astronomy) and would like to promote this as general education to the
younger generation and general public.

Cambridge graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in early 80s
with a bachelor's degree in computer science.  He is from the first batch
of computer science graduate in Hong Kong.  He is also a full member of
Hong Kong Computer Society and British Computer Society.