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SUMMARY:Bletchley Park Week
DESCRIPTION:As the storm clouds of World War Two gathered over Britain, brilliant minds worked tirelessly at Bletchley Park to break the German Engima ciphers. The secret intelligence unravelled by codebreakers such as Alan Turing and Donald Michie was vital to the war effort and is thought to have shortened the conflict by years.\nBletchley Park became the home not only of British codebreaking, but the birthplace of modern information technology. Its extraordinary legacy still impacts on us today and resonates through the cyber security research undertaken by members of Kellogg College. Each year Kellogg College Oxford celebrates their unique partnership with Bletchley Park through a week-long programme of special events.\nThe 2026 theme is The Age of AI.\n \nEnigma Machine Demonstration\nThe Enigma machine was an electro-mechanical cipher device used by Nazi Germany to encrypt military and diplomatic communications during the Second World War.\nThere will be three open demonstrations (at 12.30pm, 3.00pm and 5.30pm) where you can find out how the machine works – and how Bletchley Park’s team of mathematicians, linguists and engineers worked to break the cipher and provide vital intelligence that shortened the war and saved countless lives.\nDate Monday 23 February 2026\nTime 12:30-13:30, 15:00-16:00, 17:30-18:30\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nTo book please follow the link:\n\n12:30-13:30 book here.\n15:00-16:00 book here.\n17:30-18:30 book here.\n\nWomen at Bletchley: A Wren’s Story and a Researcher’s Reflection\nJoin us for a special discussion to hear two very different stories about the Women of Bletchley Park – a personal account and a researcher’s perspective.\nSir Dermot Turing is the award-winning author of X, Y and Z – the real story of how Enigma was broken and Enigma Traitors, which reveals the failings of Allied cipher security during World War II. He will share insights from his latest book, Misread signals, which highlights the crucial, often overlooked roles of women at Bletchley Park.\nWe are also honoured to welcome Mary Stewart, who will tell us about her experiences serving as a bombe operator in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the Second World War. The Wrens, as they were known then, were the female branch of the British Royal Navy, formed initially in 1917 (WWI) and reformed in 1939 (WWII) to release men for sea service by filling crucial land-based roles like clerks, drivers, wireless operators, and codebreakers, serving globally and integrating into the Navy until officially disbanding in 1993 as women joined the Navy directly.\nTea, coffee and biscuits are provided immediately before the talk, from 11.30am.\nSir Dermot Turing is a Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, and the acclaimed author of Prof, a biography of his famous uncle, The Story of Computing, and most recently Misread Signals.\nMary Stewart was a Bombe operator during the War. Bombe machines were designed by Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman to break German Enigma codes. Operators were mostly women from the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens), who worked shifts in a tedious but vital role that involved setting up the machines, identifying “stops,” and passing potential settings to codebreakers.\nDate Tuesday 24 February 2026\nTime 12:00-13:00\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nPlease find booking link for this event here.\nMeet Jacqueline de Rojas, Chair of Bletchley Park Trust\nJoin Kellogg President Professor Jonathan Michie for a conversation with Jacqueline de Rojas, Chair of Bletchley Park Trust, and Bletchley Park Fellow at Kellogg College.\nJacqueline de Rojas is a leading figure in the technology sector, with a distinguished career spanning software, digital innovation and tech leadership. She is a prominent advocate for diversity and inclusion, and has advised both industry and government on digital transformation and navigating technological change. Their conversation will draw on her extensive experience to give insights into “The Age of AI” – how we got here and what it means for our future.\nAll event attendees are invited to arrive from 5pm, when tea and coffee will be served, and to stay for a drinks reception, which will immediately follow the event.\nDate Tuesday 24 February 2026\nTime 17:30-18:30\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nPlease find booking link for this event here.\nAcademic ethics in the age of instant text generation\nJoin us for a conversation with Dr Hazem Zohny, to explore some of the ethical questions for academics as AI makes instant text generation a new normal in the expression of ideas.\nDr Hazem Zohny is a Senior Research Fellow in Practical Ethics, Neuroscience, and Society at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.\nTea, coffee and biscuits are provided immediately before the talk, from 11.30am.\nDate Wednesday 25 February 2026\nTime 12:00-13:00\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nPlease find booking link for this event here.\nAI if Human: The Ethics, Regulation and Governance of AI\nJoin us for a conversation with Sir Nigel Shadbolt, as he explores the many dimensions of response to the question: “What would happen if AI were human?”\nSir Nigel Shadbolt is Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, and Professorial Research Fellow in Computer Science, where he leads the Human Centred Computing Group.\nThis event is chaired by President of Kellogg College, Professor Jonathan Michie.\nAll event attendees are invited to arrive from 5pm, when tea and coffee will be served, and to stay for a drinks reception, which will immediately follow the event.\nDate Wednesday 25 February 2026\nTime 17:30-18:30\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nPlease find booking link for this event here.\nFrom Enigma to the Human Body: Decoding Health with AI\nJoin us for a conversation with Dr Ping Lu about how history’s greatest codebreakers inspire today’s AI breakthroughs in healthcare.\nModerated by Xavier Laurent, Research Member of Common Room and Lead Training Coordinator at the AI Competency Centre.\nDr Ping Lu is Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Leeds. She holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and completed her postdoctoral research in medical imaging and biomedical signal analysis at the University of Oxford. Her research sits at the intersection of imaging and non-imaging machine learning in healthcare and computer science.\nAll event attendees are invited to arrive from 5pm, when tea and coffee will be served, and to stay for a drinks reception, which will immediately follow the event.\nDate Thursday 26 February 2026\nTime 17:30-18:30\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nPlease find booking link for this event here.\nUsing LLMs to explore and analyse biological datasets\nJoin us for a conversation with Stephen Taylor, as he shows how Large Language Models (LLMs) can be used to explore and analyse biological datasets.\nUnderstanding how diseases work and finding new treatments often involves working with massive, complex biological datasets. Traditionally, this required deep expertise in both biology and programming. Stephen and his team at the Centre for Human Genetics have developed a Multi-Dimensional Viewer (MDV) to simplify this process, and now, with advances in AI, their new tool, ChatMDV, allows anyone to explore and analyse these datasets using everyday language. This opens the door for wider participation in discoveries, improves transparency, and accelerates progress toward new therapies.\nStephen Taylor is Head of Integrative Computational Biology at the Centre for Human Genetics in the Nuffield Department of Medicine. The aim of his group is to develop state-of-the-art computational methods to break down barriers to aid the integration, visualisation, and analytics of biological datasets.\n\nModerated by Xavier Laurent, Research Member of Common Room and Lead Training Coordinator at the AI Competency Centre.\n\nAll event attendees are invited to arrive from 5pm, when tea and coffee will be served, and to stay for a drinks reception, which will immediately follow the event.\nDate Friday 27 February 2026\nTime 17:30-18:30\nLocation The Hub\nCost Free\nPlease find booking link for this event here.\nPlease note:\nBooking is required for all events.\nOpen to Members of Kellogg College, Oxford University members, the public.\nEvents may be photographed. If you do not wish to appear in the photographs, please let the photographer know.\n
URL:https://artsfestivaloxford.org/events/bletchley-park-week/
CATEGORIES:Academic,History,Talks
LOCATION:Milton Keynes
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