Information Technology

Who are we? And what is our role in the universe? IT is radically changing not only how we deal with the world and make sense of it, or interact with each other, but also how we look at ourselves and understand our own existence and responsibilities. Watch Professor Floridi discuss the impact of IT on our lives and on our self-understanding. He will outline his belief that IT is bringing about a fourth revolution, in the long process of reassessment of humanity's fundamental nature and role in the universe.

In the near future we face the perfect storm; where the combination of climate change and population growth is set to increase the numbers of people affected by 'natural' disasters. By 2030 globally we will need 50% more energy, with much of this energy generated through fossil fuels, accelerating climate change. By 2030 we will need 50% more food and 30% more water to feed our expanding population. Professor Maslin looks at these dire predictions for the future and discusses how we, as a global society, can deal with these problems and ultimately reduce society's vulnerability and save lives. Mark Maslin, Professor of Climatology, University College London presents the inaugural lecture in the British Computer Society Hertfordshire 2012 - 2013 events programme, presenting a fascinating insight into perhaps the biggest issue that will face mankind in the coming century.

Vesna Gerintes interviews Luciano Floridi about his work and philosophy, after a talk at the Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires in Paris.

This talk was given at the INTI Universities in Malaysia for MBA students and staff. It covers the web business opportunities, understanding importance of the customer journeys, social presence and mobile business opportunities.

This third and final part of the lecture series synthesizes the informal insights gained in part 1 about the importance of the sensorimotor loop in facilitating the evolution of structured cognition, with the idea of formally quantifying information and asking how informationally favoured solutions would look like, yielding some surprising insights.

Who are we? And what is our role in the universe? IT is radically changing not only how we deal with the world and make sense of it, or interact with each other, but also how we look at ourselves and understand our own existence and responsibilities. Watch Professor Floridi discuss the impact of IT on our lives and on our self-understanding. He will outline his belief that IT is bringing about a fourth revolution, in the long process of reassessment of humanity's fundamental nature and role in the universe.

The Staff Knowledge Management Toolkit is an online service designed to help staff find and make best use of the wealth of our university's information resources collections and services. Supporting both academic and professional staff, the new Toolkit guides staff through finding information sources relevant to their work. The toolkit is on StudyNet and contains up-to-date information, tips and links to help you find what you need quickly and effectively. Everything is in one place with clear step-by-step instructions, and there's one click access to a range of sites.

A video presentation which introduces the viewer to how Second Life has been used at the University of Hertfordshire, including its virtual campus.

The Keynote from the Paint IT Green Conference at the University of Hertfordshire - September 2010 Keynote: 'Shared services': increased energy efficiency via consolidation in larger facilities. Speaker: Dr Ian Bitterlin, Chief Technology Officer, Prism Power Ltd.

A video about reasons to study computer science at UH. Interviews with both staff and students about the multitiude of different possible career paths a degree in computer science can lead to.

This first part of the lecture series travels over a series of phenomena observed in living nature which carry the hallmark of intelligent behaviour and asks how these could emerge through evolution. The lecture accumulates evidence that points to the requirements of sensorimotor structure and the cost of information processing as the main suspects.

Data Centres Manager, Steve Bowes-Phipps collects the prestigious GEIT award for Innovation in a Smaller Data Center

How do we know when some information is relevant? In this lecture, Luciano Floridi introduces the general debate on informational relevancy in a variety of contexts (including search engines, information retrieval, online advertising, juridical procedures, everyday information processes, medical diagnosis, and scientific experiments). He then presents a general theory of relevant information and shows how it provides a satisfactory answer to the initial question.

This second part of the lecture series gives the formal foundation of information theory which will be useful to fully appreciate the final lecture in the series. While slightly more formal than the rest of the series, the lecture does not assume much beyond some elementary mathematics.

How do we know when some information is relevant? In this lecture, Luciano Floridi introduces the general debate on informational relevancy in a variety of contexts (including search engines, information retrieval, online advertising, juridical procedures, everyday information processes, medical diagnosis, and scientific experiments). He then presents a general theory of relevant information and shows how it provides a satisfactory answer to the initial question.

In March 2008, the University hosted the Science and Technology Research Institute (STRI) Showcase, its second showcase of research. The following lecture was given by Professor Bruce Christianson, Professor of Informatics at the University, on the challenge to make computer programs run backwards, a necessary development for Science and Engineering to move forward. According to Professor Christianson, moving from simulating a process to optimising the underlying model requires accurate sensitivities, and when there are many thousands of inputs these sensitivities are most efficiently calculated in reverse. Professor Christianson and his international team are developing the world's first complete Adjoint (backwards) Fortran Compiler to make this possible.