Professor of Cybernetics, Kevin Warwick, talks to the DCU Networking Society
26 February 2003

Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, gave a lecture relating to Cybernetics on Wednesday 19 February in the main Venue of the Hub. The talk was organised and hosted by Redbrick, the DCU Networking Society, and was broadcast live on the web thanks to HEAnet, DCU Computer Services Department, CAVS, and NETech.

Kevin carries out research in artificial intelligence, control and robotics, and his favourite topic is pushing back the frontiers of machine intelligence. He has published over 300 research papers, and his latest paperback "In the Mind of the Machines" gives a warning of a future in which machines are more intelligent than humans. He has been awarded higher doctorates both by Imperial College and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague and has been described (by Gillian Anderson of the X-Files) as Britain's leading prophet of the robot age.

In 1998 he shocked the international scientific community by having a silicon chip transponder surgically implanted in his left arm. A series of further implant experiments have taken place in which Kevin's nervous system was linked to a computer.

Professor Warwick spoke of these experiments and answered questions in his talk, which will be archived on the Networking Society's homepage (www.redbrick.dcu.ie) in the near future.

The DCU Networking Society organises a number of talks and tutorials on computing related topics. Lance Spitzner, a visiting security expert, recently gave a talk on the Honeynet project while in Dublin for the 2nd annual National IT and E-security Summit (N.I.T.E.S) in Croke Park.

On the Wednesday 26 March , redbrick will be holding "SemNet - the DCU Semester Forum on Networking", in the seminar room of the Hub - it's free for all staff and students, and will be on a wide variety of topics related to networking. The talk is aimed primarily at the university, to encourage and inform anyone who's interested.