Nerd Nite London

Nerd Nite London is a monthly event where three speakers give 18-21 minute fun-yet-informative talks across all disciplines, while the audience drinks along. This February, we’ll be learning about the lost letters of the English alphabet, discover the secrets of better building design and bust some data mining myths.

WHERE’S ETHEL? LOST LETTERS FROM THE ENGLISH ALPHABET

Our alphabet has 26 letters. But there were more. What were they? Where did they come from? What happened to them? And why is ye olde not quite as it seems? Lydia Thornley has been on a voyage of typographic nerdery to find out.

REMBRANDT’S ALGORITHM: HOW DECODING CENTURIES WORTH OF PAINTINGS MIGHT HELP US DESIGN BETTER BUILDINGS

Over time, we’ve got better at predicting what buildings will look like before they’ve been built – we use models, renders, and we scan materials. But scientists and engineers are still struggling to convey what a space will feel like. When it comes to feelings, art is where it’s at – might Rembrandt or Van Gogh hold some of the answers we’ve been looking for? In his talk, Reinier will tell you why engineers should be visiting museums instead of running experiments.

KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU: SO THAT’S WHY YOU MINE MY DATA FOR POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

HAL 9000; a shadowy tech cabal; Marvin the paranoid android. They are all mining your personal data to manipulate the next election. This talk will discuss the use — and abuse — of personal data in political campaigns. Jens Koed Madsen take the audience through examples of how data can generate psychologically and personally specified political ads, while also diving into the hype and caution against some hyperbole that often surrounds these methods.