Tag: TuringFest

Dr Enigma at Turing Fest 2018

by Sam Baldwin (Son of Dr Enigma)

Dr Enigma was back at Turing Fest in Edinburgh this year to deliver a talk, as well as host a stand displaying two original, war-time Enigma machines.

It was great to be back at the festival, speaking with so many interesting people, and once again to be bringing a piece of history which is still relevant to the IT world today (see: War Hackers: Why Breaking Enigma is still relevant to cybersecurity today).

As Scotland’s premier IT event, the Enigma machine story, the hands-on demos of the original Enigma machines, and their links to Alan Turing, provide an interesting contrast to the high-tech world of blockchain, growth hacking and bootstrapping, as well as something you can actually touch and feel – something of a rarity in this digital age.

A big thanks to Brian Corcoran and the rest of the Turing Fest organisers for the invite and to everybody who came to the talk and to play with an Enigma machine.

If you’d like to book an Enigma machine talk or demo for your own event, see our Enigma machine events page or email: events@drenigma.org.

Here are a few pictures of Turing Fest 2018:

Speaking at Turing Fest 2018, Edinburgh
Tika Larasati and Dr Enigma at Turing Fest 2018, Edinburgh
Turing Fest 2018, Edinburgh
Gareth Williams, Skyscanner co-founder, plays with my Enigma Machine
Brian Corcoran, Turing Fest co-founder, plays with my Enigma Machine
Speaking at Turing Fest 2018, Edinburgh
Hands-on Enigma demo at Turing Fest 2018, Edinburgh, UK

Enigma Machine @ Turing Fest 2017

by Dr Mark Baldwin

Last week I was in Edinburgh, invited by the organisers to speak at the Turing Fest – Scotland’s biggest Tech gathering.

TuringFest2017_2

My role was not only to give a presentation explaining something of the workings of the Enigma machine, but also to mount a display, allowing participants to operate a genuine wartime Enigma machine.

TuringFest2017-3

Despite being an almost one hundred year old piece of technology, the Enigma Machine story continues to fascinate younger generations and I was presenting alongside speakers from some of today’s top tech companies including: Google, Microsoft, Y Combinator, TechCrunch, Skyscanner, Moz, Trello and Github.

My hands-on demonstrations and my talk seemed to go down well with what was cleary a very technologically-savvy group of people, and one of my younger audiences.

A big thanks to Turing Fest for inviting me up to Scotland to share the Engima Story with such a lovely and interested crowd. I hope to see you again next year.

Here are a few tweets from some of the Turing Fest attendees: