Day 4 of LIYSF! There was an optional visit to Stonehenge this morning that some of our friends headed off to for the morning and afternoon. Rhien and I hung back and decided to do a little tour of London on our own! With our friend Martin from Germany, we hopped on the tube and went into the main city centre. We spent our morning and afternoon visiting the iconic Big Ben clock tower and Trafalgar Square. We had lunch at Neil’s Yard, a collection of street food places inside a colourful warehouse. I had the best Masala Chai! I really enjoy how multicultural London, and LIYSF, has been so far! We also visited an iconic cosmetics store, Glossier, and a London staple, the 3-story Waterstones bookstore. It was such a fun day of wandering around London and seeing the sights.
In the evening, we had a debate evening hosted by Dr. Jason Nurse. He gave us a lecture and throughout his talk, he would ask for participant input and discussion. The topic of his lecture was cybersecurity and the responsibilities associated with keeping information online factual. He talked about the amount of content posted online and how we can moderate and monitor it to ensure that what is being posted isn’t fake news or harmful content. He also discussed deepfakes with us, which I found particularly interesting. There isn’t software available yet that can detect these fake videos and I’m curious to see what kind of technology will be created in the future. A question that I particularly liked from him was: who’s responsibility is it to ensure what is posted online is true: individuals (the ones posting and consuming the content), the platforms themselves (twitter, Instagram, etc.), or individual governments?
The evening ended with some socializing in the courtyard with our friends and a few games of friendly foosball. Tomorrow you’ll hear from Rhien about her experience presenting to all LIYSF participants about her research!
~Annabelle