Latest - Business Sector: Manufacturing

David Southward

David Southward was a co-founder of Cambridge Consultants in 1960 as a fresh graduate from Cambridge: the foundation of CC is considered to be the start of the Cambridge Phenomenon. The first digital computer he saw after working on analogue computers was a Digital Equipment PDP/11. He went on to become technical director of Sinclair Research working closely with Sir Clive Sinclair. There he helped design the screen for Sinclair’s miniature tv, a storage device for the Sinclair microcomputers and a printer for them.

Dr Alan Shepherd

Alan has had a long and varied IT career, with a background in research, innovation, technology assessment, and large scale contracting.   He has held senior technology management appointments in both public and private sectors, and recently has specialised in highlighting the growing business impact of emerging technologies.  He has been responsible for many major projects and investment decisions, and has considerable experience of IT-supported and IT-driven business change programmes.  He is very familiar with the difficulty of implementing change that affects workplace culture and tradition, a challenge that’s still very much with us today.  Alan is a Chartered Engineer, and has served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Intel Corporation, and as a Council Member of EURIM and of the Parliamentary IT Committee.

Professor Brian Randell

Brian has had a long and illustrious career in computing, starting work at English Electrics Atomic Power Division in 1957. Brian worked on various programming tasks, including the ALGOL 60 compiler for the KDF9 machine, which was the subject of his book, Algol 60 Implementation, along with Lawford Russell, one of the first books on compilers.  Brian then joined IBM Research at Yorktown Heights in 1964, where he worked on computer and systems design.  After five years at IBM, Brian became Professor of Computing Science at the Department of Computing Science at Newcastle University, where he has remained since. 

Interview with Sir Andrew Hopper

Andy Hopper studied computer science at Swansea under Professor David Aspinall then did his PhD in Cambridge where he worked on the Cambridge Ring.  His LAN company came to the attention of Acorn Computers and was taken into Acorn in 1979.   Hopper was appointed managing director of the Olivetti Cambridge Research lab in 1986.  As MD he helped more than 10 venture operations become independent companies under the benign eye of Olivetti.  On the closure of the lab Hopper focused on his professorship at Cambridge where he developed a strategy to get over 200 ventures from Cambridge University into the market.

Dr Steve Furber CBE

Steve Furber was working at Acorn Computers having helped develop the BBC Micro and was searching for the follow-on product. He found that the microprocessors then on the market had a deep design flaws: they were too complex. Acorn decided to design its own microprocessor using a novel approach. Furber led the small design team. They called it the Acorn Risc Machine (ARM), later changed to the Advanced Risc Machine and it is now found in over a billion mobile devices worldwide