Applications of Computing in Industry

Tuesday 25th February

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308 
Title:  Inside the Cloud Data Warehouse
Speakers:   Jonathan Dees & Bjoern Daase

We're going to peek under the hood of Snowflake's Cloud Data Warehouse and how it evolved into an AI Data Cloud! 

Snowflake started 12 years ago with the mission to build a data warehouse for the cloud. It pioneered the now established separation of compute and storage. But several other foundational decisions contributed to Snowflake's success. One of the key principles is run-time adaptivity which helps Snowflake to consistently execute queries with high performance. 

Thursday 27th February

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  JetBrains:  What It Takes to Build an AI Coding Agent
Speaker:  Andrew Zakanov

Building an AI coding agent isn’t about chasing trends—it’s about structured problem-solving and solid engineering. This talk breaks down what it takes to design, build, and refine a complex agentic system. Key topics include designing projects for fast experimentation, balancing research with practical constraints, and building automation and evaluation pipelines to track real progress. It also covers dataset collection, evaluation metrics, and common mistakes in greenfield AI products. Gain a firsthand look at how AI-powered development tools are built in industry and how core computer science principles translate into real-world innovation.

Tuesday 14th January

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Outshift by Cisco: Tech evolves fast, we innovate faster 
Speaker:  Hasith Kalpage | Director of Platform Engineering at Cisco

In a world where technological advancements occur at a breakneck pace, staying ahead of the curve is paramount for success. Outshift is Cisco company's incubation engine designed to foster innovation, agility, and strategic growth. In this talk, we will delve into the inner workings of Outshift, exploring how Cisco's venture accelerator operates to transform emerging ideas into market-leading ventures.

Tuesday 21st January

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  The Threat in Your Pocket
Speaker:  Dr Andy Lilly | Director and Co-Founder of Armour Communications 

Mobile phones are vulnerable in so many ways, this talk is about those vulnerabilities and the sort of thing one can do to address some of those problems - using software and some careful thought.

Tuesday 28th January

Time: 1:00pm Location HUX 308
Title:  Automated software engineering and self-driving startups
Speaker: Jonas Templestein | Founding CTO at Monzo

The best AI model is now ranked 175 in the world in competitive coding. It can solve graduate level problems in almost any field of science. OpenAI will release a human-level AI model this year. Some YC startups are achieving millions in annual revenue within months of founding with very small teams. People are expecting the first "solopreneur" billion dollar software company to emerge in the next few years.

If you've been wondering what all this means for you as a programmer, this is the talk for you!

I'll give you a demonstration of how I use AI in my daily coding workflow. And then we can talk a bit about how this all leads towards a future where we have self-driving startups . Then, if you're intrigued, you could then apply to join us for a work placement and build self-driving startups with us.

Tuesday 4th February

Time: 1:00pm Location HUX 308
Title:  Building the UKs biggest Fintech | Lloyds Banking Group
Speaker: Karen Rossi | CIO Lloyds Banking Group

This talk will provide some context around how we operate as a tech function, the tools we use, processes & application of some of the theory that the students may be learning.

We'll also give a real-world example of Improving the customer experience - via an app redesign – and the benefits that is bringing to the customer experience.

Lastly, hear about our industrial placement and Grad Scheme.

Tuesday 11th February

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Beyond Software: FPGA Implementation of Real-Time Trading Risk Systems
Speakers:  Alex Sequeira, Jake Dickie & Kaamil Jasani 

This presentation explores the implementation of ultra-low latency pre-trade risk checks using FPGA technology, drawing from real-world experience at Arctic Lake Technology, a London-based company specializing in advanced software and hardware risk management solutions for electronic trading. The talk will demonstrate how FPGA technology enables real-time risk assessment at nanosecond scales, crucial for today's automated trading environments.

We'll examine the fundamental architecture of FPGA-based solutions, explaining how they achieve superior performance compared to traditional software approaches. The presentation covers technical challenges in processing market data and performing distributed risk validations with deterministic, sub-microsecond latency, including practical considerations in FPGA design such as clock domain management, memory architecture, and system integration. These concepts will be illustrated through real-world examples and implementation strategies, making this relevant for both hardware and software engineers interested in high-performance trading systems.

Tuesday 18th February

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title: Delivering Digital Change with Gen AI Solutions on Google Cloud
Speakers:  Laskhmi Pranatharty Haran (Data Scientist and Google Cloud Consultant) and Anthony Youssef (Google AI and Cloud Consultant and proud Imperial Alumnus). 

Curious about a career where technology meets problem-solving? Go Reply's AI and Cloud Consultants will dive into a real-world case study showcasing cutting-edge Generative AI solutions on Google Cloud for Contract Analysis, giving you an overview of how Gen AI can help automate and enhance contractual document recognition, classification and processing. This will be a game changer for the automated processing of massive volumes of digitalised contract documents and is an example of how Google’s AI and cloud technology is leading digital change in the legal sector. In this session, we'll also share everything you need to know about joining our team as an intern or graduate and how to your career in Tech Consulting. Don't miss this opportunity to explore your future!

Wednesday 2nd October

Time: 1.00pm Location: HUX 308
Title: Tuza: How to start and scale a payments startup
Speaker:   Olivia Stannah | Co-founder and CTO of Tuza.

Tuza is a London-based payments startup building an exchange that allows small businesses to access payments at fairer prices. Founded out of Entrepreneur First by Ed Hardy (CEO, ex-Oxford), and Olivia Stannah (CTO, ex-Imperial) in 2023, Tuza has since raised £6m from top investors. In this talk, we will share our journey from idea to reality and discuss how to push for behaviour change in a payments industry that is broken.

Wednesday 2nd October

Time: 2pm Location: HUX 308
Title:  Real Time Streaming at Marshall Wace
Speaker:   Robin Stephenson

An introduction into real time stream processing and how it is used to tackle complex problems. We will take a look at some of the challenges of the paradigm, open source tooling in the space, and tooling we have built in Marshall Wace

Wednesday 2nd October

Time: 2:40pm Location: HUX 308
Title:   Peter Hamilton
Speaker: Startups are Chaos. You should join one!

Ex-Imperial, DoCSoc President, early employee at GoCardless for 6 years, then worked at Monzo, now Co-Founder & CTO at incident.io here in London

At Imperial, I did my placement with a 13 person company in Shoreditch — it changed my life and I never looked back. The experience shaped my career trajectory, the way I think and the people I work with and 10 years later, I started own startup. In three years, we’ve gone from a 4 person office above a Wahaca to raising millions of dollars and working with companies like OpenAI, Netflix, AirBnB, Etsy, CashApp and more. In this talk, I'll share some reflections on the journey, including the highs, lows and some advice, for anyone considering their options.

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Tuesday 8th October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Applied Distributed Systems Patterns for Cloud Native Data Platforms
Speakers:   Issa Hadar & Aaron Thomas

At Amadeus, we are developing the Creation Platform, a next-generation open software platform that connects travel solution providers with airlines and their partners. The Creation Platform is cloud-native, implementing a microservice architecture and leveraging technologies such as Microsoft Azure, Kubernetes, Apache Kafka, MongoDB, among others. In this talk, Issa will guide you through the architecture of the Creation Platform and discuss the daily challenges our developers face in building such a complex distributed system. Aaron will then present the SkyView Monitoring Dashboard, which he developed during his summer internship at Amadeus.

Thursday 10th October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title: Cloudflare 101 & How Our Walls of Entropy Work
Speaker:  William Woodhead

Deep dive into the world of Cloudflare with William Woodhead, Engineering Manager. Learn more about how Cloudflare's connectivity cloud works, and how we can help YOU excel at your academic and side projects with our handy, free tools for developers. Discover how you can join us in helping to build a better Internet together.

Tuesday 15th October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Things we do in the Enterprise that you may not learn at University
Speaker:   Tim Dinsdale | Managing Director, Engineering | Goldman Sachs

Things we do in at Goldman Sachs that you may not learn at University, including aspects of change and risk management, running and observing services, testing, s/w quality KPIs, SDLC and more.

Thursday 17th October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Disruptive Innovation using Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
Speaker: Dr David Sharp | Kaikaku.ai

David will take you on a journey that explores the increasingly sophisticated combinations of artificial intelligence, robotics, e-commerce, internet-of-things, telecommunication, transportation, cloud, logistics and warehouse technologies that are enabling disruptive innovations in customer service and fulfilment economics for online and in person experiences.

Tuesday 22nd October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Squarepoint - How a successful hedge fund leverages technology on the global markets
Speakers:   Sanchit Ajmera – Imperial Alumni &  Paul Kerrigan – Senior Manager and Software Engineer

In this talk we outline who we are, what we do, and how technology can enable us to solve such complex problems at the required scale. You will discover the multiple layers that make up our technological solutions, from distributed low-latency systems to firm-wide tools and services, and including the infrastructure that supports it all.

Thursday 24th October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Software Engineering within QRT's Q-Core group.
Speaker: Rayan Kanso & Charlotte Milloy

Day-to-day engineering at and recruitment at QRT

Tuesday 29th October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  From vision to impact: the Bending Spoons approach to AI and the business side of tech.
Speakers:  

•    Noé Guisset, AI and Backend Engineering Lead
•    Chiara Vivaldi, Product Lead
•    Costanza Mazzei, Talent Acquisition Manager

Bending Spoons is a technology company based in Milan. Since its founding in 2013, the company has served over a billion people across the globe through its suite of digital technology products, including Evernote, Issuu, Meetup, Remini, Splice, StreamYard, and WeTransfer.

Join our upcoming presentation to dive deep into Bending Spoons, its mission, and its career opportunities. Hear directly from leading experts in business and engineering, and learn what it’s like to drive change at the sharp edge of tech.

Thursday 31st October

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Turns Out, You Can’t Just Turn It Off and On Again: Running Automated Trading Systems at Scale
Speaker:  James Coster,  Head of SRE @ Winton

James has been at Winton for over a decade, with a primary focus on ensuring the operational excellence of Winton’s automated investment system. Whilst possessing a Computer Science degree, early in his career James found more enjoyment in dealing with the operational and support aspects of production systems rather than programming them. This passion has allowed him to play a crucial role in keeping Winton’s systems running smoothly, ensuring reliability and efficiency in a fast-paced, data-driven and highly automated environment.

Abstract:  Winton is a quantitative investment manager, holding ~$12B in assets under management. Technology and automation are fundamental to every aspect of our business, resulting in 99.9% of our trades – from data ingestion through to making investment decisions and executing trades in the market – being processed through our investment system without human interaction. The Site Reliability Engineering team at Winton lead engineering and operational support for this pipeline, working closely with both research, development, and infrastructure teams across the firm to ensure seamless operations around-the-clock in global markets.

In this talk we will give an overview of the four pillars of Winton’s investment pipeline, and what it takes for them to run reliably and at scale in a hybrid-cloud environment.

Tuesday 5th November

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  An Insight into a Career as a Software Developer in Asset Management. 

Ever wondered what a career in Software Engineering at an Asset Management firm might look like for you?  Yes, coding is involved, but it’s also problem solving, communication, testing, client interaction and much more, culminating in building the platforms that our Portfolio Managers use to make investment decisions for their clients.  Three of our engineers will host this interactive session, explain in more depth what Asset Management is and talk about their careers day-to-day and longer term.

Rowe Price is a global Asset Management firm with over $1.5 trillion in assets under management. Founded in 1937, we are headquarted in Baltimore on the East coast of the US and in London we have recently moved to a brand new office next to St Paul’s cathedral.  The Tech and Data organisations, when combined, is the largest BU in London and has seen significant headcount growth over the past few years.  We have a number of senior engineers leading high-performing teams, dedicated to meeting the technology needs of our business partners. We are a diverse and collaborative organisation and recognise our associates are the most important resources we have.

Thursday 7th November

Time: 1.00pm  Location: HUX 308
Title:  Navigating the Future of Software Engineering in the Age of AI: Trends, Skills, and Strategies for Aspiring Engineers
Speaker:  Yusuf Tok | CTO

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly impacting software engineering, altering the methods by which software is developed, tested, and maintained. This presentation explores the current trends that are shaping the integration of AI into software engineering practices. It will discuss the essential skills that aspiring engineers should develop to remain relevant in this evolving field, such as proficiency in AI concepts and adaptability to new technologies. The talk will also provide strategies for navigating the changing industry landscape, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and practical application of AI tools. The goal is to equip future engineers with insights and guidance to effectively prepare for the advancements in software engineering driven by AI.