Norbury High sixth formers Ushna Shahzad Aslam, Hira Nawaz and Nida Umer recently accompanied a member of the academy‘s teaching staff to Qube Research and Technologies in Victoria, south-west London, to hear mathematician James Grime speak about code breaking and to take a look at an original Enigma machine.
The students formed part of a private audience of only 40 people at the event on Thursday 17th October and were able to enjoy one-on-one time with James so they could ask him questions about Enigma. A highlight of the trip was being able to create a code on a replica cipher machine. It was a wonderful experience which helped develop the girls’ learning and build on their enthusiasm for maths.
Enigma (pictured) was a cipher device used by the German military in the Second World War. The secrets of the machine were originally uncovered by a Polish team led by Marian Rejewski but operational changes by the German military in 1940 significantly hampered deciphering efforts. Shortly afterwards, however, the machine’s cipher was famously cracked by Alan Turing and his Ultra team at Bletchley Park, as depicted in the film The Imitation Game, using new methods and machinery that built upon the Polish team’s knowledge.
James Grime is a mathematician, lecturer and public speaker. He holds a PhD in maths and is passionate about the subject. In particular, he is known for his talks about the mathematics of codes and code breaking. James is also a presenter on the popular and well-established YouTube channel numberphile, which has attracted over 4.5 million subscribers.
Photo by Christian Lendl reproduced with thanks.
