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Posted on March 15th 2017
Computer Science Students Visit the Home of the Codebreakers
Year 9 ICT students went on a trip to Bletchley Park, a facility that remained top secret until 30 years after the end of World War II.
Students attended a workshop on cyber safety as well as demonstrations of the Enigma and Bombe machines and guided tour of the park. We learned that the workforce at Bletchley Park was predominantly made up of women aged 17-19 who had excellent maths skills and who joined the war effort without really understating the value of their contribution.
Tahira Khan, Year 9, wrote:
Bletchley Park was originally the central site for British code breakers during WW2. It was run by the government code and cypher school. It regularly penetrated the secret communications of the German Enigma and the Lorenz ciphers. The Ultra intelligence (which was produced at Bletchley) shortened the war by two to four years. Without it the outcome of the war would have been unexpected. Now Bletchley Park (located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK) is a well-known heritage attraction.
Alan Turing was an English computer scientist, mathematician and a theoretical biologist. He was very influential computer scientist and was considered the father of artificial intelligence. During WW2 Turing worked for the government code and the cypher school. He created a number of techniques which were all made to try to speed up the process of breaking the enigma. He eventually devised The Bombe.
The Enigma was invented by a German engineer, named Arthur Scherbius at the end of WW1. Enigma machines were used to protect diplomatic and military communications. Most German communications were enciphered on the enigma cipher machine, which was based on rotors. The enigma was created to send messages to the Germans without the English knowing what was being said.
Nishat, Year 9, wrote:
“I learnt how to spot a fake website from a real website; this will help me to stay safe online from scams and people who will try to steal your personal information”
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