Apps, Algorithms and Abstractions: Decoding our Digital World

It’s a familiar scenario. You’re on the train, your phone goes ‘ping’, you take it out of your pocket and hey — someone sent you a message! Awww… it’s a picture of a cat doing something funny. You send back ‘LOL’, you put your phone back in your pocket – but have you ever stopped to think about what’s actually involved in making that happen? Inside even the most basic smartphone there are literally hundreds of innovations, algorithms and inventions — but how do they really work? How were they developed? And what’s the next generation of algorithms and applications going to look like?

In this talk, we’ll take a deep dive into the technology behind those everyday experiences, and demystify the algorithms and abstractions that make our digital world go round. We’ll talk about cellular data networks, signal processing, the fundamental principles of filesystem design, compression algorithms, and even a bit of quantum physics. Whether you’re a programmer, a product owner or just somebody who loves using the latest tech, after watching this talk you’ll never look at your phone in quite the same way again.

Other talks by Dylan Beattie