Woods has had a passion for space exploration since childhood. He has worked as a volunteer for NASA, helping with digitalisation of its historical documentation, and has received a Special Service Award from the organisation for making its history books available via the web.
He has also contributed to many radio and television programmes, including Archive on 4 - Walking on the Moon for BBC Radio 4, Trusadh - A' Ghealach for BBC Alba and The Kirsty Wark Show for BBC Scotland.
The talk, which will be introduced by Markus Völter, a key note speaker at Code Generation 2012, is intended for conference delegates, the local software community and amateurs with a passion for space exploration. Völter is the founder of the popular Software Engineering Radio podcast: www.se-radio.net. He has also a co-producer of the the Omega Tau podcast.
Apart from discussing what’s involved in an Apollo landing and overcoming problems such as overshoot, low propellant, boulder fields and an unstable throttle, the talk is intended to demonstrate how the Apollo Lunar Module represented the birth of micro computing technology. Woods will outline why it was essential to the landing, and how these pioneering pilots interfaced with the embedded software in a mission critical situation.
Says Mark Dalgarno from Software Acumen: “We are delighted that David Woods has agreed to give this talk at Code Generation. I believe it will be of interest to Code Generation conference delegates as well as the wider community. The Eagle landing clearly demonstrates the importance of mission critical real-time computing in our digital age.”
Says David Woods: “I’m delighted to be invited to give this talk. I have been fascinated by space exploration and the technology needed since I was a child. The Apollo landings, to a certain extent, represented the birth of micro computing technology. The fact that these early astronauts were entirely dependent on the technology they had at their disposal to land the craft clearly shows that computer software is only as good as the engineer(s) who wrote it and in this instance they were exceptional”
The Code Generation conference, in its 6th consecutive year, is a leading event on the practical applications of Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD). This year’s event is taking place at the Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, from the 28-30 March 2012.
The conference is organised by Software Acumen, a Cambridge-based company that specialises in running prestigious software-related events for software communities around the world. Other conferences organised by the company include Agile Cambridge and UX Cambridge. The company also runs Software East, a networking group for the local software community.
Tickets for the talk and the conference can be found by following this link http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2180754696