Submitted by Rachel Gardner on Tue, 24/03/2026 - 15:27
Meet researchers working in robotics, and try programming your own mini robot car. Take a virtual tour of the Dawn supercomputer or make music with Sonic Pi code.
Tackle the logic puzzles that will stop an evil hacker deleting the internet, or test how good you are at our Computer Science 'Taskmaster' challenge.
These were just some of the activities on offer to visitors at our Cambridge Festival Open Day on Saturday 21 March 2026.
Here in the Department, we want to engage the public, enthuse prospective students and encourage wider participation in Computer Science and Technology. As part of this, every year we open our doors during the Cambridge Festival and invite the public in.
In 2026, around 1500 visitors came through our doors. Some came to experiment with Sonic Pi, a free tool for making music with code developed by Sam Aaron, a former member of the Department. Others went to don a headset and take a virtual reality tour of Dawn, the UK's fastest AI supercomputer.
Swarms of robots
Families headed up the stairs to the Prorok Lab to see researchers demonstrate how they are getting a swarm of robots learns to work together. The researchers have developed new systems to enable teams of small robots to understand instructions given to them in plain English and work together to carry out complex missions.
From listening to human voice commands to coordinating as a group, the robots demonstrated for our visitors how they stay synchronised, avoid collisions, and adapt in real time to unexpected disruptions.
Escape rooms
There were also five 'escape rooms' around the building. Primary school children were able to try and 'Help Captain Jessie’s spaceship reach the next planet' by using their logical thinking skills (and some BBC micro:bit computers) to work out the codes that would help Captain Jessie open the doors to her spaceship's emergency power supply.
Older children tried to 'Find Our Missing Computer Science Professor', an activity designed by members of our Security research group. Participants searched among the books, pictures and papers in her office for clues to the password for her laptop where they could look for more information.
AI for insomnia
Our researchers also put their work on show. Dr Sam Nallaperuma, who works to develop digital tools for human wellbeing, showcased her work on developing AI tools for helping people with insomnia.
Another AI researcher, PhD student Hanna Foerster, gave three talks on 'Can We Trust AI to Use our Computers?' Hanna's interest lies in AI security, and she talked about the security concerns around the development of 'computer use agents' that can autonomously carry out tasks for us on our computers, but which could also be manipulated by hostile actors.
And our Head of Department, Professor Alastair Beresford, used a pin board, a set of envelopes, and several members of the audience, to demonstrate the security features of CoverDrop, a new secure messaging technology that he and colleagues have been developing, and that is now being used by The Guardian to help whistle-blowers contact its journalists safely.
We were thrilled to welcome so many visitors. And we look forward to doing it all again in 2027!
