Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Computer scientist and pioneer of web science, fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society.
On the island
Eight records
I wanted something very special. It had to be written by Paul and sung by Paul, but be of the Beatles. This was the B side to the Hard Day's Night single, and I think the words are something that I would want to hear on a desert island.
I can really imagine getting into this on the desert island.
I wanted a female voice … I wanted um a strong one and a strong song. … it's a wonderful song, beautifully sung, and it celebrates fifty years of the James Bond genre of films, and my husband and I have got such pleasure from going to the cinema to see those movies.
I actually would like to take a whole album, but I had to pick a track. And so I picked one that is just so s so stirring and so get up and go, it'll make me get up and go on the island.
I learnt about music from my father, who was a singer and a piano player … when we were planning the wedding … he suggested the arrival of the Queen of Sheba … So I walked down the aisle on his arm to marry my wonderful husband Peter.
I've picked the Brazilian because I just think it's the most amazing track and it's not the obvious one.
Everyone will think I'm going to take Wonderful Tonight because that's my signature karaoke song. But actually, I'm picking Layla because I think it's a better song and it's real classic love song.
Let It BeFavourite
We started with the Beatles and we're finishing with the Beatles and this is one of those classical anthems sung again by Paul, Let It Be.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:28You claim that if you weren't a computer scientist you would be a personal shopper — is that a canny technique to stop people feeling intimidated by your vast capabilities and your brain, to make you more approachable?
Possibly, but I am very much a people person. I could have been an events organiser as well, I think. I just enjoy social events and enjoy making people happy, I suppose.
Presenter asks
4:28Let's talk about the Web Observatory — a way of mapping the digital planet. What on earth does that mean?
Well, um, we create the web. We create it because we write content to it, and Google's and Facebook's and Twitter only work because of what we do with them. And my argument is that in order to understand how it evolves, we need to be constantly observing what's happening. … my argument is that the digital planet is as important for us to conserve and build for the good of humanity as the physical planet. … This is not about Big Brother. This is about observing the trends, observing what the masses are doing and how they're interacting with the technology.
Presenter asks
12:25Tell me about [your conversation with the headmistress who said you shouldn't go into medicine].
The keepsakes
The book
various contributors
I'm going to ask you for Wikipedia. ... if you print it out, it's equivalent to two thousand volumes of the um encyclopedia.
So I wanted to be a medic … I was choosing my A levels … And she just said, 'Well, medicine's not a career for women.' … And she said, 'You're a natural mathematician. You should go to Cambridge and study mathematics.' … And she may have been right. I don't know if I'd be sitting here today if I'd gone into medicine in the seventies.
Presenter asks
15:33You finished your PhD in 1977. One of the first jobs you applied for was to teach maths to a class of male engineers. What was the response?
I applied for a job to teach maths uh to engineers. … the interview panel was all men. And at the end … the head of department came out and he said to me, 'Wendy, you haven't got the job. I wanted to give it to you, but the rest of the panel didn't because you're a woman.' … what he meant was that the panel didn't think I could control a class of largely male engineers.
Presenter asks
22:02I read you say that you didn't so much face a glass ceiling as a glass wall. What do you mean by that?
Oh, well, I sort of … In the eighties it was really hard in the world of science and engineering then to succeed as a woman. … I remember when … I walked into the room, and it was full of men, and the chair … said, 'Oh, look up, lads, there's a woman in the room.' … I still see rooms that are full of men that I can't get into. … But that's when I count my blessings of picking the right partner … I go home and Pete is just there for me to support me.
Presenter asks
26:02A long and happy marriage, and you've not had children. Do you think that helped you put your foot on the gas with your work?
Yes, 'cause I'm put on a pedestal as a role model for women, but I haven't had children, so I've never had to think about that career gap. … I didn't really want children, so it wasn't that I made a sacrifice, but I made a conscious decision that if I was going to succeed in my career, I needed to motor on during the thirties and the early forties, and I don't think I could have achieved what I have if I'd had children, because I'm always a great enthusiast for everything, and if I'd had children I would have put everything into that, and I just don't think I could have done both.
“My argument is that the digital planet is as important for us to conserve and build for the good of humanity as the physical planet.”
“Forgetting is really important to us in our you know, when you have traumatic events or you break up with someone, you move on … Do you really want to know what you did on October the sixth, 1981? Do you want to always remember those awful days?”
“I applied for a job … the interview panel was all men. And at the end of the interview the head of department came out and he said to me, 'Wendy, you haven't got the job. I wanted to give it to you, but the rest of the panel didn't because you're a woman.'”
“I remember when I was put on my first committee at the university and I walked in and I was the only woman … And I walked into the room, and it was full of men, and the chair was an engineering professor, and he said, 'Oh, look up, lads, there's a woman in the room.'”
“I didn't really want children, so it wasn't that I made a sacrifice, but I made a conscious decision that if I was going to succeed in my career, I needed to motor on during the thirties and the early forties, and I don't think I could have achieved what I have if I'd had children, because I'm always a great enthusiast for everything, and if I'd had children I would have put everything into that, and I just don't think I could have done both.”
“I think there is one fundamental though. We as human beings absolutely love to communicate. … the worst thing you can do to a human being is put them in solitary confinement.”