The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms

1. Make It Digital 2015

BBC 4 Series 1 Episode 1
First broadcast 24th September 2015, 21:00
Duration: 58:55
Run software from this programme (1 program)
Without us noticing, modern life has been taken over. Algorithms run everything from search engines on the internet to satnavs and credit card data security - they even help us travel the world, find love and save lives. Mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy demystifies the hidden world of algorithms. By showing us some of the algorithms most essential to our lives, he reveals where these 2,000-year-old problem solvers came from, how they work, what they have achieved and how they are now so advanced they can even programme themselves.

Clips from this programme

Introduction - Step by step instructions working behind the scenes everywhere in our modern lives - Algorithms (President Obama), Marcus du Sautoy -Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University

Duration: 01:54
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Face detection algorithm looking for patterns

Duration: 01:10
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Algorithms: The Chilli and Chocolate test - The mathematical structure behind the problem

Duration: 02:06
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Algorithms pre-date computers: Euclid's Algorithm for finding the greater common divisor, and the perfect square tile

Duration: 03:05
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The Google Search Engine Algorithm 'Page Rank' - Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Duration: 05:17
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SORTING Algorithms are perfect for computers (Patrick Prosser, University of Glasgow) (Leslie Ann Goldberg, University of Oxford): Computer Code is making the algorithm specific. Web packets of data

Duration: 08:19
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Archive Footage - System Development Corporation (SDC) the first computer software company (California)

Duration: 00:26
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Bubble Sort Algorithm

Duration: 01:55
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Merge Sort Algorithm (John von Neumann)

Duration: 01:23
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Best Sort: Bubble Sort Algorithm vs Merge Sort Algorithm (President Obama at Google) + Quick Sort + Shell Sort + Select Sort + Insert Sort and many more

Duration: 02:52
Software: Run BBC Micro program
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Online Dating websites' matching algorithm, a Nobel prize (Gale and Shapley and the Stable Marriage Problem) used in the UK for transplant matchings

Duration: 10:02
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Algorithms must be fast and efficient - Limitations of Algorithms - Rubik's Cube can be solved by Algorithms, Draughts solution cannot, Sudoku: unknown

Duration: 03:48
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The Travelling Salesman Problem (Bees and Joe Woodgate, Behavioural Ecologist, Queen Mary University of London) Heuristics

Duration: 06:23
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Heuristics use for a Sequencing Algorithm for Heathrow Airport (Jason Atkin, University of Nottingham)

Duration: 05:06
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What next: The Connect Algorithm: From maths, to computing, to Microsoft Research Cambridge's new techniques in the Connect Algorithm; Body recognition via decision trees (Jamie Shotton) Machine Learning with an MRI scan or Film preferences (Chris Bishop, Microsoft Research)

Duration: 07:03
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The automated warehouse Algorithms in Control (Paul Clake, Director of Technology -Ocado) including van routing and forecasting processes

Duration: 03:26
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The Open University Pack for Digital Technology - Past and Present

Duration: 00:19

End Titles

Duration: 00:30

Make It Digital: Trails

Duration: 00:19