LLMs in Law: Opportunities, Risks, Implications

King’s E-Lab is excited to present a panel discussion, “LLMs in Law: Opportunities, Risks, Implications” on 3rd May at 6:30 PM. Representatives form the world’s top firms will discuss the impact of large language models on the legal domain. You’ll have the chance to meet, network, and learn from industry experts from Google, AWS, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters. 

Cambridge graduate and Founder of Safe Sign Technologies Alexander Kardos-Nyheim will moderate the discussion.

This panel is a pre-event to the upcoming LLM x Law Hackathon on June 23rd at King’s College. We encourage you to attend one or both events. To learn more, join us or visit hackthelaw-cambridge.com.

TICKETS: get your free ticket here
WHEN: Friday 3 May 2024
6.30pm - 7.30pm Talk in LT2
7.30pm - 8.30pm Drinks and Networking in Foyer
WHERE: Judge Business School, Cambridge

Bringing Nature and Finance Together: David Craig, Co-Chair of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)

David Craig is the co-chair of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Advisory Board member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) launched by His Majesty King Charles III. He is a member of the IAPB (International Advisory Panel for Biodiversity Credits) leading the work on measurement and has led numerous projects and groups with TheCityUK and the World Economic Forum on global finance, innovation and technology.

David was the former founder and CEO of Refinitiv, one of the largest data and technology platform providers to financial markets operating in over 160 countries. Following the acquisition of Refinitiv by London Stock Exchange Group for $27B in 2021, he become head of LSEG’s Data and Analytics Division.

He was previously founder and CEO of the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) business and head of strategy at Thomson Reuters and Reuters plc. Prior to these roles he spent 8 years as a partner at McKinsey focusing on technology and financial services clients, and was a software developer for American Management Systems.

David is a private investor in natural capital technology firms, Board Advisor and chairs the Triple Private Equity Investment Committee of. He is a director of the Green Finance Institute PMO, Innovation and Data Trustee at the Natural History Museum and has recently been advising the Bank of England on Data and Nature Risks.

The discussion will be chaired by Kai Hu. Kai is an award-winning industrial designer and cultural strategist. He is currently pursuing an MPhil in Conservation Leadership with his research centred on investigating the cultural, social, and psychological value of natural aesthetics and nature-based artistry. Kai is also one of the 42 students in the third cohort of the King’s E-Lab programme.

TICKETS: get your free ticket here
WHEN: Thursday 2 May 2024
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Wine reception in Chetwynd Room
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Talk in Keynes Lecture Theatre
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Wellbeing with LEGO

We are pleased to open the Turing Room (home of the E-Lab) every Tuesday during Easter term (from 23rd of April to 11th of June), for Lego building and delicious coffee/tea. The best build each week, judged by our Lego Master in Residence Monique Boddington, will win a Lego set!

WHEN: Tuesday 30 April 2024
11.00 am-5.00 pm
WHERE: Turing Room, King’s College

In Conversation with the Ambassador of Mexico to the UK, Josefa González-Blanco Ortiz-Mena, on strengthening the bilateral relationship through Social, Cultural, and Environmental Initiatives

Embark on a discussion with the Ambassador of Mexico to the United Kingdom, as she sheds light on the collaborative endeavours between Mexico and the UK to advance social, cultural, and environmental initiatives. This conversation will explore the diverse range of projects aimed at fostering community development, promoting cultural exchange, and addressing environmental concerns.

Josefa González-Blanco Ortiz -Mena has served as the Ambassador of Mexico to the UK since April 2021. She was Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico and has a long history as a promoter of social and cultural programmes, both in Mexico and in the United Kingdom, as well as with environmental protection and wildlife conservation programmes.

Jose Luis is an Innovation & Digital Disruption senior analyst at IFC World Bank Group for Latin America and Europe. He is also an alumni of the University of Cambridge and the Judge Business School.

TICKETS: get your free ticket here
WHEN: Friday 26 April 2024
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Wine reception and networking in Provost’s Lodge
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Fireside discussion in Provost’s Drawing Room
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

CUE Start-up Competition in collaboration with King’s E-Lab

Don't miss out on the final chance this year to showcase your entrepreneurial vision and compete for the ultimate prize. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, the CUE Startup Competition offers a platform for you to pitch your ideas, receive expert mentorship, and grow your network.

The CUE Startup Competition is the much anticipated end-of year competition hosted annually by Cambridge University Entrepreneurs. This year, CUE has partnered with King’s E-Lab to bring out the best of what each organisation can offer. The competition adopts a unique new format whereby each applicant will get a chance to do a 3-minute pitch in the morning. Lunch and coffee provided! The top 5 teams will advance to the final for a chance to win £5,000. Additionally, we're organising mentorship opportunities in the topics of strategy, pitching, legal, and intellectual property.

REGISTRATION (deadline: 13th April 11:59pm; registration is only open to Cambridge students and postdocs): click here to register
WHEN: Friday 26 April 2024
10.00 am-4.00 pm: Preliminary Rounds
5.00pm - 7.00pm: Final Round
WHERE: Cambridge Judge Business School

PAST EVENT: Frank Ramsey – The Brightest Star

Frank Ramsey (1903 – 1930) was appointed a Fellow of King’s at the age of 21. Before his death five years later, he made ground-breaking contributions to mathematics, economics and philosophy, earning the respect of Russell, Keynes and Wittgenstein, and laying the foundations for decision theory. His biographer Cheryl Misak discusses his life and thoughts, including his insights about the meaning of life.

Cheryl Misak, author of the widely acclaimed biography of Frank Ramsey, is Professor of Philosophy and a former Provost of the University of Toronto. She is an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and has held visiting fellowships at All Souls College, the Goethe University in Frankfurt, the Free University in Berlin, and Trinity College and St John’s College, Cambridge. She is currently working on a book on Oxford linguistic philosophy.

TICKETS: book your free ticket here
WHEN: Thursday 25th April 2024
5.15 pm – 6.00 pm: Drinks reception in Chetwynd Room
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Lecture by Cheryl Misak in Keynes Lecture Theatre
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

PAST EVENT: Wellbeing with LEGO

We are pleased to open the Turing Room (home of the E-Lab) every Tuesday during Easter term (from 23rd of April to 11th of June), for Lego building and delicious coffee/tea. The best build each week, judged by our Lego Master in Residence Monique Boddington, will win a Lego set!

WHEN: Tuesday 23 April 2024
11.00 am-5.00 pm
WHERE: Turing Room, King’s College

Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work

Marina M. Tavares is visiting us from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and will present her joint work on Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape the global economy, especially in the realm of labor markets. Advanced economies will experience the benefits and pitfalls of AI sooner than emerging markets and developing economies, largely due to their employment structure focused on cognitive-intensive roles. There are some consistent patterns concerning AI exposure, with women and college-educated individuals more exposed but also better poised to reap AI benefits, and older workers potentially less able to adapt to the new technology. Labor income inequality may increase if the complementarity between AI and high-income workers is strong, while capital returns will increase wealth inequality. However, if productivity gains are sufficiently large, income levels could surge for most workers. In this evolving landscape, advanced economies and more developed emerging markets need to focus on upgrading regulatory frameworks and supporting labor reallocation, while safeguarding those adversely affected. Emerging market and developing

For more details, read this IMF Staff Discussion Note: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2024/01/14/Gen-AI-Artificial-Intelligence-and-the-Future-of-Work-542379?cid=bl-com-SDNEA2024001

About the speaker: Marina M. Tavares is an Economist in the Climate Change Structural Reforms Division of the IMF’s Research Department. Before joining RES, Marina led the working group on the interconnections between macroeconomic policy and inequality under FCDO-IMF Collaboration. Her research interests include macroeconomics, labor markets, AI, climate change, gender, and inequality. Before joining the Fund, Ms. Tavares worked as an assistant professor at Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), and she holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota.

This event is organised together with the Economics & Policy Group at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

TICKETS: not required.
WHEN: Friday 15 March 2024
2.00 pm-3.00 pm
WHERE: LT2, Judge Business School
JOIN US ONLINE: If you can’t make it in person, click here to join us on Zoom.

How to Green the Global Economy: Indermit Gill (Chief Economist of the World Bank) in Conversation with Kamiar Mohaddes

Indermit Gill is Chief Economist of the World Bank and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.

Before starting this position on September 1, 2022, Gill served as the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, where he helped shape the Bank’s response to the extraordinary series of shocks that have hit developing economies since 2020. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program.

Gill led the World Bank's influential 2009 World Development Report on economic geography. His work includes introducing the concept of the “middle-income trap” to describe how countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income. He has published extensively on key policy issues facing developing countries—among other things, sovereign debt vulnerabilities, green growth and natural-resource wealth, labor markets, and poverty and inequality.

Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Kamiar Mohaddes is an Associate Professor in Economics & Policy at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, and the Deputy Director of the Cambridge Executive MBA programme. He is also a Fellow in Economics at King’s College, Cambridge, where he co-founded and directs the King’s Entrepreneurship Lab. His main areas of research include climate change, economics of the Middle East, energy economics and applied macroeconomics.

His articles have been published in a number of edited volumes (Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Routledge) as well as in leading journals, including the Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of International Economics, Management Science, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. His research has also been covered in major international news outlets including the BBC, Bloomberg, The Economist, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Kamiar’s work has been cited extensively by policymakers, including members of the United States Congress and the White House.

He is currently a consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank and has previously served as a Departmental Special Advisor at the Bank of Canada, a consultant at the United Nations, a consultant at the Asian Development Bank and a regular visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund to name a few. He has worked closely with colleagues at these institutions to, for instance, develop tools to help examine and disentangle the size and speed of the transmission of different global, regional, and national macroeconomic shocks. Kamiar has also worked extensively on issues related to climate change and sustainability with a number of organisations including BCG, BNP Paribas, KPMG and RMS.

This event is organised together with the Economics & Policy Group at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

TICKETS: book your free ticket here
WHEN: Wednesday 13 March 2024
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Wine reception and networking in Provost’s Lodge
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Fireside discussion in Provost’s Drawing Room
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Workshop and Brunch: ETHOxford Hackathon and Oxford Blockchain Conference

You are warmly invited to join us for the ETHOxford (8-11th March) and inaugural Oxford Blockchain Conference (12-13th March).

About ETHOxford Hackathon

ETHOxford is a 3-day blockchain hackathon running from March 8 to March 11. It gathers hundreds of hackers worldwide to compete of prizes up to $50,000.

The hackathon will centre on eight main categories:

• Zero-Knowledge, Privacy, and Compliance

• Oracles, Identity, Real-World Assets (RWA), and RealFi

• Infrastructure, Middleware, and Hardware

• Decentralised Science (DeSci) and Public Goods

• No Code & Low-Code Smart Contracts

• Decentralised Finance (DeFi)

• TradFi, L1, and L2 Interoperability

• Decentralised Social Media and Gaming

More info about ETHOxford here. More info about Oxford Blockchain Conference here.

About transport: Tagus Capital & CBS sponsored bus will offer free travel to attendees from Cambridge to Oxford on 8th of March, and return on 11th March.

If you wish to stay after the Hackathon (8-11th March) for the Conference (12-13th March), you will need to pay for your own travel.

About housing: Hacker house "Cambridge HomeDAO, powered by Tagus" will offer access to showers (and a limited number of beds + mattresses) during the trip (8-13th March): note that majority of hackers will "sleep" on mattresses at the event site. For this own sleeping bags are recommended.

About RSVP: Signups will begin during the Weekly Brunch workshop on February 10th and will continue until February 18th.

There will be a total of 40 slots. If the number of applicants exceeds the available slots, priority will be given to applicants who have attended the Weekly Brunches more regularly. The remaining applicants will be invited to sign up via the HomeDAO website. In the latter case, attendees will be responsible for their own transportation and other fees.

Get ready for the most exciting weekend of the year!

This event is co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Friday 8 March 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Wonder, Art and Entrepreneurship: Monique Boddington In Conversation with Tim Yip (Oscar and BAFTA winning art director and designer) and Professor Alan Macfarlane (anthropologist and historian)

The recording of this event can be found here.

Tim Yip and Alan Macfarlane held a conversation in 2022 which has been published as Wonder and Art: Cambridge Conversations with Tim Yip (Cam Rivers Publishing, 2023). Tim Yip is an Oscar-winning costume designer (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), filmmaker (Love Infinity), artist, calligrapher, sculptor, museum curator and much more. Professor Alan Macfarlane FBA is a Life Fellow of King’s College Cambridge. He has worked as an anthropologist and historian in a number of societies. Alan and Tim explored the themes of creativity, discovery, the arts of communication, the nature of parallel worlds, the relations between arts and sciences, and the differences between the civilization and arts of the East (especially Japan and China) and the West (especially the Anglosphere).

Entrepreneurship is not only about asking new questions and making new connections but also about finding ways to put them into practice. This promises to make the meeting of entrepreneurship, art and anthropology especially inspiring.

Timothy Yip Kam-tim (Chinese: 葉錦添) is a Hong Kong art director and designer for fiction films. He is best known for his work on the 2000 martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he won the Oscar for Best Art Direction and Costume Design and the British Academy Film Award for Best Costume Design in 2000.

Alan Donald James Macfarlane is an anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 40 books and numerous articles on the anthropology and history of England, Nepal, Japan and China.He has focused on comparative study of the origins and nature of the modern world. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society.

Monique Boddington is a Management Practice Associate Professor and  Deputy Director of the MSt in Entrepreneurship programme at the Judge Business School. Her research focuses on early-stage entrepreneurship, the application of sociological approaches, and gender and entrepreneurship. She previously worked as an archaeologist and holds a PhD in the subject.

WHEN: Thursday 7 March 2024
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Wine reception in Provost’s Lodge
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Talk in Provost’s Drawing Room
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Third King's E-Lab Annual Nobel Prize Lecture by Gregory Winter

WHEN: Wednesday 6 March 2024
6.15 pm-7.15 pm Talk in LT1
WHERE: Judge Business School, Cambridge
TICKETS: book your free ticket here
JOIN US ONLINE: If you can't make it in person, click here to join us on Zoom.

About our speaker:

Greg Winter studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He then completed his PhD at the LMB, working on the amino acid sequence of tryptophanyl tRNA synthetase from the bacterium Bacillus stearothermophilus. His research career has been based almost entirely at the LMB and the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering (CPE). He became a Programme Leader in 1981, was Joint Head of the PNAC Division from 1994-2006, Deputy Director of the LMB from 2006-2011 and acting Director 2007-2008. He was also Deputy Director of CPE from 1990 until its closure in 2010.

His main research focus is genetic and protein engineering. In his early research Greg was interested in the idea that all antibodies have the same basic structure, with only small changes making them specific for one target. He pioneered techniques in humanised and human therapeutic antibodies, which led to antibody therapies for cancer and diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. He has established hugely successful spin out companies including: Cambridge Antibody Technology (acquired by AstraZeneca), Domantis (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) and Bicycle Therapeutics.

He is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and was the Master of Trinity from 2012 to 2019. He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 1987, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990 and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2006, as well as being a Fellow or Honorary Fellow of many other professional organisations. He has been awarded numerous prizes and medals, including the 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He received a Knighthood for services to Molecular Biology in 2004.

More details from the Nobel Prize webpage.

Greg will be in conversation with Henrietta Mbeah-Bankas, Head of Portfolio at NHS England and an Executive MBA Student at Cambridge Judge Business School and Wolfson College, Cambridge. Henrietta has a background in mental health nursing and has worked in the NHS throughout with her current focus on health education reform; including the use of digital technologies in educating and training the health and social care workforce.

Why Start a Social Enterprise? A workshop with Taylor Kennedy

Taylor Kennedy is the Founder of Social Enterprise Sirene Chocolate, an award winning craft chocolate maker based in Canada. Taylor works with a variety of farms around the world, providing a stable and reliable source of income, above the market rate, and working with the farmers directly rather than buying off “the market”.

This workshop will discuss the history of Sirene Chocolate, what made Taylor want to set-up a social enterprise, alongside the challenges he’s faced, both in terms of his business but also in terms of the trade-offs of running a social enterprise. Taylor started this business after 18 years of working at the National Geographic Society, and so will discuss challenges and opportunities from starting a business later in life, in addition to balancing a business and family life.

TICKETS: book your free ticket here
WHEN: Tuesday 5th March 2024
5.30 pm – 7.00 pm: Workshop in the Provost’s Drawing Room
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

In Conversation with Sonia Singh (NDTV) on World's Largest (Democratic) Election in 2024 and the Evolving Role of Women in India and its Political Space

Join us for an enlightening fireside chat with Sonia Singh, Editorial Director and Anchor at NDTV. This enriching session is organised in collaboration with the Cambridge India Business Forum, a student society at the Judge Business School, and the Centre for India and Global Business. Our focus will be the monumental 2024 World's Largest Democratic Election in India and the role that women play in the Indian political landscape. Some of the themes we’ll touch upon are the following:

🗣️ Democratic Insights: Dive into the complexities and the sheer scale of organizing the world's largest democratic election. Understand the logistical marvels and the challenges of ensuring a fair and inclusive electoral process in the world's most populous democracy.

👩‍💼 Women in Politics and beyond: Witness a comprehensive discussion on the evolving role of women in India and Indian politics. Discuss how the inclusion and empowerment of women in political spaces contribute to more equitable and dynamic governance. What is the role of women voters in the elections?

🔄 Changing Dynamics: Examine the implications of the Indian elections for global politics and for India’s future. How will India be perceived at the global stage and what does that mean for India?

About Sonia Singh: Sonia Singh stands as a pioneering figure in Indian journalism, marking over three decades of unparalleled contributions to NDTV, India's premier TV and digital news network. Beginning her career when independent TV networks were non-existent in India, Sonia played a pivotal role in documenting the transformation of the world's largest democracy. As NDTV's first female Editorial Director and one of India's initial television journalists, she has significantly influenced the narrative on India's key developments, from economic liberalisation to eight general elections, economic reforms, the rise of nationalism, and shifts in gender and caste dynamics. She has also authored the book 'Defining India: Through Their Eyes' published by Penguin.

As Editorial Director, Sonia helped oversee NDTV's growth into a global brand, reaching over 450 million viewers during which NDTV.com became the 21st largest news site worldwide, outperforming outlets like the Washington Post and leading in social media engagement in India. The Reuters Institute of Journalism at Oxford recognized NDTV as India's top TV and online news source for three consecutive years during her tenure. Engaging with leaders across the spectrum, Sonia's work has solidified her as a formidable figure in journalism and a prominent global media voice. She’s also a Visiting Fellow at Judge Business School.

Dr. Garima Sahai: Garima is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Department of Geography, and a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.

She is currently the research and project lead on a multi-partner multi-country project on Green Jobs and Youth Voices. Garima’s research focuses on youth, gender, and work, and she writes and comments on these subjects. She is interested in the intersections between research, policy, and international development practice.

She has worked on development issues for over a decade such as at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the World Bank. Her academic background is a PhD, Sociology, University of Cambridge; MPhil, Development Studies, University of Oxford; MA, Economics, JNU.

WHEN: Monday 4th March 2024
5.30PM - 6.00PM Drinks reception
6.00PM - 7.00PM Fireside chat
WHERE: Provost’s Drawing Room, King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: book your free ticket here

Workshop and Brunch: Preparations for ETHOxford Hackathon and Oxford Blockchain Conference

In preparation for the Workshop and Brunch: ETHOxford Hackathon and Oxford Blockchain Conference, we'll match your ideas with ETHOxford categories, present use cases for those still seeking inspiration, and form robust teams to lead the hackathon.

James Zaki, an experienced hacker, mentor, and judge at various hackathons such as ETHPrague, ETHAmsterdam, ETHBogota, ETHLisbon, and Sydney Blockathon, will assist in this process. Members of the Cambridge Blockchain Society will also provide support and share their experiences.

The events are co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Saturday 2 March 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Wellbeing with LEGO

As part of the Annual Welfare Day at King's College, we are pleased to open the Turing Room (home of the E-Lab) to see what our students can make with 50,000 Lego pieces. The three best builds, judged by our Lego Master in Residence Monique Boddington, will win Lego sets & chocolates!

WHEN: Saturday 2 March 2024, 12 - 4pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

In Conversation with Royce Van Der Zwan, Nando's Group Head of Grocery Operations and Commercial

Nandos … A Story of Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurship

Nando's restaurants and FMCG has risen from humble beginnings at the foot of Africa to being a global brand renowned for its unique offering. It is an inspiring and amusing story of entrepreneurial success. However, behind it lies a deeply-rooted social purpose that is embedded into the values of the company and its leadership. This value-set is the driving force behind Nandos business model, operations, culture and innovation agenda. This presentation will tell the story of the entrepreneurial growth of Nandos, and showcase how it marries commercial growth with social purpose to truly Change Lives for its customers, employees, partners and communities. 

About the Speaker

“Royce van der Zwan, a graduate and fellow of Cambridge Judge Business School is an experienced business executive with an international track record of leadership in fast-growth companies.  Over a diverse career spanning management consulting, FMCG, B2B services and private equity he is passionate about building purpose-led brands, and weaving corporate ESG into the core of a company’s business model and value proposition.”

TICKETS: book your free ticket here
WHEN: Thursday 29 February 2024
5.30 pm-6.00 pm Wine reception in Chetwynd Room
6.00 pm-7.00 pm Talk in Keynes Lecture Theatre
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Workshop and Brunch with Partech and NEAR

You are warmly invited to Weekly Brunches, a series of events held every Saturday. These events aim to provide students with guidance, connections, and support in bringing their ideas to life over the year. The events begin with a brunch, followed by two streams of (1) entrepreneurial and (2) technical workshops. The objective is to bring together students who have diverse backgrounds but share entrepreneurial ambitions, and to support the best projects with opportunities for publication, hackathons, incubation, or other forms of implementation.

Entrepreneurial stream

Carlota Armero Saura is an experienced professional in the venture capital industry. Currently, she serves as a member of Partech's Seed team. With a strong background in supporting early-stage founders, Carlota's passion for entrepreneurship was further fueled during her time as the first employee at a VC-backed consumer startup in Berlin. Before that, she gained valuable experience working with various startups and VC firms in London, primarily focusing on B2B and enterprise SaaS. Carlota holds a degree in Management from the London School of Economics, where she actively contributed to shaping the LSE accelerator program, sparking her interest in the world of venture and startups.

Technical stream

Owen Hassall is the Developer Relations at near/dev/hub. He is also a co-founder of VEX, an Esports project that is currently being developed on NEAR. In addition, Owen serves as the President of the Leeds Blockchain Society. He is a Theoretical Physics student with a strong passion for Quantum Computing.

This workshop will build upon the first NEAR workshop from February 10th (Building a simple smart contract on NEAR). You will connect the back-end to the front-end to create a fully functional application across the entire stack.

No prerequisites are required.

The events are co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Saturday 24 February 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Entrepreneurial Strategies for Career Success: Workshop with Huzzle's CEO [E-Lab Society]

On February 23rd at 7pm, King's College Old Lodge opens its doors for a remarkable evening with Ingmar Klein, the visionary CEO behind Huzzle. This exclusive workshop, "Entrepreneurial Strategies for Career Success," is designed to provide students with practical, entrepreneurial insights directly applicable to their career paths.

The evening will kick off with a fireside chat with Ingmar, who will delve into his journey of creating Huzzle and its impact on over 70,000 users. His insights into synergizing student life, societies, and corporate interactions will offer a unique perspective on navigating career paths with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Participants will not only gain valuable knowledge but also have the chance to engage in an interactive session, where they can apply these entrepreneurial strategies to their own situation.

With free wine adding to the evening's allure, this event is more than just a learning opportunity; it's a chance to network and be inspired. However, with only 30 spots available, this exclusive workshop is expected to fill up quickly. So, if you're keen on marrying your career path with the entrepreneurial mindset, make sure to reserve your spot promptly.

Join us for an evening that promises to be as enlightening as it is enjoyable.

TICKETS: book your free ticket here [E-Lab Society Membership is required]
WHEN: Friday 23 February 2024
7.00 pm – 8.15 pm: Talk in Audit Room
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Xu Zhimo - poetic innovator, with prizewinning translator Stuart Lyons

Gillian Tett Provost of King’s College has pleasure in inviting all members of the University to a Slide Presentation and Poetry Reading by Stuart Lyons author of ‘Xu Zhimo in Cambridge’ and ‘Saying Goodbye’.

Stuart Lyons won the 2020 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation.

Guests will receive complimentary copies of ‘Xu Zhimo in Cambridge – life and poetry’ and ‘Saying Goodbye – the poems of Xu Zhimo in English Verse Translation’.

WHEN: Thursday 22nd February2024
5.30PM - 6.00PM Wine reception in Chetwynd Room
6.00PM - 7.00PM Talk in Keynes Lecture Theatre

WHERE: King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: http://bit.ly/xuzhimo

Social Entrepreneurship & Pitching Skills with Ira Guha [workshop]

This workshop will be divided into two parts -- Social Entrepreneurship (Part I) and Pitching Skills (Part II). The workshop on social entrepreneurship will cover how to launch, fund and grow a scale a social impact business. The workshop on pitching skills will focus on how to communicate your mission and vision to a range of different audiences -- including elevator pitches, story-telling and creating a pitch deck. Feel free to attend either, or both, workshops.

About Ira: Ira Guha (KC 2011) is the founder of Asan (www.asancup.com), a social enterprise with a mission to eradicate period poverty and tampon waste. Asan's patented reusable menstrual cup was designed at the Harvard Innovation Lab to be the world's easiest menstrual cup to use. Each Asan cup averts the waste of 2,500 pads or tampons, and for every cup they sell, Asan donates one for free to someone in rural India who cannot access safe period care. Ira won the King's Entrepreneurship Prize in 2019 and has gone on to raise seed funding from angels and impact investors. 

WHEN: Tuesday 20th February 2024
5.30PM - 6.30PM Social Entrepreneurship Workshop
6.30PM - 7.00PM Dinner in Servery
7.00PM - 8.00PM Pitching Workshop
WHERE: Audit Room, King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: please book your free ticket here

Workshop and Brunch with PremFina and Nethermind

You are warmly invited to Weekly Brunches, a series of events held every Saturday. These events aim to provide students with guidance, connections, and support in bringing their ideas to life over the year. The events begin with a brunch, followed by two streams of (1) entrepreneurial and (2) technical workshops. The objective is to bring together students who have diverse backgrounds but share entrepreneurial ambitions, and to support the best projects with opportunities for publication, hackathons, incubation, or other forms of implementation.

Entrepreneurial stream

Bundeep Singh Rangar is a recognized fintech entrepreneur, investor, and deal maker. He has raised over half a billion dollars in equity and debt funding in the UK, Europe, Canada, and India over the past decade. Recently, he celebrated his latest successful raise for his venture, PremFina, with a pilgrimage to Burning Man in the Nevada desert.

Bundeep raised £27 million in debt and equity for his London-based insurtech firm, PremFina. The funding came from Japan's Rakuten Capital, Silicon Valley, UK-based Draper Esprit, Thomvest Ventures, the family office of Canada's Thomson family, shareholders in Thomson Reuters, Emery Capital, and Talis Capital. This funding has positioned PremFina as the leading alternative premium finance provider in the UK.

Apart from his involvement with PremFina, Bundeep is an investor in various fintech companies and has been featured in publications such as Bloomberg News, Forbes, The Telegraph, and The Times. He is a frequent guest on Bloomberg TV, the BBC, CNBC, CNN, and Sky News. Bundeep has also produced his first Bollywood-Hollywood crossover film, Line of Descent.

Technical stream

Swapnil Raj is the Head of Innovation at Nethermind, a blockchain research and software engineering company. Nethermind empowers enterprises and developers worldwide to build on decentralized systems. Their mission is to deliver pioneering research and development that enables accessible, transparent, and borderless economic and governance systems.

The "Scaling Ethereum" workshop addresses the scalability challenges of Ethereum using various strategies and technologies. It begins by exploring the blockchain trilemma, highlighting the difficulty of achieving scalability, security, and decentralisation simultaneously. The workshop then delves into key aspects such as the role of data availability in scaling, different types of rollup architecture (e.g. optimistic and zk-rollups), and a case study on Starknet's implementation of zk-rollups. It also discusses modular blockchains, Cosmos for blockchain interoperability, and DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) based mempools to increase transaction throughput. The workshop additionally covers optimisation strategies like parallelism, access lists, and STM (Software Transactional Memory). You will gain a deep understanding of blockchain scalability challenges and potential solutions, making this workshop ideal for developers and blockchain enthusiasts interested in the technical details of scaling Ethereum.

The events are co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Saturday 17 February 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Can Green Innovation Stimulate Economies and Curb Emissions?

Zeina Hasna is visiting us from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and will present her joint work on green innovation. The discussion will draw on a few background working papers analyzing the economic impact of green innovation at the macro-and micro-levels, and the role of environmental policies in boosting green innovation and diffusion.

Innovation in low-carbon technologies (LCTs), which is essential in the fight against climate change, has slowed in recent years. Zeina will draw on work from the IMF to show that a global climate policy strategy can bolster innovation in, and deployment of, LCTs. Countries that expand their climate policy portfolio exhibit higher (1) climate-change-mitigation-patent filings, (2) LCT trade flows, and (3) “green” foreign direct investment flows. Importantly, boosting innovation in, and deployment of, LCTs yields medium-term growth, which mitigates potential costs from climate policies. Based on this work, she and colleagues at the IMF stresses the importance of international policy coordination and cooperation by showcasing evidence of potential climate policy spillovers.

For more details, read this IMF Staff Discussion Note: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2023/11/03/Green-Innovation-and-Diffusion-Policies-to-Accelerate-the-Process-and-Expected-Impact-on-540134.

A blog version of the note is available here: https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/11/06/how-green-innovation-can-stimulate-economies-and-curb-emissions

About the speaker: Zeina Hasna is an Economist at the Research Department in the International Monetary Fund. Prior to joining the Fund, Zeina worked as an economic analyst at the World Bank – Mashreq office covering Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge. Webpage: https://zeinahasna.com/

This event is organised together with the Economics & Policy Group at the Cambridge Judge Business School.

TICKETS: not required
WHEN: Tuesday 13th February 2024
12.30 pm – 1.30 pm
WHERE: W4.05, Judge Business School

Serious Play with LEGO [workshop]

In this session, we will use LEGO Serious Play methodology to explore the challenges you face as entrepreneurs. Through a series of creative model-building tasks, you will be encouraged to share your experiences, generate solutions to existing problems, and, hopefully think more broadly and critically about your entrepreneurial activities.

TICKETS: invitation only
WHEN: Monday 12 February 2024
5.00 pm – 7.15 pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge (by invitation only)

Workshop and Brunch with a16z and NEAR

You are warmly invited to Weekly Brunches, a series of events held every Saturday. These events aim to provide students with guidance, connections, and support in bringing their ideas to life over the year. The events begin with a brunch, followed by two streams of (1) entrepreneurial and (2) technical workshops. The objective is to bring together students who have diverse backgrounds but share entrepreneurial ambitions, and to support the best projects with opportunities for publication, hackathons, incubation, or other forms of implementation.

Entrepreneurial stream

Liz Harkavy is a partner on the a16z crypto investment team. She focuses on web 2.5 / picks and shovels, as well as decentralised infrastructure. Before joining a16z crypto, Liz was a founding engineer at Corsali (now Vana), a venture-backed full-stack machine learning platform. The platform is powered by highly educated workers who label data to earn crypto from their phones. Prior to that, she gained experience at Facebook and NASA JPL. At JPL, Liz conducted research on utilising reinforcement learning to optimise a delay tolerant network node. She presented her findings at the IEEE Aerospace conference.

Liz completed her bachelor's degree in Physics and Computer Science, as well as her master's degree in Computer Science, at MIT. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Technical stream

Owen Hassall is the Developer Relations at near/dev/hub. He is also a co-founder of VEX, an Esports project that is currently being developed on NEAR. In addition, Owen serves as the President of the Leeds Blockchain Society. He is a Theoretical Physics student with a strong passion for Quantum Computing.

The first NEAR workshop (out of two) will be slightly more challenging, but fear not - Owen will provide hands-on assistance to ensure that the content remains manageable. Make sure, though, to meet a few prerequisites beforehand.

1. Install Rust from https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install.

o An introduction to Rust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q3Z5RBX7hQ.

o If you are using Windows, it is recommended to use WSL by following this guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install. If you are not using Windows, you can use a Linux VM.

2. Ensure that you have a code editor installed. You can download Visual Studio Code from https://code.visualstudio.com/download.

3. Learn a little about object-oriented programming from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGDa0P2PXrY.

In the second NEAR workshop on February 24th, you will be able to connect the back-end to the front-end, creating a fully functional app!

The events are co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Saturday 10 February 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

In Conversation with entrepreneur and start-up investor Alison Cork MBE, on Supporting and Encouraging Female Enterprise

Why should anyone want to be an entrepreneur, why are women particularly good at it, and why don’t more women make this a career choice? For these answers and a searingly honest account of what it’s like to call the career shots every day of your life, join us.

Entrepreneur Alison Cork MBE has over the past 20 years built up a home accessories business operating across the UK and USA encompassing publishing, online retail, design, licensing and TV shopping.

Prior to that, she co-founded publishing company Carnell Ltd, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1994, and became the youngest ever female founder of a publicly quoted company.

A champion of female entrepreneurs, in 2017 Alison founded The Make It Your Business network, with the aim of supporting and encouraging women throughout the UK to start their own business.

In 2019 she became an Ambassador for the British Library Business & IP Centre network. In 2023 she founded National Women’s Enterprise Week. She was awarded an MBE in the 2023 New Year’s Honours List, for services to female entrepreneurship.

Alison lives in central London with her husband and two sons and is an active investor in early stage businesses. Read more about her here.

TICKETS: book your free ticket here
WHEN: Thursday 8 February 2024
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Wine reception and networking in Chetwynd Room
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Fireside discussion in Keynes Lecture Theatre
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Workshop and Brunch with NEAR and Bebop

You are warmly invited to Weekly Brunches, a series of events held every Saturday. These events aim to provide students with guidance, connections, and support in bringing their ideas to life over the year. The events begin with a brunch, followed by two streams of (1) entrepreneurial and (2) technical workshops. The objective is to bring together students who have diverse backgrounds but share entrepreneurial ambitions, and to support the best projects with opportunities for publication, hackathons, incubation, or other forms of implementation.

Entrepreneurial stream

Altan Tutar is a highly skilled professional in web3 and blockchain, with a background in machine learning, process improvement, software development, and business development. As a member of the NEAR Foundation, Altan is responsible for driving the adoption and growth of the NEAR Protocol, which is a scalable and decentralised platform for open web applications. Altan has played a significant role in expanding NEAR Protocol's user base from 700k to approximately 4.3M+. Additionally, Altan showcases NEAR's technology to potential partners and assists them in building smart contracts and decentralised applications. Altan has collaborated closely with key partners such as KaiChing and Sweatcoin, both of which rank among the top 5 most utilised decentralised applications. Altan is a Core Contributor to the protocol and also provides guidance to the Imperial Blockchain Group at Imperial College London.

Technical stream

Mohammad Nokhbatolfoghahai is the Lead Software Engineer at Bebop, a trading app and a suite of APIs that finds the best route for your trades. Quick, secure, any tokens in any size, at the best prices. The Bebop workshop offers a high-level overview of algorithmic trading in DEX (decentralised exchanges), utilising Bebop's platform. It includes a brief introduction to Bebop’s features, basic algorithmic trading principles, hands-on exercises with trading bots, and strategies tailored for DEX environments. This workshop is ideal for those interested in the practical aspects of DeFi and algorithmic trading, blending theoretical insights with real-world applications.

The events are co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Saturday 3 February 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

Sound and Social Worlds: “feeling” the climate in organisations

Join us to celebrate the book launch of “Sound, Order and Survival in Prison”. The book reflects on a year working with the community at a local men’s prison: HMP Midtown, exploring the soundscape and its role in social life. Sound was a barometer for the emotional climate on the wing, a means of forecasting trouble and keeping safe. In this most particular of environments, where so much of life is conducted out of view, the soundscape was central to processes of order and its disruptions, to how time was passed, and industry sought. Privileging the auditory led to theorising about the prison anew, but also holds potential for transferring these methods to other spaces. What does analysing rhythms of human behaviour in particular spaces tell us about how we can enhance health and wellbeing for those within them?

Kate Herrity will be joined by Gillian Tett (Provost of King's, author and journalist) and Anna Raverat (Kings alumna and organisation development practitioner).

About the speakers

Kate Herrity is the Mellon-Kings Research Fellow in Punishment. She has particular interests in music, sound and the sensory in places of punishment and social control (see previous publication here), and in worrying at the meeting places between criminology and other fields and disciplines.

Anna Raverat (King's alumna 1988-1991, English) is an organisation development practitioner with 25 years experience working in organisations of all shapes and sizes. She spent a year working in a high security men's prison and found the presenting issues to be similar to her other clients.

Gillian Tett is the Provost of Kings and was a chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US of the Financial Times. She writes weekly columns, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues and co-founded Moral Money, the FT sustainability newsletter.

The book will be available to purchase at a discount at the event, with more information available here.

TICKETS: book your free ticket here

WHEN: Thursday 1st February 2024
5.30pm - 6pm: Drinks in the Chetwynd Room
6.00pm - 7pm: Talk in the Keynes Lecture Theatre

WHERE: King’s College, Cambridge

Workshop and Brunch with Tagus Capital and Nethermind

You are warmly invited to Weekly Brunches, a series of events held every Saturday. These events aim to provide students with guidance, connections, and support in bringing their ideas to life over the year. The events begin with a brunch, followed by two streams of (1) entrepreneurial and (2) technical workshops. The objective is to bring together students who have diverse backgrounds but share entrepreneurial ambitions, and to support the best projects with opportunities for publication, hackathons, incubation, or other forms of implementation.

Entrepreneurial stream

Gui Silva is the General Partner at Tagus Capital that invests in companies and protocols dedicated to developing the next generation of blockchain technology infrastructure. Tagus Capital specialises in investments related to cryptoassets, blockchain, risk management, metaverse, decentralised finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFT). They provide support and investment opportunities to entrepreneurs who are leading the way in Web3 innovation, combining Blockchain Technology with AI, ML, Quantum Computing, Reverse Computing, and Big Data.

Tagus Capital has a strong presence in university spinoff ecosystems and actively encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing among researchers at prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, and UCL, amongst others. They also offer support to various student and professor-led initiatives in the UK and Europe that focus on blockchain technology.

Technical stream

Jorik Schellekens is the co-CTO at Nethermind, a blockchain research and software engineering company. Nethermind empowers enterprises and developers worldwide to build on decentralized systems. Their mission is to deliver pioneering research and development that enables accessible, transparent, and borderless economic and governance systems.

The "Introduction to Ethereum" workshop aims to enhance understanding of Ethereum and blockchain technology. It covers key topics including blockchain security, different blockchain models (EVM - Ethereum Virtual Machine, UTXO - Unspent Transaction Output, and general computation), consensus algorithms (Proof of Work and Proof of Stake), and their social implications. The workshop also explores advanced consensus protocols like PBFT - Practical Byzantine Fault tolerance, Tendermint, and Casper + Ghost, as well as PBS - Proposer Builder Separation and MEV - Maximal Extractable Value and their impact on blockchain technology. You will gain a solid understanding of blockchain security, implementation, consensus algorithms, the blockchain trilemma, and strategies for scaling blockchains. The workshop combines theory with practical insights.

The events are co-hosted with Cambridge Blockchain Society.

For more information, join the Weekly Brunches Telegram group.

TICKETS: to attend the workshop, please message the Weekly Brunches Telegram group
WHEN: Saturday 27 January 2024, 12 - 2pm
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge

In Conversation with Adam Swersky (Social Finance) on How to Design, Fund and Scale Better Solutions to Challenging Social Problems

Adam is the Chief Executive Officer of Social Finance. He was appointed to the role in March 2022 and has been with the organisation since 2014, most recently as Director for the Health + Work team and the Government + Enterprise team. In 2016, Adam created the world’s first social impact bond to support people with health issues into work. In 2019, he launched a national infrastructure support programme for mental health and employment services across the NHS in England (IPS Grow).

Adam was previously a Project Leader at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he advised private, public and not-for-profit organisations on strategy and transformation. This included helping to set up Frontline, the children’s social work charity, and co-authoring a report on future social investment demand. During his time at BCG, Adam was seconded to the Clinton Health Access Initiative, where he worked in West Africa to support Niger to access a subsidy for malaria medication.

More details about Social Finance can be found here.

TICKETS: book your free tickets here
WHEN: Thursday 25 January 2024
5.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Wine reception in Chetwynd Room
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Talk in Keynes Lecture Theatre
WHERE: King's College, Cambridge