print("greetings Compsoc!");

What!? A vacation newsletter!? And a vacation social!?

Our sponsor JaneStreet has a message about a social at their London office on 14^th July in the evening (6pm). If you'd like to meet up with CompSoc again (albeit not at the UGSA, sadly), do remember to sign up by 9^th July through their form (in a later section of this newsletter)!

also these vacation newsletters may or may not be a (very much irregular) reoccurrence

— Acie/Amos, CompSoc Vice President

Fun Computing Fact: (Thanks to Professor Klin for introducing this)

Did you know that there is actually a singular universal algorithm that can solve any* problem in asymptotically optimal time?_{*any = problems that can be easily verified and has an optimal algorithm}

Let us suppose we have a problem with input x that has an optimal algorithm f that solves it in time t, and that we can verify if any output y is valid quickly (e.g. in O(p(|x|) time). Now suppose we have a machine M that iterates through all encodings (M₁, M₂, ...) of possible algorithms in order and does (roughly):

for i from 1 ... :

    for j from 1 to i:

       run M_j for 2^{(j - i)} steps
       check if M_j has output and verify its output

This (very rough sketch of an) algorithm is actually in O(t + p(|x|)) time! Though it is quite obvious that it is ridiculously slow. Most of the runtime is actually tucked away in a constant that is not related to |x|. This algorithm is outlined in Levin's papers and is sometimes called the Universal Search Algorithm.

This explanation is very rough and missing on some details, for a better explanation, check these out.

Still not a member? How?! Membership only costs £1 for LIFE, with tons of benefits - discounts on merch and tickets, free food at all socials, our exclusive Discord server and more - so it's definitely worth signing up!

or, go to https://ox.compsoc.net/product/lifetime-membership/

Spend an evening with Streeters!

Join us for a panel event featuring Jane Streeters who completed our internship programme and can share their journey from intern to full-time Streeter. We'll have delicious food, swag, and plenty of opportunities to hang out with other students — plus a couple of surprise activities up our sleeve this year.

We're excited to connect with curious minds from any background with a passion for critical thinking and creative problem-solving. No finance experience required!

When: 6:00pm - 8:30pm BST, Tuesday 14^th July 

Where: Jane Street London Office

Interested? Let us know here by Thursday, July 9th.

We'll confirm attendance via email by end of day Monday, July 13th.

does anyone actually read this far? good job for checking out what our collaborating societies / sponsors are saying

No meme this week, bit too busy, sorry (T__T)

Make sure to join OxWoCS (Oxford Women in CS), a society we're working closely with, if you identify as a woman or woman-adjacent person in CS! They have a host of wonderful events on, including talks, panels and socials. Computer Science is unfortunately a subject with one of the biggest gender gaps in Oxford and worldwide, and addressing this is at the core of OxWoCS.

A message from our sponsors at TPP:

Graduate Software Developer Role:

No coding experience required.

We’re looking for bright and geeky graduates to join our Software Developer team. No experience is required, and many of our successful applicants have never programmed before. If you think logically and enjoy problem solving, then you have the potential to become a great developer.

A career at TPP will challenge you every day. In your first few weeks you will be solving real-world problems as you help to develop software used by healthcare professionals and patients across the world.

You’ll be part of an agile development team, working on one of the largest real-time databases in the world. You’ll work on a wide variety of projects, ranging from AI assisting clinicians with early diagnosis of cancer to an iOS app helping patients manage their diabetes.

To apply, please visit https://tpp-careers.com/roles/graduate-software-developer/

A message from our sponsors at Perplexity:

Students get free Perplexity Pro and exclusive student features like flashcards and quizzes when you verify your student status. Sign up at perplexity.ai/students

or, contact us at committee@ox.compsoc.net

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