Welcome to the website of the Lambda Group and our inaugural blog post.

We are the Lambda group, a set of students passionate about functional programming. In the coming academic year we aim to learn about functional programming through two routes.

We shall be learning a lisp, Scheme, working through the textbook SICP as a group through regular meetings spread throughout the term. The focus isn’t so much on the specifics of the programming language (you will see that the language is in fact very simple to learn), but how to think like a programmer and to understand how and why software is structured.

The group will also be hosting guest lectures, with external speakers from a variety of backgrounds coming to UCL giving talks on different functional programming related topics.

In the coming weeks the group will be around on campus advertising to a range of departments.

For the incoming Computer Science undergraduates and MSc students, we’ll be giving short presentations on the group during Induction week, so look out for us then.

The group will be hosting its first big event on the evening of 29th September, location TBC. Chris Clack, ScD, will be giving an introductory lecture to functional programming followed by drinks at a nearby bar.

This will be a fantastic chance to get a feel for who we are, what the society will be doing and why you should be taking part.

In the meantime please sign up to our mailing list to stay informed of upcoming events and come to our introductory lecture - an exciting year lies ahead of us.