# .plan-26-42: Tails of the unexpected *2026-10-18 — note* Term is in full swing, so this week is mostly about [lecturing](#lectures-and-term-are-go) and [talking at the CCI](#talking-tessera-at-the-cci), followed by a tour of some of my [typical termtime meetings](#some-typical-termtime-meetings) on topics from [AI governance](#ai-governance-with-csap), [the CRI management team](#the-conservation-research-institute-management-team), [an NVIDIA AI safety event](#nvidia-ai-safety-and-security-event) and [samosa socials at Pembroke](#mcsamosas-at-pembroke). ## Lectures and term are go\! I'm back in the swing of lecturing again after a year out, and greatly enjoying delivering [Foundations of Computer Science](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/focs) once more!!! The use of [Forester with interactive toplevels](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/forester-teaching-notes) has been extremely useful during the lectures, as I can just tab away from my slides to the web toplevel to illustrate some point, which the students can also follow along with. A quick poll of the students reveals that a number of them are using the Forester version of the notes in lieu of the [PDF version](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/2627/FoundsCS/focs-202627-v1.8.pdf). Thus far, several have also commented to me that they're greatly enjoying avoiding LLMs while learning how to navigate functional programming, which is a great relief to me as an educator\!
### Chasing your own (list) tail As happens every year, there's a new and interesting question raised during lectures that I don't anticipate. This year, it's how the OCaml head and tail of a list work. In lecture 3, I explained how lists are implemented as a singly-linked data structure, starting from a head value and ending in an empty list sentinel. The type of `val hd : 'a list -> 'a` makes it obvious that the function needs to raise an exception if the input list is empty, since a value of `'a` cannot otherwise be constructed. However, the question was why the tail function `val tl : 'a list -> 'a list` can't just return an empty list instead of raising an exception? I had to look this one up, and couldn't find any language for which `tail([])=[]`, although GHC does have versions which don't raise. Talking to [Simon Peyton Jones](https://simon.peytonjones.org/), he reckons that we shouldn't have a `List.tl` function in the first place, and should always prefer pattern matching to deconstruct a list. There were [lots](https://x.com/avsm/status/2112124094636605574) of other opinions online too.
Jon Ludlam preparing the ticking server on the first day
Jon Ludlam preparing the ticking server on the first day
### MPhil and Part III projects I've been meeting a steady stream of students about MPhil projects, although I'm right at my supervision capacity with all the Part IIs this year. Still, I've been having a fascinating time hearing from students with a variety of backgrounds and probably won't be able to resist taking a couple on. I suspect they'll be more on the formal verification (Lean/OxCaml) side than Tessera, but do get in touch if you're interested in any of them. ### Talking Tessera at the CCI
David explaining our species mapping work up in the Cairngorms
David explaining our species mapping work up in the Cairngorms
[David Coomes](https://coomeslab.org) and [Sadiq Jaffer](https://toao.com) and I also gave a really [well-attended talk](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7515827977058709504/) at the CCI covering recent advances in [Tessera](https://anil.recoil.org/projects/tessera). This was apparently the most people ever at any of the CRI talks, which is quite the honour! The discussions were as robust as you might expect; there's a huge amount of interest in the upcoming v2 embeddings, as well as change tracking models, and also the application to marine ecosystems. One key point we tried to settle was how to pronounce 'TEssera' or 'TesSERA', and the audience was invited to either tap their head or rub their cheeks to signal their preference. Unfortunately I forgot which was which but we did get a nice audience picture of it:
I think it's pronounced Te-Seh-RAH-RAH actually
I think it's pronounced Te-Seh-RAH-RAH actually
## Some typical termtime meetings Since I haven't had much time to write up my coding this week, I thought I'd highlight some really fun different policy meetings I had, since I'm often asked what a 'typical' week looks like. It's never the same during termtime\! ### AI governance with CSaP
Me with Keita Azuma from the Japanese government
Me with Keita Azuma from the Japanese government
The [Centre for Science and Policy](https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk) here organises '[policy fellow](https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/policy-fellowships/policy-fellows/)' meetings for academics to interact directly with civil servants from around the world. I had the pleasure of meeting with [Keita Azuma](https://unu.edu/cris/about/expert/keita-azuma) from Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat this week. > Keita Azuma is Chief Policy Officer for Emerging Technologies and Global Affairs in the Office of the Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management, Government of Japan. He leads Japan's strategic engagement with international AI governance, coordinating closely with the United Nations and the OECD, including the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, UNODA, UNDP and UNU, and served as lead organiser of side events at the STI Forum. > > \[...\] Within Japan's crisis management architecture, he has played a central role in integrating emerging technologies — including satellite imagery, AI analytics and drone-based reconnaissance — into the government's response to large-scale disasters, accidents and security crises, and has worked on countering mis- and disinformation during such events. Keita and I had a really wide-ranging discussion ranging from the rollout of LLM technologies for policymaking (as we are working on in the [Evidence TAP](https://evidencetap.org)) through to how forecasting models like the latest advances in [Tessera](https://anil.recoil.org/projects/tessera) might apply to climate adaptation strategies in Japan. I also learnt that Japan is hoping to host the [2028 AI summit](https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20251219-299398/) after next year's in Switzerland. After my [whirlwind Indian AI summit experience](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/india-ai-summit) earlier this year, I definitely want to attend that one\! ### The Conservation Research Institute management team Cambridge is full of acronyms, and none more so than the [Cambridge Conservation Initiative](https://www.cambridgeconservation.org) (CCI), home of [UNEP-WCMC](https://www.unep-wcmc.org), [IUCN](https://iucn.org), [RSPB](https://www.rspb.org.uk) and of course the [CRI](https://www.conservation.cam.ac.uk). The CRI is the codename for the University members of the CCI, and we have regular meetings about how best to organise the interdisciplinary research. My attendance has been sporadic in the last year as I was on sabbatical (except for the fantastic [CRI offsite in Norwich](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/2026w19)) but I very much enjoyed seeing everyone again\!
The Conservation Research Institute management team assembles!
The Conservation Research Institute management team assembles!
### NVIDIA AI Safety and Security event Then for something completely different, [Sadiq Jaffer](https://toao.com) and I nipped down to London for an invitational from NVIDIA to discuss their [announcements](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA68MDXRoUo) on [investments in AI safety](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/14/nvidia-donates-to-uk-ai-safety-research) in the UK. There was a closed event earlier where we heard a "fireside chat" with [Blaise Metreweli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Metreweli) discussing the matter with Jensen Huang (sadly, Chatham House rule so no notes on this). I did get to meet many security researchers there though, including my first contact with the [AI Safety Institute](https://www.aisi.gov.uk/) who have an excellent [red team blog](https://www.aisi.gov.uk/blog) about breaking things. I've been working on a side project about protocol specification that I showed a few people, to encouraging feedback. More on that in future weeks\! Since pictures weren't allowed at these meetings, [Sadiq Jaffer](https://toao.com) and I instead celebrate below at King's Cross' notable achievement of multiple Loo of the Year awards, which is, I'm sure you'll agree, not crap at all.
Congratulations King's Cross on repeat Loo of the Year awards
Congratulations King's Cross on repeat Loo of the Year awards
### McSamosas at Pembroke Last but not least, this term as part of the [Evidence TAP](https://evidencetap.org) project kicking off at Pembroke, I've been hosting 'samosa socials'. We're working across so many departments that many of our collaborators never really get to see each other in person. One of the great things about the College system is that we can quite easily find a room and invite 20-30 people without issue. Our wonderful catering team led by Nina Rhodes has been supplying a steady stream of samosas, pakoras and chai, and we've made this a regular event in Michaelmas every Monday at 4pm. I expected numbers to dip after the first one, but we ended up with over 40 (!) people from 8 or more departments showing up. Discussions ranged from the AI safety announcement I mention above, to how we might locally help with the [Cam rights of the river](https://eleanortoyescott.co.uk/blog/posts/river-rights.html), to how a policymaking platform with LLMs could be crafted to fit how politicians work (messaging!), and how [global cooperative policymaking](https://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk/carl/climate/) might be implemented. I am delighted to see many of the Pembroke undergrads attending as well, so I'm hopeful we can get some [Cambridge Green Blue](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/cambridge-green-blue) activities going next term if the momentum continues to build\!
If you'd like to attend this and are local in Cambridge, just drop me a note and I'll send you the details\! Other than this, I've been moving all my home directories to our Ceph cluster to test out if using a network filesystem is actually practical these days. We're trying to get 10Gbps in our Computer Lab offices so that our ragtag collection of GPU/CPU machines can network together at a reasonable speed. On my list next week is to promote the OpenStreetMap/GBIF/iNat mirror that I have on my machine to something more easily accessible via a Wireguard mesh, so that [Michael Dales](https://mynameismwd.org) and [Aneesh Naik](https://aneeshnaik.github.io/) can use it for their habitat mapping work. ## References 1. Madhavapeddy (2026). At the AI Impact Summit in Delhi: people, planet, progress. 2. Madhavapeddy (2025). Foundations of Computer Science. 3. Madhavapeddy (2026). Using Forester to turn Foundations of CS into interactive evergreen lectures. 4. Madhavapeddy (2025). The Cambridge "Green Blue" competition to reduce emissions. Synopsis: Back to lecturing Foundations of CS, why List.tl raises, a record Tessera crowd at the CCI, and a sample of termtime meetings from Japanese AI governance to NVIDIA and samosa socials. Words: 1468 Discussion: - LinkedIn: - Mastodon: - Twitter: ## Related - [Using Forester to turn Foundations of CS into interactive evergreen lectures](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/forester-teaching-notes) (note, 2026-08-16) Porting the FoCS lecture notes to Forester, including transclusions and stable section URLs, and a live OCaml toplevel compiled into the browser. - [.plan-26-19: Ancient oaks, parliamentary evidence, and TESSERA in the City](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/2026w19) (note, 2026-05-10) Celebrating David Attenborough's 100th birthday at a Conservation Research Institute retreat in Norwich, a Parliament POST briefing on Evidence for Nature Recovery lands, and a TESSERA talk at the Cambridge Ring alumni evening at Jane Street. - [At the AI Impact Summit in Delhi: people, planet, progress](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/india-ai-summit) (note, 2026-02-21) Trip report from the Indian AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, covering the massive expo, a conversation with Yann LeCun, a hackathon/talk at IIT-Delhi, networking at the British High Commission, and reflections on the summit declaration's shift from safety to progress and equitable access. - [The Cambridge "Green Blue" competition to reduce emissions](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/cambridge-green-blue) (note, 2025-05-06) Thinking about a Cambridge "Green Blue" competition to reduce emissions among Colleges, promoting cooperation through a semi-competitive league - [Foundations of Computer Science](https://anil.recoil.org/notes/focs) (note, 2025-01-03) Resources for teaching Foundations of Computer Science with OCaml and Jupyter notebooks. - [TESSERA, a pixelwise geospatial foundation model](https://anil.recoil.org/projects/tessera) (project, 2025-01-01) --- Canonical: https://anil.recoil.org/notes/2026w42 Type: note License: CC BY 4.0 Tags: teaching, tessera, ai, policy, conservation, ocaml