Most people are aware that the earth is warming, and that our society needs to make significant changes in order to stop it. This can seem like an impossible task, outside the scale of anyone’s everyday life. But Heather will demonstrate how one powerful software application, ForeCoast® Marine, is tackling a piece of this problem. She will briefly introduce the field of marine energy and explain how offshore wind farm developers are using this software to try out new strategies in a virtual world, resulting in better decisions and cheaper clean energy. She will share her recent experiences in scaling up the software to look at the impacts of climate change all over Europe, and explain how massive computer programs are acting as ‘crystal balls’ to locate vulnerable people, ecosystems, and industries so that we can mitigate against the impacts of climate change long into the future. https://www.forecoastmarine.com/gamer-mode Heather Norton Over the past 8 years Heather has written code for controlling lasers in atomic science experiments, helping entrepreneurs in rural Ghana with their financial planning, reducing energy use in office buildings, and a variety of projects in between. Originally from Canada, she studied Engineering Physics (Queen’s University) and Engineering for Sustainable Development (University of Cambridge) before settling at JBA Consulting in Skipton where she works on ForeCoast® Marine, the subject of her talk today. From a talk at CodeMill digital skills meetup in March 2018 - https://www.meetup.com/CodeMill-Digital-Skills/events/245100929/