Fifty Years of Computing at The University of Melbourne

Summary

On June 16, 2006, the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, and the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne celebrated Fifty Years of Computing at The University of Melbourne. The event commemorated was the June 14 1956 re-commissioning of the CSIRAC computer, the first at the University, and, until a few months later, when the Sydney University SILLIAC computer became operational, the only one in the country.

A document, Fifty Years of Computing at the University of Melbourne was prepared as part of the celebrations, to record the history of academic computing at the University of Melbourne.

Photos

A large number of photos were collected, and taken, as part of this event. Here are three of the more interesting ones:

Dr Frank Hirst, Head of the Computation Laboratory and Computation Department 1955-1970, at the controls of CSIRAC on June 15, 1956. Standing (l to r): Ron Bowles, CSIRAC engineer; Trevor Pearcey, CSIRAC designer and builder; and E. Palfreman, an early programmer. [Photo credit: digital image supplied by Peter Thorne.]

Staff and students of the Department of Computer Science, approximately 1984: (l to r) Michael Maher, Jean-Louis Lassez, Jacek Gibert (front), Glenn Farall, Bill Flower, John Shepherd, Peter Eden, Isaac Balbin, Rodney Topor (front), Peter Lamb (obscured), Dick Hamlet [visitor from Maryland], Liz Sonenberg, Paul Dunn, Ben Warden, Peter Poole, David Danks, Julie [??], Rex Harris, Rao Kotagiri, Jamie Thom, Ian Richards, Steven Lynch, Prue Downie, John Lloyd, Jurij (George) Semkiw, Joxan Jaffar, Peter Thorne. [Photo provided by Ben Warden, scanned by Liz Sonenberg.]

Heads of Computer Science attending the celebration on 16 June: (l to r) Bill Flower, Head of the Department of Information Science, 1970-1975; Peter C. Poole, Head of the Department of Computer Science, 1975-1990; Peter Thorne, Head of the Department of Computer Science, 1990-1996; Leon Sterling, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, 1996-2002; and Rao Kotagiri, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering since 2002. [Photo credit: Alistair Moffat]

Some of the CSSE Teaching/Research staff attending the 28 September 2006 Teaching Planning Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground: (l to r) Alistair Moffat, Mike Ciavarella (front), Leon Sterling, Steven Bird, Rao Kotagiri (front), Jon Callander (holding football), Udaya Parampalli, Tim Baldwin (behind), Saeed Araban, Linda Stern (front), Peter Scachte, Chris Leckie (behind), Les Kitchen (front), Jenny Thomas, Tony Wirth (behind), Baikunth Nath (front), Julie Slaviero, Ed Kamierczak (behind), Antonette Mendoza, James Bailey (behind), Aaron Harwood, Rui Zhang (behind), Alan Colman. [Photo credit: The MCG tour guide, using Mike Ciavarella's camera.]