Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Computer Laboratory

The Computer Laboratory has been housed in the William Gates Building in West Cambridge since August 2001.
Former names
 Mathematical Laboratory
Established 14 May 1937 (14 May 1937)
Head of Department Andy Hopper[1]
Academic staff
 35
Administrative staff
 25
Postgraduates 155
Location William Gates Building, Cambridge, United Kingdom
52°12′39″N 0°05′31″E / 52.210925°N 0.092022°E / 52.210925; 0.092022 (University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory)Coordinates: 52°12′39″N 0°05′31″E / 52.210925°N 0.092022°E / 52.210925; 0.092022 (University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory)

The Computer Laboratory is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2007, it employs 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 155 research students. The current head of department is Professor Andy Hopper.

The Computer Laboratory built and operated the world’s first fully operational practical stored program computer (EDSAC, 1949) and offered the world’s first postgraduate taught course in computer science in 1953. It currently offers a 3-year undergraduate course and a 1-year masters course (with an optional natural language processing theme). Recent research has focused on virtualization, security, usability, formal verification, formal semantics of programming languages, computer architecture, natural language processing, wireless networking, biometric identification, routing, positioning systems and sustainability (“Computing for the future of the planet”). Members of the Computer Laboratory have been involved in the creation of many successful UK IT companies such as Acorn, ARM, nCipher and XenSource.

Staff

Senior academic staff: Professors

As of 2016 the lab employs 19 Professors:[2]

  1. Ross J. Anderson,[3] Professor of Security Engineering
  2. Ted Briscoe,[4] Professor of Computational Linguistics
  3. Alan F. Blackwell, Professor of Interdisciplinary Design
  4. Ann Copestake,[5] Professor of Computational Linguistics
  5. Jon Crowcroft, Marconi Professor of Communications Systems
  6. John Daugman, Professor of Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  7. Anuj Dawar,[6] Professor of Logic and Algorithms
  8. Marcelo Fiore,[7] Professor of Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science
  9. Mike Gordon, Emeritus Professor of Computer Assisted Reasoning
  10. Andy Hopper,[1] Professor of Computer Technology
  11. Ian Leslie, Professor of Computer Science
  12. Cecilia Mascolo, Professor of Mobile Systems
  13. Simon Moore, Professor of Computer Engineering
  14. Alan Mycroft, Professor of Computing
  15. Lawrence Paulson, Professor of Computational Logic
  16. Andrew Pitts, Professor of Theoretical Computer Science
  17. Peter Robinson, Professor of Computer Technology
  18. Glynn Winskel,[8] Professor of Computer Science
  19. Peter Sewell, Professor of Computer Science

Other staff include Robert Watson and Markus Kuhn

Former staff

Former staff in the laboratory include:

Heads of the Computer Laboratory

The lab has been led by:

Landmark projects and results

Influence on business enterprise

A number of companies have been founded by staff and graduates. Their names were featured in the new laboratory entrance in 2012.[15] Some cited examples of successful companies are ARM, Autonomy, Aveva, CSR and Domino. One common factor they share is that key staff or founder members are "drenched in university training and research".[16] The Cambridge Computer Lab Ring was praised for its "tireless work" by Andy Hopper in 2012, at its tenth anniversary dinner.[17]

History

It was founded as the Mathematical Laboratory under the leadership of John Lennard-Jones on 14 May 1937, though it did not get properly established until after World War II. The new laboratory was housed in the North Wing of the former Anatomy School, on the New Museums Site. Upon its foundation, it was intended to provide a computing service for general use, and to be a centre for the development of computational techniques in the University. The Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science was the world’s first postgraduate taught course in computing, starting in 1953.

In October 1946, work began under Maurice Wilkes on EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), which subsequently became the world’s first fully operational and practical stored program computer when it ran its first program on 6 May 1949. It inspired the world’s first business computer, LEO. It was replaced by EDSAC 2, the first microcoded and bitsliced computer, in 1958.

In 1961, David Hartley developed Autocode, one of the first high-level programming languages, for EDSAC 2. Also in that year, proposals for Titan, based on the Ferranti Atlas machine, were developed. Titan became fully operational in 1964 and EDSAC 2 was retired the following year. In 1967, a full (‘24/7’) multi-user time-shared service for up to 64 users was inaugurated on Titan.

In 1970, the Mathematical Laboratory was renamed the Computer Laboratory, with separate departments for Teaching and Research and the Computing Service, providing computing services to the university and its colleges. The two did not fully separate until 2001, when the Computer Laboratory moved out to the new William Gates building in West Cambridge, off Madingley Road, leaving behind an independent Computing Service.

In 2002, the Computer Laboratory launched the Cambridge Computer Lab Ring, a graduate society named after the Cambridge Ring network.

References

  1. 1 2 3 HOPPER, Prof. Andrew. Who's Who. 2015 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Academic staff in the Computer laboratory". University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25.
  3. ↑ ANDERSON, Prof. Ross John. Who's Who. 2014 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
  4. ↑ Ted Briscoe's publications indexed by Google Scholar
  5. ↑ Ann Copestake's publications indexed by Google Scholar
  6. ↑ Anuj Dawar's publications indexed by Google Scholar
  7. ↑ Marcelo Fiore at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  8. ↑ Glynn Winskel at DBLP Bibliography Server
  9. ↑ Hoffmann, L. (2010). "Robin Milner: the elegant pragmatist". Communications of the ACM. 53 (6): 20. doi:10.1145/1743546.1743556.
  10. ↑ Hoare, T.; Wilkes, M. V. (2004). "Roger Michael Needham CBE FREng. 9 February 1935 - 1 March 2003: Elected F.R.S. 1985". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 50: 183. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2004.0014.
  11. ↑ Martin Richards at DBLP Bibliography Server
  12. ↑ Tait, J. I. (2007). "Karen Spärck Jones". Computational Linguistics. 33 (3): 289–291. doi:10.1162/coli.2007.33.3.289.
  13. ↑ Campbell-Kelly, M. (2006). "David John Wheeler. 9 February 1927 -- 13 December 2004: Elected FRS 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 52: 437. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2006.0030.
  14. ↑ Campbell-Kelly, M. (2014). "Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes 26 June 1913 -- 29 November 2010". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2013.0020.
  15. ↑ Quested, Tony (February 24, 2012). "Cambridge technology cluster thriving thanks to university dynamism". Business Weekly. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
  16. ↑ Vargas, Lautaro (March 5, 2012). "Cambridge University plans £30m VC fund and opens door to non-uni investment". Cabume. Cambridge. Retrieved March 14, 2012.
  17. ↑ Quested, Tony (March 27, 2012). "Gates no barrier to Bango enterprise". Business Weekly. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
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