Cambridge University Computer Laboratory - Definition and Overview

The Computer Laboratory is Cambridge University's computer science department. For much of its history it also provided the University's Computing Service.

On 2 December, 1936 the University's General Board published a Report on the Establishment of a Computing Laboratory intended to provide a computing service for general use, and to be a centre for the development of computational techniques in the University. The Mathematical Laboratory was subsequently founded on 14 May, 1937, under the leadership of John Lennard-Jones, though it did not get properly established until after World War II.

In October 1946 work began under Maurice Wilkes on EDSAC which subsequently became the first fully-operational and practical stored program computer when it ran its first program on 6 May 1949.

The Cambridge Diploma in Computer Science was the world's first taught course in computing, starting in 1953.

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

Staff

Some staff working at the Laboratory include:

• Ross Anderson
• Alan Mycroft
• Arthur Norman

External links

• University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/)
• University of Cambridge Computing Service (http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/)
• A brief informal history of the Computer Laboratory (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/UoCCL/misc/EDSAC99/history.html)