October 2004
A compact museum in the heart of the Information Technology faculty building at Monash University's Caulfield campus provides visitors with a fascinating glimpse into the heady, rapidly evolving world of information technology.
|
Preserving IT history: Ms Sarah Wolf (left) and Ms Judithe Sheard.
Photo: Melissa Di Ciero |
The Monash Museum of Computing History is the brainchild of Ms Judithe Sheard, museum curator and a senior lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash.
The idea for a museum came after she attended a symposium at the school in 2001 and sat through a series of presentations by computer historian and collector Mr Max Burnet covering the history of computing and communications.
"The images of computing equipment from past decades and the accompanying stories fascinated me and highlighted both the phenomenal changes in this field and the impact on our society," Ms Sheard said.
"Conversations with younger colleagues who had not had the experience of working with superceded technologies such as punched cards and paper tape made me realise we were in danger of losing knowledge about this important part of our history unless an effort was made to preserve it."
The museum opened in October 2001 with a display of computers, computer peripherals and related equipment from the early 20th century to the present. It has been a magnet for computer buffs, school children and IT students alike.
Among the exhibits is a PDP-9 computer produced by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the mid to late 1960s. Priced then at A$35,000, it was one of the first small computers to have an operating system -- initially based on DECtape and later on disk. Around 430 PDP-9s were sold worldwide.
|
Computing magnet: Inside the Monash Museum of Computing History.
Photo: Simon Nicol |
The PDP-9 on display featured in the 2000 Australian movie The Dish as the main computer in the control room of the Parkes radio telescope that monitored NASA's Apollo 11 mission to the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface on 21 July 1969.
Other exhibits include an IBM card punch commonly used in computer centres during the 1960s and 1970s, an IBM personal computer (PC) circa 1981, and an ASR-33 Teletype produced by US firm Teletype Corporation in the early 1960s.
The IBM PC was at the forefront of the microcomputer revolution and was eagerly sought after by enthusiasts and early adopters.
The Teletype, developed for use as a terminal for the US telex service, harks back to the early years of the mini-computer revolution when paper tape was the only storage medium.
"The museum provides an opportunity for people to see computing items that are no longer in general use and demonstrates the rapid changes that have happened with computing technology," Ms Sheard said.
"The displays of equipment effectively demonstrate how computers have become smaller and more powerful. The museum also puts computer technology into a broader context with displays of other computing devices such as slide rules, abacuses and calculators."
It is currently being revamped under the supervision of Ms Sheard and will be relocated to a larger space within the building in March 2005.
A highlight of the new space will be an installation featuring the Ferranti Sirius -- the first computer purchased by the university -- displayed in a typically 1950s/1960s-style office.
|
| Highlight: The Ferranti Sirius computer. |
Other installations will feature a range of personal computers and mechanical calculators to show how they have altered over the years, as well as visual comparisons of disk storage and how this technology has changed.
Current exhibits will be revamped to more closely reflect the chronology of computing and to show how computers were used in past decades and the impact they have had on education, work, home and society in general.
The faculty's historian-in-residence Ms Sarah Wolf said an important part of the project would be the development of an education program for primary and secondary school students and a professional development program for IT teachers.
"The new museum is about accessibility and outreach and introducing people to the university environment," she said. "The primary aim is to establish it as an experience-based centre of learning about the history and development of information technology in Australia."
Ms Wolf is writing a book on the history of Monash's IT faculty, the impetus for which was provided by the launch of the original museum. The book is due to be published early next year.
Just three decades ago, there was only one computer science subject offered at Monash. From these modest beginnings, computer science grew into a fully-fledged academic discipline under the guidance of the late Professor Chris Wallace, foundation chair of computer science at Monash.
"The book is essentially about the history of two institutions -- Monash University and Chisholm Institute of Technology -- and how what we now call information technology emerged as a new discipline in the higher education environment," Ms Wolf said.
At Chisholm (which merged with Monash in 1990 and became the university's Caulfield campus), teaching in computing began in the early 1960s with a single short course in electronic data processing. By the mid-1980s, there were several departments dedicated to the area.
"No-one really knows how hard the pioneers fought to have computer science education accepted in Australia. The contribution by Monash is a story of grit and determination in the face of rapidly evolving technology and the struggle for higher education funding," Ms Wolf said.
Karen Stichtenoth
Contact:
sarah.wolf@infotech.monash.edu.a u
Ph: +61 3 9903 2698
The Monash Museum of Computing History is located at the Caulfield campus, B Block, level 5, and is open daily.
| 
