Monash Memo - articles - 7 November 2001

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Doors open on IT relics

Computers were given a place in history when Monash's Digital Evolution Museum was officially opened on 17 October.

Launched by the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering within the Faculty of Information Technology at the Caulfield campus, the museum presents a chronology of computing from the early 1960s to the present.

One of the highlights of the display is the PDP-9, which featured in the Australian film The Dish as the central computer in the control room of the Parkes radio telescope, used by the United States to help monitor the first moon landing.

Organiser of the exhibit and lecturer in IT at Caulfield Ms Judy Sheard said most of the exhibits in the museum were sourced from Monash computing archives and staff, with many simply gathering dust in long-forgotten corners.

One such dust-gatherer was Monash's first computer, a 1961 Feranti Sirius.

The museum was launched by Professor Peter Thorne, (pictured) a former Melbourne University academic.

During the 1970s, Professor Thorne was heavily involved in policy and funding for Victorian colleges, including the then Caulfield Institute of Technology, which later became Monash's Caulfield campus.

The museum is located in the foyer of B Block, fifth floor, Caulfield campus, and is open during university hours.