Computer Science History: 1950s
Find out about our early computer science work in the 1950s.
In January 1957, Dr Ewan S Page was chosen as Director of the Durham University Computing Laboratory at King's College, Newcastle.
The first focus for the Laboratory was to give computing support to researchers in both Durham and Newcastle. It soon became clear that education for users was essential.
This led to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching activities, and then postgraduate and undergraduate degree programmes.
The first computer at the Laboratory was a Ferranti Pegasus. It was installed in November 1957. It was christened Ferdinand (FERranti DIgital and Numerical Analyser Newcastle and Durham).
As there were few computers at this time, access to the Ferdinand was made available to local industry. This provided some of the initial funding.
Between 1957-1958, Newcastle became the first British university to teach a course in computer programming to undergraduates.
Students in the last year of the Honours degree in Mathematics were offered a course in Numerical Analysis. The Postgraduate Diploma in Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing was established in October 1959.