Look through the text again and say if any information is new to you. Say what you have learnt.

9 Discuss how computers can be used in the following areas. Work in small groups. Speak for three minutes.

Area	Useful words
Industry	production line, robot, computer-aided manufacturing, machinery
Entertainment	multimedia, game, music, animated image, encyclopedia
Automobile design	software car, car body, design, mechanical parts, electronic components, engine speed
Medicine	medical personnel, patients, disease, database program, records, scanner, diagnose, robot, surgery

Useful constructions:

Computers are used to …

A PC can also be used for …

Computers can help … make … control … store … keep … provide … manage … give … perform … test … provide access to …

10 You will read an interview with Linda Brackenbury – a Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science department. Before you read look at the pictures and suggest about the following:

1 What is ‘Baby’ in picture 1?

Who are the people in picture 2? What are they doing?

When were these pictures taken?

Picture 1

A very big 'Baby' fills the room

Picture 2

Tom Kilburn and Sir Freddie Williams

Make sure you now the following words

· processing power

· technical apparatus and cables

· hardware

· do the programming

· valve

· integrated circuit

· sophisticated facilities

· replica

Read the questions that Linda Brackenbury was asked, then read Linda’s answers and match each question (A – F) with the suitable answer (1 – 9). The first is done for you.

A Could you tell us about the new 'Baby'?

B How much had things progressed in 1965 since the invention of Baby?

C How important was the role that Alan Turing played in developing this field?

D Can today's students still learn from those early days of computer science?

E What was the computer that you studied on like?

F What inspired you to go on the course?

BABY GROWS UP

By Richard Turner

In 1965, The University of Manchester was the first in the country to open a Computer Science degree course – and Linda Brackenbury was one of the first 28 students to enroll. Linda - now a Senior Lecturer in the department - was taught by Tom Kilburn and Sir Freddie Williams who invented the world's first computer - 'The Baby' in 1948.

'Baby' had the equivalent processing power of a mobile phone but filled an entire room with technical apparatus and cables. A replica is now based within Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry.

Linda looks back at those pioneering days:

0 What do you remember about your days as a student in Manchester?

A: " It was an extremely exciting time to be an undergraduate in Computer Science (CS). It was really the first course in the country and we were the first lot to be admitted to that course. There were only 28 of us in the first year – and just four girls - and we had a very close relationship with the staff because we were pioneering our way through this course and there was this buzz and excitement about what we were doing."

" Nobody had a crystal ballas to where it was actually going to go but to me it looked very interesting because I had studied Maths and Physics at advanced level and I wanted something that was going to continue both streams of knowledge. And CS where we were going to learn something about the hardware and use our maths to do the programming seemed to be the ideal combination."

 

 

" Turing is considered by most people to be one of the original thinkers of the last century and I think he’s had a tremendous impact. You can’t pick up any textbook which refers to early computing without the name of Turing being mentioned and he really was a one-off sort of guy. We’re very proud and that’s why we’re hoping to celebrate in great style on the 40th anniversary."

" Well, the first technology of 1948 was valves. And it was steadily moving into the transistor era and the first integrated circuits were just coming out around then. It was a time of real technological change going from valves into much smaller units and circuits so that machines could be built in a much smaller space."

" That was the Atlas machine and again that was a transistor machine which was fairly advanced at the time and it had a lot of very sophisticated facilities compared with the 1948 machine which was really only the power of your average small hand held computer."

" If you imagine a very large lounge-cum-dining room and you imagine that were down both sides of the walls down the long sides of the walls. And looms of cables strung across the two cabinets down the sides between them, you’ll get the sort of feeling of how big the whole thing was."

" It’s a replica of the world’s first computer – it’s a rebuild – a very good rebuild and the person who’s done the rebuilding Chris Burton has had to go right round the country to find all the bits and pieces."

" Although the technology has changed a great deal, the underlying principles are very much as they always were. Of course, things are lot more sophisticated now and we’re able to do more things but when you look at it… it all stems from the 1948 machine.

I hope that the message that they take away is that we’ve come a long away and there’s still a long way to go. And that it’s an exciting topic to be in."

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