60 Years of Computing in Victoria 14 JUNE 1956 14 JUNE 2016

WELCOME Justin Zobel HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING & INFORMATION SYSTEMS, MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of computing in Victoria. CSIRAC, ’s first , resumed operations at the University of Melbourne on 14 June 1956, after being moved from Sydney. CSIRAC is the world’s oldest intact computer, and is now on permanent display at the Melbourne Museum. Many people contributed to this outcome, but in particular Dr Peter Thorne both led the technical work of restoration and made the case for it to be exhibited and conserved - thus giving us and future generations an opportunity to fully appreciate the roots of computing. CSIRAC was originally built in Sydney by the CSIRO before being transferred to The University of Melbourne We welcome this anniversary as an opportunity to highlight the history of computing technology and its impact on our society. TODAY’S SMART MACHINES Not coincidentally, we are also celebrating 60 years of computing education and research at The University of Melbourne. From small OWE MUCH TO AUSTRALIA’S beginnings in the 1950s, the Department of Computing & Information Systems, as it is now known, has become an international FIRST COMPUTER leader in information technology. During the week we look at the remarkable By Justin Zobel SILLIAC, which was launched in September achievements of computing. We have 1956), and operated until 1964. It is now commissioned a series of articles to illustrate Australia’s first computer weighed two a permanent exhibit at Museum Victoria. what computing has contributed across a tonnes, filled a large room and had a tiny The core design of CSIRAC is still the basis variety of fields of research. With industry fraction of the capacity of today’s typical of today. It consists of a processor and government leaders, we will look ahead smartphone. But why would such a that executes instructions and storage used for to what the next 60 years of computing may machine continue to be relevant today? bring. We will celebrate the women who are both data and sequences of instructions – that prominent in the field. And with our academic Originally designed and built by the is, programs. colleagues, and with computing pioneers, we Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Huge in size, it was tiny in terms will explore some of the landmarks in our 60 (now known as CSIRO) in Sydney as the CSIR of computational capacity. Think of a years of computing history. Mk1 in 1947-50, it was one of the very first smartphone as a “unit” (call it a “smart I am deeply grateful to our partners and computers to be completed and is the oldest phone unit”, or SPU) of processing size supporters: the Australian Computer Society, computer that is still substantially intact. then CSIRAC’s capacity was roughly a CSIRO, the Melbourne Museum, the Melbourne It was relocated to the University of millionth of that – a microSPU. School of Engineering, the Pearcey Foundation, Melbourne in 1955 and relaunched as Over its 14 years or so of operating life it and the Victorian State Government, all key CSIRAC (pronounced sigh-rack) on June did about the work that a smartphone today players in Victoria’s rich history of computing. 14, 1956 (just a few months before Sydney’s could do in a minute. Its storage was sufficient 2 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

for rather less than one second of an MP3 Many of the innovations trialled on these in the pockets of a cinema full of teenagers music file. early, miniscule computers are as valuable today – demonstrating that the potential of But in terms of power, weight and size, it today as when they were first invented. computers could be seen long before they were was 10,000 times larger, or, overall, ten billion And for some context, take a look at large enough for this potential to be realised. times less efficient than today’s processors. the computer in the 1970 movie Colossus: Our computers today are in fundamental Scaling up CSIRAC’s memory to that of a The Forbin Project. In the movie, the US ways no more powerful than their smartphone would fill the Melbourne Cricket computer Colossus and its USSR counterpart predecessors – just faster, smaller and more Ground to the brim, and running it would become self-aware. As a guess, from the look deeply embedded in our lives. consume all the power generated in Australia. of the hardware, even though Colossus fills a mountain it may be no more than an SPU. This article was originally published in Skynet, in The Terminator movie series, The Conversation, 22 October 2015 More than a calculating may have had less processing power than is (theconversation.com) machine If CSIRAC was so feeble, in SPUs, what set it (and its peers) apart from the calculating machines that preceded it? Many of the tasks it was put to were calculations more or less of the kind that had been done for decades by generations of dedicated calculating machines, both mechanical and electronic. One might expect the difference to lie in the instructions the machine can execute. A first glance at CSIRAC’s instruction set could suggest that it was indeed just a kind of calculator; many of the operations are elementary arithmetic. Other instructions concerned reading and writing of data to and from storage, and specifications for where in memory to find the next instruction to execute. Perhaps these could be seen as just feeding numbers to a calculating engine. But these machines embodied something utterly revolutionary: the fact that instruction sequences were stored in memory, in contrast to the fixed, pre- determined structure of their predecessors. A computer without an instruction sequence is no more than a box of components – useless and meaningless until assembled (that is, programmed). This meant that for the first time a new machine no longer required physical construction; it could be created just by altering the instruction sequence (that is, installing a new program). And the instruction sequences were themselves data – programs could manipulate programs. THE HISTORY OF COMPUTING Instructing the machine This fluidity leads to a property that is truly IS BOTH EVOLUTION AND profound. The CSIRAC instruction set is simple and minimalistic, even primitive. But, critically, it is in a fundamental sense complete. REVOLUTION By Justin Zobel Just as multiplication can be defined in terms of a sequence of additions, the small This month marks the 60th anniversary For example, while computers were CSIRAC instruction set can be used to define of the first computer in an Australian initially used in weather forecasting as no more any more sophisticated instruction. university. The University of Melbourne than an efficient way to assemble observations In terms of the computations it can took possession of the machine from and do calculations, today our understanding undertake, the universes it can represent, the CSIRO and on June 14, 1956, the of weather is almost entirely mediated by models it can build, the CSIRAC instruction recommissioned CSIRAC was formally computational models. set is as powerful as that of a smartphone or switched on. Six decades on, our series Another example is biology. Where once of a supercomputer which today might be Computing turns 60 looks at how things research was done entirely in the lab (or a million SPUs (or a trillion CSIRACs). have changed. in the wild) and then captured in a model, Thus even this very first generation of it often now begins in a predictive model, It is a truism that computing continues to computers was universal. They were a new which then determines what might be change our world. It shapes how objects are kind of thing not seen in the world before, explored in the real world. designed, what information we receive, how a device whose function could be changed to The transformation that is due and where we work, and who we meet and do do anything that could be written down, just to computation is often described as business with. And computing changes our by changing what sequences of instructions digital disruption. But an aspect of this understanding of the world around us and the were entered; and that “anything” could be transformation that can easily be overlooked is universe beyond. translated to run on any computer. that computing has been disrupting itself. ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 3

Evolution and revolution With hindsight, the confluence of numbers of users. For example, without networking, compute and storage at the behaviours to learn from, search engines Each wave of new computational technology start of the 1990s, coupled with the open- would not work well, so human actions have has tended to lead to new kinds of systems, source culture of sharing, seems almost become part of the system. new ways of creating tools, new forms of data, miraculous. An environment ready for There are (contentious) narratives of and so on, which have often overturned their something remarkable, but without even ever-improving technology, but also an predecessors. What has seemed to be evolution a hint of what that thing might be. entirely unarguable narrative of computing is, in some ways, a series of revolutions. itself being transformed by becoming so But the development of computing deeply embedded in our daily lives. technologies is more than a chain of The ‘superhighway’ This is, in many ways, the essence of big innovation – a process that’s been a It was to enhance this environment that then data. Computing is being fed by human data hallmark of the physical technologies that US Vice President Al Gore proposed in 1992 streams: traffic data, airline trips, banking shape our world. the “information superhighway”, before transactions, social media and so on. For example, there is a chain of any major commercial or social uses of the The challenges of the discipline have been inspiration from waterwheel, to steam internet had appeared. dramatically changed by this data, and also engine, to internal combustion engine. Meanwhile, in 1990, researchers at CERN, by the fact that the products of the data (such Underlying this is a process of enablement. including Tim Berners-Lee, created a system as traffic control and targeted marketing) have The industry of steam engine construction for storing documents and publishing them immediate impacts on people. yielded the skills, materials and tools to the internet, which they called the world Software that runs robustly on a single used in construction of the first internal wide web. computer is very different from that with combustion engines. As knowledge of this system spread on a high degree of rapid interaction with the In computing, something richer is the internet (transmitted by the new model of human world, giving rise to needs for new happening where new technologies emerge, open-source software systems), people began kinds of technologies and experts, in ways not only by replacing predecessors, but also using it via increasingly sophisticated browsers. not evenly remotely anticipated by the by enveloping them. Computing is creating They also began to write documents specifically researchers who created the technologies platforms on which it reinvents itself, reaching for online publication – that is, web pages. that led to this transformation. up to the next platform. As web pages became interactive and Decisions that were once made by resources moved online, the web became hand-coded algorithms are now made Getting connected a platform that has transformed society. entirely by learning from data. Whole fields But it also transformed computing. of study may become obsolete. Arguably, the most dramatic of these With the emergence of the web came the The discipline does indeed disrupt itself. innovations is the web. During the 1970s and decline of the importance of the standalone And as the next wave of technology arrives 1980s, there were independent advances in computer, dependent on local storage. (immersive environments? digital implants? the availability of cheap, fast computing, of aware homes?), it will happen again. affordable disk storage and of networking. Compute and storage were taken up in We all connect This article was originally published in personal computers, which at that stage were The value of these systems is due to another The Conversation (theconversation.com) standalone, used almost entirely for gaming confluence: the arrival on the web of vast and word processing. At the same time, networking technologies became pervasive in university computer science departments, where they enabled, for the first time, the collaborative development of software. This was the emergence of a culture of open-source development, in which widely spread communities not only used common operating systems, programming languages and tools, but collaboratively contributed to them. As networks spread, tools developed in one place could be rapidly promoted, shared and deployed elsewhere. This dramatically changed the notion of software ownership, of how software was designed and created, and of who controlled the environments we use. The networks themselves became more uniform and interlinked, creating the global internet, a digital traffic infrastructure. Increases in computing power meant there was spare capacity for providing services remotely. The falling cost of disk meant that system administrators could set aside storage to host repositories that could be accessed globally. The internet was thus used not just for email and chat forums (known then as news groups) but, increasingly, as an exchange mechanism for data and code. This was in strong contrast to the systems used in business at that time, which were customised, isolated, and rigid. Ron Bowles at the IBM 7044, a batch processing machine with magnetic tape storage, around 1969. 4 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

developing mechanistic species distribution models grounded in the physics of heat and mass exchange. We use these models to compute the inputs and outputs of heat to an organism at particular times and places in its habitat. We develop algorithms of the behaviours and physiological responses that a species might use to buffer itself against harsh conditions. These include seeking shade, moving underground or changing colour. We then compute outcomes, such as whether an animal could survive and, if so, how much time it would have to forage, how fast it could grow, how much energy and water it could obtain compared to what it lost and, ultimately, how many offspring it could have.

IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR Predicting koalas This brings us to helping save the koala. Koalas, being warm-blooded like us, keep COMPUTING CAN HELP SAVE a very constant body temperature despite changes in their environment. But when it gets too cold, they need to THE KOALA BY PREDICTING expend extra energy to produce metabolic heat. And in hot weather, they need to lose extra water for evaporative cooling. WHERE THEY CAN SURVIVE We can compute the energy and water costs imposed by the climate at a particular location, By Michael Kearney accounting for subtle responses koalas have. For example, koalas hug cool tree trunks to lose RESEARCHER IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND ECOPHYSIOLOGY, heat without having to spend water. THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE This cooling behaviour is something we Life is found almost everywhere on was known to occur. And the computed discovered as part of our research. Knowing Earth, but each species is limited in the environmental spaces could then be projected how much energy and water is in eucalyptus range of places and environments within back onto the landscape to predict the leaves, and how this converts physiologically which it can live. Understanding the distribution of species. into the production of offspring, we can distribution limits of a species is an old This statistical approach to modelling estimate whether a koala could survive and and fundamental problem in ecology. the distribution of species has become one reproduce at a particular place. It is also an important practical problem. of the biggest fields in ecology today. A wide range of powerful computational methods We need computational tools to predict are routinely used to understand where how the potential distributions of pest different species could occur under present species, disease vectors and threatened species climatic conditions. may change with the climate if we are to These models are also being combined manage them properly. with the outputs of general circulation One of the classic early texts in ecology is models to predict where a species might The Distribution and Abundance of Animals, occur in the future. written by Australian scientists Herbert Andrewartha and Charles Birch in 1954. At the time it was written, tolerances Correlation vs causation and responses of animals to different environments were measured directly in the But care should be taken when using these Thermal image of a koala sitting in the cool fork laboratory. These were then compared with correlative modelling approaches. They are of a tree in the heat of the day. STEVE GRIFFITHS. weather station observations at particular statistical descriptions and are thus only sites. Distribution predictions involved reliable within the range of environmental hand-drawn contour maps based on this conditions under which they were developed. information. When correlative models are projected to novel environments, such as future climate change scenarios, they can be misleading. Computers can help This extrapolation problem has encouraged the development of mechanistic In the 1980s, Professor Mike Hutchinson, approaches to modelling the distribution from the Australian National University, of species. These approaches start, not with revolutionised the field by developing known distribution, but with measured computational methods to make tolerances and responses of organisms. continent-scale gridded climate layers Predicted potential distribution of koalas The field is now returning to biology- from weather data. under the current and 2070 climate, based on driven approaches from the days of Methods soon developed to energy and water requirements. Grey areas Andrewartha and Birch, but with the more mathematically describe the suitable are unsuitable, with suitability increasing from powerful tools and data now available. environmental space of a species by querying light to dark green. MODIFIED FROM NATALIE My research group is focused on those gridded layers at places where a species BRISCOE ET AL. 2016. ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 5

By repeating solutions of these kinds of These predictions indicate substantial enormous amounts of data from individual calculations across grid of environmental range contractions towards the coast by 2070, brains have recently been developed. conditions, we’ve produced maps of potential especially in northern Australia. We can use Calcium imaging, for instance, allows distribution. this information to prioritise conservation the activities of many thousands of neurons The value of mechanistic predictions is reserves, and possibly translocation programs, to be imaged simultaneously, leading to new twofold. First, we gain a greater understanding to help koalas adapt to a changing climate. insights into how the brain works. of what limits distributions. Second, we have The combined computational arsenal of We are building models of the brain where a robust prediction that can be extended more correlative and mechanistic tools that ecologists computers simulate behaviours seen using confidently to novel conditions. now have at their disposal would amaze data collected from EEG, calcium imaging Our predictions for the koala involved early ecologists such as Andrewartha and and other methods. These include simulations solving the heat budget algorithm 40 billion Birch, and will help humans adapt to future of individual neurons that investigate how times (115,144 locations × 20 years × 365 days environmental change. learning occurs or how a disease might result × 24 hours × two climate scenarios) with the from a genetic mutation. aid of the Victorian Life Sciences Computation This article was originally published in They also involve simulations of tens of Initiative super-computing facility. The Conversation (theconversation.com) thousands of neurons and how they interact to produce normal or epileptic activity. We are using these types of simulations to understand how the brain acts like a computer. We can then develop smarter machines that work with much less power than the devices we use today. Computers have made it possible to do this research. It would be impossible without them as the huge volume of data that we collect must be processed and stored. Complicated models of individual neurons are operated by solving many mathematical equations. And simulations of large amounts of neural tissue require bringing together data and equations in sometimes vast computational models. We do this work generally on desktop and laptop computers, but increasingly we have to use supercomputers to do our larger simulations and data processing. The large simulations can be of tens of thousands to millions of neurons, and can take weeks to

IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR/AMYLEONARD run on supercomputers. TO UNDERSTAND THE BRAIN, Computers to treat epilepsy Epilepsy is a disease that affects around 1% of the world’s population. Among people with IT HELPS TO MAKE A epilepsy, 40% do not benefit sufficiently from medications and are threatened by seizures at any time. COMPUTER MODEL OF ONE That is approximately 28 million people worldwide, more than the population of By David Grayden scale), such as turning thought into movement Australia, who need assistance in new ways. commands to muscles, arises from individual We are using our neural models to understand why seizures occur by simulating how PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF neural activity (the microscopic scale). ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC changes to one part of a neuron might affect And while much is understood about ENGINEERING, MELBOURNE SCHOOL its behaviour. the causes of Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy OF ENGINEERING, THE UNIVERSITY We are using the processing of vast and other neurological conditions, there is OF MELBOURNE amounts of EEG data to develop algorithms still much to learn to control and treat these that can predict seizures before they happen. One of the greatest challenges of diseases effectively. That way, we can give a warning to patients or engineering, science and medicine their carers. is to understand the brain, which is So far, such long-term monitoring has the most complex organ and system Modelling the brain proven very successful and useful for some known to humans. A promising approach to better understand people, allowing them to have more normal A lot is already understood about how the brain is through computing. lives. But there are some whose seizures are individual neurons and their components Computational models of the brain are much harder to predict, so we still have a lot behave (the microscopic scale). A lot is transforming how we study it, along with of work to do. also known about what parts of the brain the development of new technologies that We are also developing computer models participate and interact in sensory perception, interact with the organ and help to solve of thousands of neurons to investigate how action and cognition (the macroscopic scale). neurological conditions. to electrically stimulate the brain to stop We also know some of the detailed One of the data collecting methods seizures when they occur. So far, this has been mechanisms of different diseases of the brain, in neuroscience is the electroencephalogram successful for certain types of epilepsy, such as such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. But (EEG), which records the tiny voltages absence epilepsy in animals. very little is known about how the emergent produced when neurons in the brain are For the more difficult, focal seizures in behaviour of the brain (the macroscopic activated. New methods of collecting humans and animals, the stimulation only 6 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

works some of the time. We need to develop improved models of the brain and to develop methods to prevent seizures from occurring at all. Computing is, therefore, integral to the development of new technologies for interacting with the brain.

Connected brain We are also building brain-computer interfaces for people with spinal cord injuries and other movement disorders, and devices for other neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, severe depression, anxiety disorders and chronic pain. For brain-computer interfaces, computers are essential for decoding brain signals recorded using EEG electrodes and translate this into commands for a robot or computer. For the other diseases, computers will allow more precise control of the stimulation to make it more effective, though this is Creating images with fractals thanks to a computer program. IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR/CORNISHDAVE something we are still developing. We are making enormous strides in of varying currents in an electric circuit in Max and PureData integrate audio and linking computers to brains. One day, it may order that they may be transmitted. vision, and programming languages such well be routine to treat people with simple, Now, information at the click of a finger as Processing and Python allow artists minimally-invasive devices that can monitor can expand the artist’s imagination, letting to create bespoke expressive tools. These and influence the brain to help alleviate them know about the existence of things they generative tools are often used as creative, conditions that are currently so intractable. may never have found. albeit somewhat independent, collaborators In 1949, Australia got CSIRAC, its first in art making. This article was originally published in computer, and in 1951 it played the world’s Open source- and FLOSS-based (meaning The Conversation (theconversation.com) first , preceding the first free software and open source software) computer image by five years. approaches offer tools artists can make and Computer animation followed in the remake themselves or with help from a large, COMPUTING 1960s (see video, above) and computer music collaborative community. developed apace. Over the past 60 years, the Computing is used extensively for creative capacity and availability of computers scheduling sound and visual effects in GIVES AN has developed faster than any other creative the performing arts, often created in the tool in history. programs above. 3D animation programs are This has had three main effects: anyone used in visualising choreography or blocking with the right software can be creative; the in drama performances, but are rarely used ARTIST NEW to generate new creative outcomes, Merce tool is constantly evolving; and it is difficult to develop tradition or generational history, Cunningham being an occasional exception. as aesthetic and conceptual paradigms are But it is possible to computer- TOOLS TO BE generate cohesive text (follow the link constantly subverted by the newest tools. “this application”) that can be used in developing work. CREATIVE Software This list is cursory, indicating the main In the arts, computers have a variety approaches to computers in the arts. These By Roger Alsop of uses, based on software, that range may merge at their edges, and by being responsive, contributory, or generative, LECTURER IN SOUND, RHD from implementing the artist’s ideas to creating ideas. range from proto/mesa-creative to meta- COORDINATOR, VCA PRODUCTION, creative tools. SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS, Adobe, Avid and word processing software VICTORIAN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, suites represent the artist’s ideas. While they THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE offer convenient ways to test ideas, they mostly implement the artist’s imagination, The greatest tool of artists is their and are based on pre-computer processes. imagination but it is limited by their OneManBand and Band-in-a-Box help knowledge (try imagining something you make artworks using generative algorithms don’t know). But the diversity computing that semi-independently create, based on offers may address this problem. the artists input therefore contributing to the Level of computer contribution to the creative artist. For the creative artist, computers supply creative outcome. Roger Alsop. three basic tools: access to information, AARON and Experiments in Musical software, and new ways to interact. Intelligence extend this by independently In 1945, the American engineer and creating new artworks based on historic Interaction inventor Vannevar Bush predicted a world approaches and/or the artists input. These Computers can blend things that may not where: tools collaborate under the artist’s instruction. have any obvious relationships, and can make […] all forms of intelligence whether of Nodal, Bloom, Silk and Context Free offer real things not thought of, or thought possible, sound or sight, have been reduced to the form new ways of seeing, and generating artworks. such as using sound to track share trades. ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 7

The artist may experience what was Similar processes have been used in the Computer systems offer ways to create previously unimaginable, and be able to share creation of music and images in many styles. but can retard creativity. Many artists believe it with their audience. The potential diversity Machines that imagine can provide a that the next tool will improve their art; this is of expression through computer programs process for completely original outcomes with particularly problematic in music. and processes available puts the artist in an minimal human contribution. But while new immersive technologies enviable position. To stand out, the human artist must be such as the Hololens or RoomAlive offer Current computer systems also make more creative, diversified and willing to take new tools, they also require new ways of it possible for the audience to co-create the aesthetic and intellectual risks. They can, considering art thinking and art making. experience of an artwork, more than ever and must, know the field they are creating Artists inhabit a most fertile time, with before, creating works the artist may not have in practically and philosophically, and new possibilities crowding the horizon. imagined. confidence in their position and contribution They should, as always, use that fertility to Computer creativity is very diverse. to it is essential. enhance culture and society. Computer-generated Rembrandt, fractal art Their work is seen in an almost infinite and mathematical art are examples of meta- universal context. Comparisons are easily This article was originally published in creative computers making beautiful and drawn, and their field is in constant flux. The Conversation (theconversation.com) fascinating images, indicating new ways to Uniqueness is almost impossible, yet novelty understand Jackson Pollock’s work. is anticipated and valued. COMPUTING HELPS THE STUDY OF INFECTIONS ON A GLOBAL AND LOCAL SCALE IMAGED SOURCED FROM FLICKR By Jodie McVernon This can trigger abnormal immune reactions detailed human interactions and differences, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, CENTRE FOR that result in chronic heart and kidney disease. has dramatically increased in recent years due EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS, Penicillin is a highly effective treatment to advances in technology. MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF for this condition, but the number of children Increased computing power lets us combine POPULATION AND GLOBAL HEALTH, infected hasn’t changed in 20 years. To find diverse and complementary information to THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE solutions to this apparently intractable provide a richness that is difficult to capture problem, we clearly need a fresh approach. with a single study. We can combine data from Joshua Ross disease surveillance systems, observational ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN APPLIED studies and clinical trials. MATHEMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF Crunch the data With such data from many countries ADELAIDE This is where computers can help. With and regions we can then estimate the global Kathryn Glass funding support from the National Health number of infections and associated deaths. FELLOW, COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, and Medical Research Council, we aim This process is particularly helpful BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT, to revisit 20 years’ worth of study data for diseases of poverty, such as skin AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY generated by the Menzies Research Institute, sores, as the greatest burden is usually Nicholas Geard in Darwin. experienced in settings where resources ARC DECRA FUTURE FELLOW, Using mathematical models, we hope to are constrained and health information CENTRE FOR EPIDEMIOLOGY AND develop a better understanding of the drivers systems are often limited. BIOSTATISTICS, MELBOURNE SCHOOL of high skin sore rates. Using computer models we can fill the OF POPULATION AND GLOBAL HEALTH, We also need to collect detailed data on the gaps in incomplete, uncertain and variable THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE rich social connections within and between data. We can also reflect data uncertainty Rob Moss remote communities in the Northern Territory through best-case and worst-case estimates. RESEARCH FELLOW, MATHEMATICAL that could spread infection. We will develop BIOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY, computer simulation models that represent On the move THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE these linkages and their likely contribution to infection risk. New methods for collecting data on human Millions of people suffer each year from The findings of these models will movements, and the social interactions infectious diseases which are responsible hopefully inform consultation with responsible for the spread of infections, have for about a quarter of all deaths communities about prevention and treatment led to fresh opportunities for incorporating worldwide. But tracking the cause of such approaches to keep children healthy. behavioural aspects into models. Mobile illness and trying to avoid their spread is So why hasn’t this approach been used before? phone data allows for high-resolution patterns always a challenge. of social behaviour and mobility. For example, more than 15,000 Wearable sensor devices that monitor Indigenous Australian children suffer from Better computing power movement, closeness to others and speech skin sores (impetigo) at any one time. Mathematical and computational models of patterns can be used to collect data on short The majority of these infections are caused infection are not new. But their capacity to and long-range social connections, even in by a bug called Group A streptococcus (GAS). deal with multiple data sources, and represent remote and hard to reach areas. 8 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

Insights into attitudes that underpin health-related behaviours, such as choosing whether to immunise, may be studied using COMPUTING HELPS WITH social media. But given the vast amounts of data available through these sources, separating signal from noise remains a THE COMPLEX DESIGN OF significant challenge. Faced with such diverse sources of information, the next step is to make sense MODERN ARCHITECTURE of it all.

Simulations of disease spread Computers have made it possible to simulate populations and the disease transmission process in very fine levels of detail. Individual-based models (IBMs, not to be confused with the computer tech company IBM) can explicitly represent each member of a population, and their demographic and The impressive computer aided design of the atrium The multipurpose use of the space inside the atrium health characteristics (think of The Sims at Melbourne’s Federation Square. at Melbourne’s Federation Square. computer game, but with more sneezing). IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR/CHANC IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR/COOLEYD We can then simulate how interactions between people lead to the spread of disease. spatial organisation through programming Prior to the advent of modern computing, By Paul Loh LECTURER IN DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE logic. With advancement of software and the calculations required for this type of model interjection from other disciplines such as would have been prohibitive. IBMs were first DESIGN, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE film, aerospace and product engineering, used to model disease transmission in the architects are now designing ever more 1970s to simulate the spread of influenza in In 1960, when the America computer complex geometries to explore unprecedented a population of 1,000 people. Each person was scientist Ivan Sutherland developed spatial conditions and relationships. represented by a single punch card! Sketchpad, described as the first A built example is the Atrium at the Distributed computing now makes it computer graphical user interface, it Federation Square, in Melbourne, Victoria, possible to simulate populations containing changed the course of architecture. by LAB architecture studio. This urban millions of people. It was the first recorded tool enabling atrium not only constructs new relationships IBMs are an important tool for designers to interact with the computer between the city and the river, it also creates understanding how complex patterns of graphically, using a light pen on the monitor. a multi-layered space for social encounter geographic distribution, transport and This laid the foundation for computer and art installation. Structures like these are mobility and social behaviour underlie the aided design (CAD), which, over the next 60 difficult to conceive in the human mind. emergence and spread of epidemic diseases years, replaced the drafting pen and tracing This experimentation in programming such as pandemic influenza and Ebola. paper with the mouse and monitor in most design has surfaced as the main stream of Obviously, the behaviour of individuals architectural practices. architecture design in the past ten years. and their impact on disease transmission, But while, for most, computing in Computing in architecture is having a cannot be determined exactly. But, once again, architecture is a replacement technology, there deeper impact than ever before: from advances in computing have allowed us to are always rebels who want to experiment. complex analytical and design tools that accommodate this variability by incorporating Architects think and draw at the same allow us to understand the spatial syntax of an element of chance in models. time, at the design stage as well as detailing cities to fully integrated three-dimensional Rather than running a single “what the building for construction. And it quickly models (commonly known as Building if” scenario, we can produce millions of became apparent that no software can think Information Modelling or BIM) and, alternatives, representing many possible or design as fast as a doodle on paper (or eventually, linking design with structural pathways of infection spread. These the infamous napkin). Nor could a program analysis to name a few examples. simulations help us understand the replace the lateral problem solving ability of variation observed in patterns of disease in a human. different populations, and explore the full All CAD software has limitations. Programming materials range of outcomes that might be witnessed Developers simply cannot program enough When an architect thinks through drawing in the future. tools within the software environment to and three-dimensional modelling, this is This process helps assess risks and develop cater for all the possible applications, let alone essentially stimulating what the real materials locally applicable public health management to condition creative and lateral thinking. (brick, concrete, steel or timber) can or plans for efficient and effective disease could be. That’s to say we design in a virtual prevention and control. environment before implementing it in the Optimising intervention strategies in this The architect programmer physical world. way is particularly useful when health sector But why only work within the software With the recent availability of 3D printers resources are thinly stretched. written by others when you can write your and numeric control machinery, such as We won’t eradicate infectious diseases, own? Since the 1970s, a number of pioneering CNC routers and laser cutters, designing with but computers provide us with new tools and architects and designers have taken it on computers is bringing architects closer to the approaches to reduce health inequalities and themselves to be both programmer and material. their associated long-term disease burden. designer. In other words, they started to Not surprisingly, computer aided program design. manufacturing (CAM) has a history as long as This article was originally published in What emerges at first are the use of CAD. It was originally designed as a parallel The Conversation (theconversation.com) algorithms in design to develop forms and workflow by computer scientist Patrick Hanratty in 1958. ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 9

Articulated Timber Ground, research pavilion at Melbourne School of Design. Paul Loh, University of Melbourne. IMAGE FROM AUTHOR The first known CAD/CAM software is called PRONTON (program for numerical tooling operations). CAM software translates drawing directly into machine code which can be used to cut, print or shape material. Viewers can now select what they want to watch and when they want to watch it. IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR Thanks to the pioneering work of Hanratty, designers can now “talk” directly from computer to machinery. This direct interface with the computer allows us to build COMPUTING CHANGED very complex geometry. The Articulated Timber Ground pavilion is recent design research project at the Melbourne THE ‘FLOW’ OF WATCHING School of Design (MSD). Consisting of 1,752 unique components, the pavilion changes its form throughout the sections. TELEVISION The geometry captures the various ergonomic positions from seating to lounge By Bjorn Nansen (ABV2). The programming schedule for that position. Here, computing allowed us to evening began with an official opening from generate an integrated three-dimensional LECTURER IN MEDIA the Minister for Labour Harold Holt and ABC model for digital fabrication. AND COMMUNICATIONS, executives. This was followed by interviews The model contained the geometric THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE with Olympic athletes (Melbourne was information, ergonomic data, structural Celebrations of 60 years since Australia’s hosting the Olympics that year). analysis as well as fixing and joint detailing. first university computer was switched on The rest of the evening’s programming The position of every single drill hole was coincide with the anniversary of another went as follows: defined using a custom algorithm. significant technology – television. 7.30pm: the Frankie Laine show The entire pavilion took two days to 8pm: the crime drama, Fabian of Australia’s first television transmission install with prefabricated parts. It also Scotland Yard also started in 1956, first in Sydney and days challenged the way we usually communicate 8.30pm: a special This Is The ABC featuring later in Melbourne. building information through indexing and interviews with popular radio presenters and These two technologies developed along reading the data for assembly using a tablet. behind the scenes look at production largely separate paths. One was hidden away In the same way as designers start to 8.50pm: a live variety show, Seeing Stars in government and research institutions, the program design, we can now program how we 9.15pm: a wartime documentary War in other was more prominent as a domesticated build things. In other words, we can program the Air and commercial media platform within material. If we understand its behaviour, we 9.45pm: transmission ceased. family life. can start to manipulate this as well. That is until the switch from analogue Research at the ETH Zurich, in to digital signal, finally completed in 2013. Switzerland, has developed a number of Let it flow This digital transition brought them together research pavilions that explore precisely this This brief summary of an evening’s broadcast in ways that have forever changed the way method of designing using robotics. signals very clearly the concept of flow audiences consume television content. At this level of computing using numeric that influential British cultural historian control tools, materials can be stretched Raymond Williams famously described and transformed into shape. Our research From mass media to as the defining characteristic of broadcast is developing a new way of fabricating a television. uniquely curved wall system that can be ‘new media’ Flow, Williams notes, was the planned used as a temporary meeting pod in a flexible Historically, we used to think of television organisation of discrete programs into working and learning environment. as part of the mass media, along with radio, a sequence that determined a coherent From the straight line of early CAD newspapers and so on. But with the turn to experience of “watching TV”. He says this software to free form geometry, computing computational media, sometimes known as planned flow was initially borrowed from has liberated the creativity of the profession in “new media”, we began redefining established older forms of media entertainment, such the past 60 years. The impact of computing in questions around audiences and ownership as radio, before television developed its own architecture is immense and this will continue of media. generic forms. to shape the future of our cities. This computational shift is particularly Flow speaks to the experience of Imagine the day where our building evident if we contrast the experience of watching TV, that is continuous and, materials are programmable to suit any design. television from an early broadcast in 1956 paradoxically, fragmented. Programs bleed with today. into each other, without definitive intervals This article was originally published in At 7pm on Monday November 19, 1956, between, while trailers promote other The Conversation (theconversation.com) the ABC launched its Melbourne TV station programs during ad breaks. 10 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

Flow, then, is the pre-computational flow. The file is a discrete unit of audiovisual democratising or participatory media experience of analogue television that content that can be viewed, stored, aggregated discourse. The formerly hierarchical models of we were once familiar with, in which the or shared across multiple devices. mass media are replaced by the personalised broadcaster determined the schedule. As a file, digital television is not productive dynamics of digital media. It included transmission technology transmitted into homes, but accessed from At the same time, we need to consider continuously broadcasting on television different screens at any time or place via the how computing has not simply reorganised screens into private homes. internet (providing the internet connection the ways media are produced, distributed and Then, there was the financing of doesn’t fail). consumed in terms of empowering people, commercial television by advertising with While we can identify a range of but also how notions such as flow have planned flow to capture and retain audiences. technologies shaping these developments become re-articulated. This is made visible And finally, there were the all-important (from video software formats to personal in the operations of computer algorithms programs produced to fit these contexts, such video recorders and file-sharing sites), a clear on sites such as Netflix that recommend as the sitcom or later lifestyle and reality example is through subscription streaming programs based on past patterns of viewing. programming. websites, such as Netflix. Recommender algorithms and features The viewer was positioned as a passive Launched only a year ago in Australia, such as autoplay, can be viewed as creating a receiver while also part of an imagined Netflix exemplifies the experience of file more individually curated experience of what public audience. viewing. Each person’s sequence of viewing is ostensibly remains television flow – a series of not planned by the broadcaster, but assembled units assembled into a period of viewing. through individual preferences from the What computation does is remove files The viewer decides what available catalogue of shows. from mass planned flow, and allow them to to watch be re-assembled into individualised flows in our viewing lives. Freed from scheduled The nightly experience of viewing enabled But it still flows transmission, yet fragmented by taste and by computing technology is in some senses Yet, the sequential arrangement of files can technology, it raises new questions about the radically different to the concept of flow still be understood as a flow – though an status of the audience as a public. described by Williams. Yet at the same time it idiosyncratic one – determined by the viewer can be seen as just a re-arrangement. rather than the broadcaster. This article was originally published in Computational television is understood Digital TV, like other kinds of digital The Conversation (theconversation.com) through the metaphor of a file rather than a media, tends to be framed within a COMPUTING TOLD US HOW CLOSE WE CAME TO A GLOBAL PANDEMIC OF A DRUG- RESISTANT FLU By James McCaw Computer modelling can help in the fight against the spread of disease.IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR/RINGAI ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN These mathematical models are built How bad is that flu? MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY, on the same principles that help physicists THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE study the interactions between fundamental So how does this work in practice? Between May and September 2011, in the Hunter We usually consider the scientific study of particles, or climate scientists model the New England region of New South Wales, infection by a virus, bacteria or parasite causes and potential impacts of climate a cluster of drug-resistant influenza viruses as the domain of clinical and biomedical change. The models capture how a virus of type A(H1N1)pdm09 were detected research. Surely, the study of a virus enters a host and then replicates within cells. through routine surveillance. The strain invading our cells, hijacking our genetic The cascade that is triggered leads to an was a direct descendent of the 2009 “swine replication system and then producing exponential increase in both the number of flu” pandemic. millions of copies of itself is no place for a viral particles in the host and the number This cluster of drug-resistant viruses mathematician or computational scientist. of infected cells. This chain reaction is only curtailed when the host’s immune system represented the first occurrence of community But driven by the massive increases in is activated. transmission of drug-resistant A(H1N1) computational resources now at our disposal, Depending upon the details of the pdm09 influenza anywhere in the world. mathematical scientists are making significant biology, the host may either clear the The immediate questions were: Will the contributions to the study of infection. infection or enter a state of chronic infection. viruses spread more widely? And are the Over the past 20 years, mathematical and For example, we usually feel better after a few frontline drugs used to treat influenza about computational biologists have developed new days of the common cold but the HIV virus is to become redundant? models that describe the process of infection chronic and needs a lifetime of treatment to Clearly, it was neither practical nor ethical within a human host. avoid clinical illness (AIDS). to conduct direct human experiments on the ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 11

likely transmission potential of the virus. So questions such as how do different elements experimental data to match, we will soon mathematical and computational approaches of the immune system contribute to the be able to simulate infection across multiple proved vital to answering these questions. control of influenza infection? scales. Detailed models of infection and immunological responses at an individual Modelling the flu The future level will be coupled together on a massive World Health Organization influenza We are only just beginning to make full use of scale to consider how infections spread scientists, based at the Peter Doherty Institute the wealth of clinical and experimental data through whole communities. This will in Melbourne, teamed up with computational on how pathogens infect a host. bring together two established areas of biologists from the University of Melbourne The perspective brought from mathematics research: modelling of host infection and to do some carefully controlled experiments and computational science is transforming epidemiological scale modelling. using an animal model of infection. how we view the disciplines of virology and It will provide new opportunities to Detailed measurements of how rapidly immunology. We are arguably in the midst study infection and improve the health of and efficiently the drug-resistant virus of a change from laboratory-based to systems populations. And with those opportunities invaded the host were made in the laboratory. science-based research on infection. will come new challenges in computation. These data were then paired with newly And what does the future hold? With developed mathematical models of infection. increasing sophistication in models, This article was originally published in The aim was to determine if the advances in computational capacity and the The Conversation (theconversation.com) drug-resistant variants replicated more or less efficiently than their drug-sensitive counterparts. The mathematical models developed in the study had to be applied to the data to draw inferences on the likely transmission potential of the drug-resistant viruses. The computational requirements were significant. It took three months of computation time on high-performance computing clusters at the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Life Sciences Computational Initiative. What did these combined experimental- computational studies find? The drug- resistant viruses were more capable of spreading through the community than their drug-sensitive counterparts. Given the continued spread of influenza viruses in late 2011, we would have predicted that the drug-resistant viruses would have outcompeted the drug-sensitive ones to become established in the wider, perhaps Computers may be smarter than humans at some things, but are they intelligent? even global, population. IMAGE SOURCED FROM FLICKR/JDHANCOCK But today our drugs continue to be effective against influenza. Why? We think it all came down to a of luck. COMPUTERS MAY BE A close call The drug-resistant viruses arose during EVOLVING BUT ARE THEY the influenza season, in winter 2011 but remained localised to the Hunter New England region. INTELLIGENT? By that spring, all influenza viruses had begun to be less effective at spreading By Leon Sterling Trying to build intelligent machines has long been a human preoccupation, both through the community. It seems that the HONORARY PROFESSORIAL FELLOW, drug-resistant viruses, despite being the most with calculating machines and in literature. DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING & Early computers from the 1940s were capable viruses at infecting humans in the INFORMATION SYSTEMS, MELBOURNE region, were doomed. commonly described as electronic brains SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, THE and thinking machines. Since then, further virological, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE mathematical and computational analysis The term “artificial intelligence” (AI) was has confirmed that the drug-resistant viruses The Turing test identified in 2011 contain genetic variations first used back in 1956 to describe the title that enhance their fitness. of a workshop of scientists at Dartmouth, The father of computer science, Britain’s There is now a global effort to monitor an Ivy League college in the United States. Alan Turing, was in no doubt that for those genetic variations, in order to At that pioneering workshop, attendees computers would one day think. His provide an early warning system for detecting discussed how computers would soon perform landmark 1950 article introduced the potential outbreaks of drug-resistant all human activities requiring intelligence, Turing test, a challenge to see if an influenza. including playing chess and other games, intelligent machine could convince a This is but one story of how mathematics composing great music and translating text human that it wasn’t in fact a machine. and computation play a crucial role in the from one language to another language. These Research into AI from the 1950s through scientific study of infection. Computational pioneers were wildly optimistic, though their to the 1970s focused on writing programs biology researchers are currently asking aspirations were unsurprising. 12 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ for computers to perform tasks that required Clever but not intelligent human intelligence. An early example was the American computer game pioneer Arthur – yet Samuels’ program for playing checkers. The In task after task, after detailed analysis, program improved by analysing winning we are able to develop general algorithms positions, and rapidly learned to play that are efficiently implemented on the checkers much better than Samuels. computer, rather than the computer But what worked for checkers failed learning for itself. to produce good programs for more In chess and, very recently in go, complicated games such as chess and go. computer programs have beaten champion Another early AI research project tackled human players. The feat is impressive and introductory calculus problems, specifically clever techniques have been used, without th symbolic integration. Several years later, leading to general intelligent capability. HAPPY 60 symbolic integration became a solved Admittedly, champion chess players problem and programs for it were no longer are not necessarily champion go players. labelled as AI. Perhaps being expert in one type of problem BIRTHDAY solving is not a good marker of intelligence. The Hon Philip Dalidakis MP Speech recognition? The final example to consider before MINISTER FOR SMALL BUSINESS, looking to the future is Watson, developed INNOVATION AND TRADE, Not yet by IBM. Watson famously defeated human VICTORIA STATE GOVERNMENT In contrast to checkers and integration, champions in the television game show In the 60 years since CSIRAC was programs undertaking language translation Jeopardy. welcomed to Victoria, Melbourne has and speech recognition made little progress. IBM is now applying it Watson grown to become a magnet for global No method emerged that could effectively technology with claims it will make tech investment because of our strong use the processing power of computers of accurate medical diagnoses by reading all economy, cultural diversity, liveability, the time. medical research reports. connective infrastructure and most Interest in AI surged in the 1980s I am uncomfortable with Watson importantly our people. through expert systems. Success was making medical decisions. I am happy it reported with programs performing medical can correlate evidence, but that is a long way In the past six months alone we diagnosis, analysing geological maps for from understanding a medical condition have seen major global tech players minerals, and configuring computer orders, and making a diagnosis. like Slack, Square, Zendesk and GoPro for example. Similarly, there have been claims choose Melbourne to set up their regional Though useful for narrowly defined a computer will improve teaching by headquarters. It is these moves that are problems, the expert systems were neither matching student errors to known cementing our reputation as the leading robust nor general, and required detailed mistakes and misconceptions. But it takes destination for business investment in the knowledge from experts to develop. an insightful teacher to understand what Asia Pacific region. The programs did not display general is happening with children and what is Innovation is not just a buzz word that intelligence. motivating them, and that is lacking for politicians throw around because it’s the After a surge of AI start up activity, the moment. latest fad, it is the key to our new economy, commercial and research interest in AI are many areas in which human one that is in transition. receded in the 1990s. judgement should remain in force, As the world becomes more digitised, such as legal decisions and launching digital technology becomes both more military weapons. critical and more dominant in the creation Speech recognition Advances in computing over the past of jobs, businesses and industries of In the meantime, as computer processing 60 years have hugely increased the tasks the future. That is why the Victorian power grew, computer speech recognition computers can perform, that were thought Government is working hard to foster and language processing by computers to involve intelligence. But I believe we have a culture of collaboration and innovation improved considerably. New algorithms a long way to go before we create a computer in our key growth sectors through a range were developed that focused on statistical that can match human intelligence. of initiatives including our $60 million modelling techniques rather than emulating On the other hand, I am comfortable LaunchVic startup body and the $200 human processes. with autonomous cars for driving from one million Future Industries Fund. Progress has continued with voice- place to another. Let us keep working on These initiatives will help our best and controlled personal assistants such as Apple’s making computers better and more useful, brightest grow their business ideas here at Siri and Ok Google. And translation software and not worry about trying to replace us. home and abroad as we create the jobs of can give the gist of an article. the future. But no one believes that the computer This article was originally published in We are committed to growing the truly understands language at present, The Conversation (theconversation.com) competitiveness of Victoria’s digital tech despite the considerable developments in industry, which now employs more than areas such as chat-bots. There are definite 83,000 people and contributes over limits to what Siri and Ok Google can $34 billion each year to the state’s economy. process, and translations lack subtle context. We must embrace technologies and Another task considered a challenge the many opportunities they present to for AI in the 1970s was face recognition. entrepreneurs, startups, not-for-profits, Programs then were hopeless. governments and established businesses, Today, by contrast, Facebook can identify both large and small. I look forward to seeing people from several tags. And camera continued collaboration between government, software recognises faces well. But it is industry and our education sector – CSIRAC advanced statistical methods rather than being an exemplary example. intelligence that helps. Happy 60th Birthday! ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 13

CSIRAC Sign c1956. Image courtesy University of Team from CSIRO Division for Building research using John Russell at the Flexowriter, Melbourne, MSE-CIS Heritage Collection. This sign was CSIRAC from L–R: Roy Muncy, Terry Holden (at console), reading output from CSIRAC, c1959. donated to Museum Victoria as part of the CSIRAC Archive. Bill Davern, 1958. Image courtesy CSIRO. Image courtesy CSIRO.

Women as Computor. Female assistant using Staff of Computation Lab, c1960. Trevor Pearcey, Theory of Computation Students, circa 1965, University a photographic plate measuring machine to Ron Bowles, Kay Sullivan (Thorne), Jurij Semkiw, of Melbourne. MSE-CIS Heritage Collection. measure the precise positions of stars for the Geoff Hill, Frank Hirst at the University of international Astrograph Project, c1905. Melbourne. MSE-CIS Heritage Collection. Source: Museum Victoria.

Roy Muncey inputting programming into Theory of Computation II Students, 1969. MSE-CIS Department staff photo, 1984. Image courtesy University CSIRAC, 1960. Image courtesy CSIRO. Heritage Collection. of Melbourne.

Former and Current Heads of Department, 2013. Left–right: Professor Alistair Department of Computing & Information Systems staff photo, June 2016. Moffat, Professor Liz Sonenberg, Dr Peter Thorne, Professor Rao Kotagiri, Professor Leon Sterling, Professor Justin Zobel (with portrait of Professor Peter Poole). Image courtesy University of Melbourne. 14 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

CONTRIBUTORS

DR ROGER ALSOP DR NICHOLAS GEARD DR KATHRYN GLASS PROF A/PROF Lecturer in Sound, ARC DECRA Fellow, College of DAVID GRAYDEN MICHAEL KEARNEY RHD Coordinator, VCA Future Fellow, Medicine, Biology and Deputy Head (Academic), Researcher in Production, School Centre for Epidemiology Environment, Australian Department of Electrical Evolutionary Biology of Performing Arts, and Biostatistics, National University & Electronic Engineering & Ecophysiology, Victorian College of Melbourne School of and Leader of the Bionics The University the Arts, The University Population and Global Laboratory in the Centre of Melbourne of Melbourne Health, The University for Neural Engineering, of Melbourne The University of Melbourne

PAUL LOH MICHAEL LUND A/PROF A/PROF DR LEWIS MITCHELL Lecturer in Digital Science and Technology JAMES McCAW JODIE McVERNON Lecturer in Applied Architecture Design, Editor, The Conversation Associate Professor Associate Professor, Mathematics, University The University in Mathematical Centre for Epidemiology of Adelaide of Melbourne Biology, Department and Biostatistics, of Mathematics and Melbourne School of Statistics, The University Population and Global of Melbourne Health, The University of Melbourne

DR ROB MOSS DR BJORN NANSEN A/PROF PROF PROF Research Fellow, Lecturer in Media and JOSHUA ROSS LEON STERLING JUSTIN ZOBEL Mathematical Biology Communications, Associate Professor in Honorary Professorial Head of the Department and Physiology, The University Applied Mathematics, Fellow, Department of Computing & The University of Melbourne University of Adelaide of Computing & Information Systems, of Melbourne Information Systems, Melbourne School Melbourne School of Engineering, of Engineering, The University The University of Melbourne of Melbourne ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦ 15

SUPPORTERS

The Australian Computer The Department of Computing At CSIRO, we do the CSIRAC, Australia’s first Society (ACS) is the association & Information Systems at extraordinary every day. We computer, is on display on for Australia’s information and The University of Melbourne innovate for tomorrow and the lower ground level at communications technology is an international leader in help improve today – for our Melbourne Museum. Museum (ICT) profession. We represent Information Technology research customers, all Australians and Victoria holds a significant all ICT practitioners in business, and teaching. It is the highest- the world. collection of computing and government and education. ranked department in the field in We imagine. We collaborate. information technology artefacts Australia and ranked within the We innovate. and documentation; some is top 20 worldwide. accessible on the museum’s collections pages: http:// collections.museumvictoria. com.au/ ​Parts of the collection can also be seen on the daily tours held at the collection store at Scienceworks: see https://museumvictoria.com. au/scienceworks/whats-on/ collection-store-tours/​

The Melbourne School The Pearcey Foundation The Conversation is an The Department of Economic of Engineering (MSE) is Inc. was established in 1998 independent source of news Development, Jobs, Transport the leading provider of to raise the profile of the and views, sourced from and Resources was established engineering and IT education Australian Information and the academic and research by the Victorian Government in Australia. The Melbourne Communications Technology community and delivered direct on 1 January 2015. School of Engineering develops (ICT) Industry and profession. to the public. The Government created the engineering and IT leaders and It was created in the memory Our team of professional department to bring together advanced technologies for a of one of the greatest editors work with university, many of the key functions that sustainable future. We partner pioneers of the Australian CSIRO and research institute drive economic development with industry and government ICT industry, Dr Trevor experts to unlock their and job creation across Victoria. partners to build national Pearcey. Each year it celebrates knowledge for use by the wider These include transport and competitiveness through the heroes in our industry, public. ports, energy, investment productivity breakthroughs, and through national and state Access to independent, attraction and facilitation, evolve a better, more sustainable awards – the Pearcey Medal and high-quality, authenticated, trade, innovation, regional way of life. Hall of Fame and the national explanatory journalism development and small business, Pearcey Entrepreneur Award underpins a functioning together with key services to selected from the seven state democracy. Our aim is to allow sectors such as agriculture, the Pearcey Award winners. The for better understanding of creative industries, resources Foundation looks to attract and current affairs and complex and tourism. encourage young Australians issues. And hopefully allow to be involved in debate and for a better quality of public public policy on critical national discourse and conversations. issues such as productivity, the digital economy and national infrastructure. It has recently established the Pearcey Institute to undertake socio-economic research into the impact of disruptive and emerging technologies. 16 ✦ ✦ ✦ 60 YEARS OF COMPUTING IN VICTORIA ✦ ✦ ✦

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING & INFORMATION SYSTEMS THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE www.cis.unimelb.edu.au