Following the launch of our fundraising campaign – Project Odyssey - on 10 March by museum patron Dr Hermann Hauser, we are edging closer to our goal of raising £100,000 in thirty days. Funds raised so far stand at £75,000.

From left to right, Trustee - Ian Williamson, Education Officer - Anjali Das, Sponsor - Andy Harter, RealVNC

As well as several personal donations from the Cambridge area, many local companies have responded to the challenge issued by Simon Galbraith, CEO of Redgate Software, who pledged to match every pound donated to the appeal, up to £100,000, by 10 April.

These include donations from RealVNC, Microsoft Research, Pico Tech, ARM and Mills and Reeve Solicitors. Funding has also been received from the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Assessment.

The Centre plans to use the funds raised to complete the transformation of its main gallery and create a new core exhibition – Odyssey – which will chart the global impact of the computing revolution.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr Andy Harter, founder and CEO of RealVNC, said: "The Centre for Computing History is an important initiative to preserve some of the vital history of the computer industry, which is so strongly linked with Cambridge.

"Equally important, through a diverse educational programme it is stimulating not just curiosity about the past but interest in today’s technology. This is all delivered in a fun, hands-on way that has something for everyone, and RealVNC is proud to be a founding sponsor of the Centre and to reaffirm our commitment with a further substantial donation which will enable significant development of the exhibition area.”

Events and Communications Manager at Microsoft Research, Natalya Butterworth said: "Microsoft Research is committed to supporting young people in computing education and the Centre is doing fantastic work in this area. We are extremely pleased to support the Tech Odyssey exhibition which will help to inspire the next generation of computer scientists.”

CCH Director, Jason Fitzpatrick, said: "We are deeply grateful to all those who have contributed to this appeal so far, making it a truly inspirational, Cambridge community effort.

"Since opening in Cambridge at the end of 2013, the Centre has attracted over 5,000 children. These children deserve a space which is engaging and instructive, where they can feel a sense of adventure, exploration and surprise!

"The generosity of all these wonderful benefactors will enable us to realise our vision and move forward towards the next stage of our development.”

-Ends-

Note to Editors

Centre for Computing History
CCH is an educational charity (1130071) and not-for-profit company, which opened in Cambridge in August 2013. Its core purpose is to increase understanding of developments in computing over the past 60 years by exploring the social, cultural and historical impact of the Computing Revolution.
From January 2014, the Centre has worked with schools and academies to deliver education services, including programming and electronics workshops. Following changes to the national curriculum, which brings the history of computing and coding into the classroom, demand for the Centre’s learning services has intensified. To meet this need an Education Officer was appointed in January 2015.
CCH has an internationally significant collection of vintage computers, memorabilia, artefacts, documents and hands-on displays – in total about 24,000 items. The core collection consists of 800 historic computers including an Altair 8800, usually considered the first home computer, as well as mobile phones, games consoles and calculators. CCH is currently developing two new Cambridge-related archives: a Sinclair collection and an Acorn collection. See www.computinghistory.org.uk for more information.

Redgate Software
Redgate make ingeniously simple software used by IT professionals worldwide. They only employ less than 300 staff, compared with the thousands at the real Cambridge gorillas like ARM and for that matter the University. Redgate's philosophy is to design highly usable, reliable tools which elegantly solve the problems that developers and database administrators face every day. They see the importance of ensuring that new generations of smart geeks are coming on and imagining a cooler future and are challenging their fellow Cambridge technology companies to help inspire that future.

Date : 08-04-2015