Broken Tech : Broken Earth - starting Sept 2024

This exciting initiative is funded by a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, run by the Museums Association. It will engage the local community in exploring the environmental and social impacts of the tech boom. The Centre for Computing History’s collection celebrates the incredible evolution of computing technology over the past 80 years. However, with tech embedded in all our lives, and the UK predicted to generate over 30,000 tons of e-waste a week by the end of this year, the museum is keen to work with local people and organisations to explore how to reinterpret our collection and tell alternative stories about the environmental impact of tech.  Find out more.

Swiss Rolls, Tea & the Electronic Office: A History of LEO, the World's First Business Computer - completed June 2023, but some volunteer work is ongoing.

Having developed the world's first business computer, LEO Computers played a key role in the early development of computing, and its subsequent social impact, but the LEO story is not well known. So, in partnership with the LEO Computers Society, and with grateful thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are preserving, archiving and digitising LEO artefacts, documents and personal memories before they are lost forever. Further details can be found on our project webpage.

Computing Herstory - ongoing

Does the lack of a clear history about the contributions made by women to the development of the technologies that surround us contribute to a perception that computing, and tech more generally, are the preserve of men and boys? Where did all the women go? Women’s contributions have been huge yet many of their stories remain untold. We are well placed to put these contributions back at the centre of our shared history and we call this computing herstory. To read more about the women we've profiled to date, read an article on Computing Herstory by our gender and technology lead, and CEO,  Lisa McGerty. 

Circuits of Practice - completed

Circuits of Practice was an AHRC-funded project that explores the role of museums in constructing a historical heritage centred around the emergence and development of computing and digital media. It interrogates how leading museums in the UK are helping to construct and disseminate historical narratives about computing through which the past, the present and the future of our societies are imagined and culturally constructed. The project resulted in a book, Museums and the History of Computing published by Routledge. Find out more about the project on the Circuits of Practice website.

Viva Computer! A People's History of Computing - completed

Viva Computer was an audio-visual project that we formally completed in 2016, though we continue to add to the video archive today. The project told the story of the computing industry’s history of innovation, with a focus on Cambridge’s unique role. It captured the stories of those inventors, software and hardware engineers, gaming visionaries and microprocessor developers who sparked a revolution, as well as the stories of those affected and inspired by it. The videos created as part of the project, thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund - and new ones that we have added since - can be found on our YouTube channel.