Timeline
Compiled by Bill Freeman.
This page provides a skeleton of years with the main event(s) and the holders of the principal offices within the Department for each year. These principal offices are listed in the order in which they were instituted. For identification of initials of their incumbents, see the foot of this page, after the main table.
Events appear here on the occasion of their first occurrence. Research projects, contracts, grants, etc. have been entered in this table only if they are the 'biggest so far'.
For historical accuracy, note that BSc used to be BA, MSc used to be BPhil, and PhD used to be DPhil. The dates of the change-overs are lost in the mists of time, so the older terminology has been used here only for the earliest years.
To save space, 'first use of fire' means 'first use of fire by a member of the Department of Computer Science at York'.
There is no intention to suggest that any event listed is of greater importance than any event not listed - this is merely down to the availability of data at the time the schedule was compiled (August 2011).
| Year | Event | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | University of York founded | ||||||
| 1964 | Number of computers at the University of York: 0 (not unusual, but Leeds had one!) | ||||||
| 1965 | [The Flowers Committee inquires into the provision of computer/ing facilities for research in British universities] | ||||||
| [Silent assumption is that any teaching support will be for teaching researchers about how to use computers in their research] | |||||||
| 1966 | University constructs 'Computation' buildings; South Block: now forms the west wing of the | ||||||
| 'IT Services' building; North Block: now overbuilt by 'Costcutters' etc. in Market Square | |||||||
| 1967 | New department of 'Computation' started; 'Director': David Burnett-Hall | ||||||
| New computer: Elliott 4130 (when that was a big deal, and determined the computing culture of the entire University) | |||||||
| Following the Flowers Report, the Department had service teaching and service support responsibilities | |||||||
| 1968 | First Lecturer appointed: John Willmott | ||||||
| First research assistant appointed: Sinnica Whyat | |||||||
| 1969 | First intake to BA Mathematics with Computation (main Maths, subsid Comp) | ||||||
| First intake to taught BPhil Numerical Computation (with Maths Dept) | |||||||
| 1970 | |||||||
| 1971 | First undergraduate projects started this October | ||||||
| 1972 | |||||||
| 1973 | Founding Professor of Computer Science appointed: Ian Pyle | ||||||
| 1974 | First two research students registered: Steve Bostock and John Jones (supervisor: Ian Wand) | ||||||
| 'Computer Science' had now replaced 'Computation' for all purposes | |||||||
| 1975 | First significant research grant (£60k): Real-time programming language | ||||||
| First issue of the Computer Science Student's Handbook (Editor: Bill Freeman) | |||||||
| 1976 | First intake to BSc Computer Science (main) with Mathematics (subsid) | ||||||
| Elliott 4130 computer replaced by DEC System-10 | |||||||
| 1977 | Research grant of £63k: Modelling thermal regenerators (with Newcastle) | ||||||
| First technician appointed: Malcolm Snaize | |||||||
| 1978 | |||||||
| 1979 | First intake to BSc (later BEng) Computer Science (single subject) | ||||||
| 1980 | Research grant of £256k: Computing facilities for research in software technology | ||||||
| [The 'Finniston Report', Engineering our Future is published by the Government] | |||||||
| 1981 | |||||||
| 1982 | First home-grown lecturer appointed: Colin Runciman | ||||||
| 1983 | First promotion to a personal chair: Ian Wand | ||||||
| First intake to MEng Computer Systems and Software Engineering | |||||||
| 1984 | Research grant of £586k: Distributed integrated project support environment | ||||||
| 1985 | Department moved into its second new building (now occupied by Environment) | ||||||
| [The UGC re-classifies Computer Science as a laboratory science, to our immense benefit] | |||||||
| 1986 | |||||||
| 1987 | Founding Professor of Software Engineering appointed: John McDermid | ||||||
| 1988 | High Integrity Systems Engineering (HISE) research group started | ||||||
| 1999 | Alan Burns becomes HoD | ||||||
| 2000 | Fiona Polack becomes Chair of BoS | ||||||
| 2001 | |||||||
| 2002 | First fellowship of a national academy, for software engineering: John McDermid FREng | ||||||
| 2003 | Michael Harrison becomes HoD | ||||||
| 2004 | Alan Burns becomes HoD; Steve King becomes Chair of BoS | ||||||
| 2005 | |||||||
| 2006 | John McDermid becomes HoD; Colin Runciman becomes Chair of BoS; Steve King becomes Deputy HoD (Teaching); Susan Stepney becomes Associate HoD | ||||||
| 2007 | |||||||
| 2008 | First higher doctorate gained, for researches in computer vision: Edwin Hancock DSc (Durham); Jeremy Jacob becomes Chair of BoS | ||||||
| First intake to MEng Computer Science with Embedded Systems | |||||||
| 2009 | First intake to MEng Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence; John Clark becomes Deputy HoD (Research) | ||||||
| First intake to MEng Computer Science with Business Enterprise Systems | |||||||
| 2010 | John McDermid awarded OBE for services to the defence industry | ||||||
| Department moved into its fourth new building, at Heslington East | |||||||
| 2011 | Colin Runciman becomes Deputy HoD (Teaching) | ||||||
| AB | Alan Burns |
| ADNE | Alistair Edwards |
| AMW | Alan Wood |
| CR | Colin Runciman |
| DGBH | David Burnett-Hall |
| FACP | Fiona Polack |
| ICP | Ian Pyle |
| ICW | Ian Wand |
| IDB | Ian Benest |
| JAC | John Clark |
| JAM | John McDermid |
| JLJ | Jeremy Jacob |
| CK | Chris Kimble |
| KCM | Keith Mander |
| MDH | Michael Harrison |
| SK | Steve King |
| SS | Susan Stepney |
| WF | Bill Freeman |