Applied Computing students visit the National Museum of Computing

Applied Computing students had the opportunity to visit The National Museum of Computing on 11 March. Most of them had already heard about the museum and/or Bletchley Park but had never had the opportunity to visit.

They received a guided tour of the museum and did some programming at the end. They were able to experience the world-famous rebuild of the first electronic computer – Colossus, the entire World War 2 code-breaking process of the Lorenz-encrypted messages – Tunny, the Harwell Dekatron aka WITCH computer, the world’s oldest working digital computer from 1951 and a lot more.

Here is what they had to say about their visit:

“It was and has been always interesting especially hearing about the history and actually seeing the computers and machines that were used, in working conditions. I will absolutely recommend visiting not only to computing students but anyone interested in learning.”

“I heard about Bletchley Park but not the computer museum. I found all the old computers very interesting.”

“I knew about the museum for a long time and I watched The Imitation Game about breaking the Enigma code. I definitely enjoyed it, it showed us how different and not mobile (everything was big and heavy) things were. How it took so much time to solve a simple problem that in this time it is going to take less than a minute. I would definitely recommend people to go (computer enthusiasts).”

“I’ve seen the Enigma movie, but never knew the museum actually existed. I liked the programming and gaming part. I would recommend it to others. It is necessary for computing students to see those machines.”

“I knew about the museum. I have wanted to visit the museum (and Bletchley Park) for years… I have just never got around to it! I enjoyed the trip greatly and would definitely recommend it.”

Lia Bagdasaryan (Applied Computing Intern)