Summary

This booklet is one of three booklets published by The Australian Committee on Computation and Automatic Control (ANCCAC), which organised the Automatic Computer Conference in Melbourne between 26 February and 1 March 1963.
This booklet describes the Section of the conference (Group B) devoted to Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Operational Research.
There is no general description of the conference in the booklet. There were three concurrent sessions labelled Groups A, B and C. Group A was devoted to Commercial Data Processing and Group C to Analogue Computers, Machine design, Advanced Programming and Special Scientific Applications.
One of the contributors to the Group B session was Dick Jensen, who prepared weather forecasts using CSIRAC.
The document was donated by Jonathan Hirst who is the son of Frank Hirst. Frank organised the transportation of CSIRAC from Sydney to Melbourne and managed the Computational Laboratory in the University of Melbourne during CSIRAC's operational life.
ANCCAC was formed in 1959. ANCCAC organised further Australian Computer Conferences in 1963 in Melbourne - the 2nd, and in 1966 in Canberra - the 3rd. Various State-based associations of practitioners emerged during the first half of the 1960s. The Australian Computer Society was formed in 1966 through the federation of those associations.

Description of Content

This booklet is one of three booklets published by The Australian Committee on Computation and Automatic Control (ANCCAC), which organised the Automatic Computer Conference in Melbourne between 26 February and 1 March 1963. This booklet describes the Section of the conference (Group B) devoted to Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Operational Research.

Physical Description

A bound booklet, (247 by 165 by 15 mm), with a light red cover, about 200 pages, typewritten text on slightly discoloured white paper and one or two black and white photographs and many diagrams. The front cover shows text only. There is no pagination; articles are numbered B2 to B24. The contents list 23 papers and biographies of contributors.

Significance

These Conference Proceedings are an integral part of Australian computing history. They contain contributions from some of the major players in the early development of computing. In particular, the 1951 Proceedings describe the first conference to be held in Australia on computing and the conference must be counted as one of the earliest conference internationally. It is significant that such a conference was held in Australia so early in the era of modern computing.

The 1963 Proceedings provide an insight into how both the technology and the thinking of the participants had changed since 1951. This applies particularly to Pearcey, who was responsible for much of the design of CSIR Mk 1 (later CSIRAC).

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