History and Structure

Oxford University Computing Laboratory was set up in 1957 under the direction of Leslie Fox. Within a short time from its foundation it was providing undergraduate lectures in the Faculty of Mathematics, training a number of research students, and running a mainframe computer which provided a computing service to the University generally. During this initial period the research efforts of the Laboratory were directed almost entirely towards numerical analysis and led to the establishment of the Numerical Analysis Group.

The seeds of a radical shift of emphasis and broadening of scope were sown in 1965, with the foundation within the Laboratory of the Programming Research Group (PRG) under the leadership of Christopher Strachey. The Computing Service split off from the Laboratory in 1977. For the next several years the Programming Research Group and Numerical Analysis Group pursued their own individual research and teaching initiatives with little day-to-day contact, partly because until 1984 they were in separate rather isolated buildings.

However, since that time, from the rapid development in the number of staff and the range of their interests, and the steady improvement in the accommodation, has emerged a major department with a clear identity and common objectives. Christopher Strachey was succeeded by Tony Hoare from 1977 until 1999, and by Samson Abramsky since 2000. Leslie Fox was succeeded by Bill Morton from 1984 until 1997 and by Nick Trefethen since 1997. Joseph Goguen filled a new chair from 1988, and was succeeded by Richard Brent from 1998 until 2005, and by Georg Gottlob since 2006. Another new chair (in Computing Systems) has recently been added, and was advertised in December 2005; an appointment has not yet been announced. The number of established academic staff grew steadily from eight in 1980 to the present strength of about thirty five.

The initial accommodation at Keble Road consisted of the converted Victorian houses comprising Nos 8-11, which were rapidly outgrown. In 1986 it was decided to seek permission and funding, through the University's Campaign for Oxford, for a major extension to the rear of the Keble Road houses. The planning, funding and construction of the new Wolfson Building gave the Laboratory a great sense of achievement; and its occupation since the summer of 1993 provided us with purpose-built accommodation capable of bringing all the staff together and meeting most of our needs. However, further expansion of the department has led to another building project, with a new eScience Building currently under construction, which will provide additional space for the Computing Laboratory, and also house the Oxford e-Research Centre and the Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre.

The Laboratory now has responsibility within the University for all academic aspects of computing --- for teaching, basic research and collaboration with other departments and with industry on applied research. Its research attempts both to solve problems by the use of computers and to address problems in the design and programming of computing systems themselves. In both areas it couples rigorous theory with industrial application, with each acting as a strong stimulus to the other, and this is reflected in the teaching.

The combination of the two differing disciplines in Computing Science (formerly the Programming Research Group) and the Numerical Analysis Group within the Laboratory is seen as one of its strengths. Much teaching and research in computing is interdisciplinary, involving close links with mathematics, engineering and other scientific disciplines: and the development of the required inter-disciplinary skills is encouraged by this juxtaposition of the two groups. A good example was the setting up of Oxford Parallel as a research unit in the Laboratory to study all aspects of parallel computing which initiated several projects in which members of both groups were engaged, together with partners from industry.

The strongly held common philosophy of the two groups is admirably expressed in the following quotation from Christopher Strachey, the founder of the PRG:

It has long been my personal view that the separation of practical and theoretical work is artificial and injurious. Much of the practical work done in computing, both in software and in hardware design, is unsound and clumsy because the people who do it have not any clear understanding of the fundamental design principles of their work. Most of the abstract mathematical and theoretical work is sterile because it has no point of contact with real computing. One of the central aims of the Programming Research Group as a teaching and research group has been to set up an atmosphere in which this separation cannot happen.