The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt has announced a new prize for artificial intelligence named after The University of Manchester’s invention of the first stored programme computer in 1948.
The prize of £1m will be awarded every year for the next ten years, to encourage AI research in the UK.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the Chancellor said:
“The world’s first stored programme computer was built at the University of Manchester in 1948 and was known as the Manchester Baby. 75 years on the Baby has grown up, so I will call this new national AI award the Manchester Prize in its honour.”
Manchester,says Sally McDonald,Director of the Science and Industry Museum,has earned its place in computing history and continues to be a pioneer in computer science today.
“On 21 June 1948, the world’s first stored program computer, the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, later nicknamed ‘Baby’, completed its first successful run, at the University of Manchester, proving the basic blueprint still used in billions of computers today.” she writes adding that
“Manchester scientists and engineers put the city at the forefront of a global technological revolution.”
“In 1951, the Moston Ferranti factory produced the world’s first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1. During the 1980s, the first ARM chips, which now power smartphones around the world, were co-designed by a Mancunian. Millions of 1980s home computers like the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro, relied on ULA microchips developed by Ferranti in Manchester. Still today, there is a wealth of technical innovation happening across the city. Manchester really is a city of computing.”
