The prize of £1m will be awarded every year for the next ten years, to encourage AI research in the UK.
At 11am on 21 June, 1948 the Small Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), nicked named ‘The Baby’, started running its first program. It took 52 minutes, running through 3.5 million calculations before it got to the correct answer.
In that process, the Baby became the first computer in the world to run a program electronically stored in its memory, rather than on paper tape or hardwired in.
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.”
Artificial intelligence research has gone from strength to strength at our University since then, building on the legacy of that achievement. Today our University works on fundamental AI, robotics and autonomous systems, advanced manufacturing systems and neuroscience.
Image: Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn programming the Manchester Mark 1 computer.
Further information
- Artificial Intelligence at our University
- Robotics at the University of Manchester
- Putting the Human back in to the Algorithm
- How a 70-year-old ‘Baby’ changed the face of modern computing
- Advanced materials and automation: manufacturing's 'dream team'
- Radioactive robot Lyra named Best Invention of 2022
- Digital Futures at Manchester
- Research Explorer
* This article was originally published here
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