About the Institute

Founded to collect the record, and to see that it is read.

The Institute was founded in London in 1978 to collect the documentary record of British computing while the people who made it could still explain it. Collecting turned out to be the easy half; the trophies exist to make sure the material is read, argued over and written up.

The awards are deliberately modest in value and identical in form, so that a first-year student’s plaque sits beside a professor’s in the same roll of honour. Expenses are reimbursed on receipt; there is no stipend.

A council of twelve governs the Institute. We are a registered charity funded by subscriptions, legacies and the endowments attached to individual trophies.