About Us

Mission

The University of Waterloo Computing Museum is university-based museum, whose purpose is to collect, preserve and interpret the history of computing at the University of Waterloo (UW) and related organizations of the geographic region. The time period it focuses on is primarily from 1957 (the year UW was established) to the present. However, artifacts from before this date may still be relevant, and the mission explicitly includes non-modern (i.e.: non-electronic) computing machinery and methods. The museum collects various computing related artifacts: hardware, software, documents, books, manuals, and other related cultural artifacts. As appropriate, it collaborates and cooperates with other UW units that hold overlapping interests, such as the University Archives and Records Management or various Alumni offices. The museum interprets and presents the history of computing at UW via physical and online exhibits, research, teaching, public events and publications. It exists to encourage the UW community to recognize, reflect and interpret its own history.

Facts and figures

3000+ The number of artifacts catalogued in our collection
1887 The oldest item in our collection is a cylindrical slide rule from 1887.

Link to catalogue
2010 The Computer Museum was founded in 2010.
100+ Number of unique individual and organizational donors
250 Approximate square meters of exhibit, storage, and work space
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Milestones

  1. 2010
    1. Museum founded

  2. 2013
    1. We held our first event, a SuperPET demo and talk in July, and we created our first displays in the Davis Centre and EIT buildings

  3. 2015
    1. We held our first workshop: “Reading Artifacts" for grad students in May, co-sponsored by David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, Graduate Student Association, Wolfe Chair in Science and Technology Literacy, and the Centre for Society, Technology an

  4. 2016
    1. We began hiring high-school co-ops to assist with cataloguing, exhibit development, and website development. We also started using the collection in the classroom, with a new course about the history of computing: STV 210/HIST 212 The Computing So

  5. 2017
    1. We contributed to the Faculty of Mathematics 50th Anniversary celebrations with talks, pop-up one-day exhibits, and a special two-week hardware exhibit in July.

  6. 2022
    1. The David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science officially adopted the Computer Museum.

  7. 2023
    1. We hired our first UW co-op, supported our first external researchers, appeared in our first TV interview, and held our first two Hardware Days for visitors to come investigate and repair old hardware