Jana Colchester, 15 Jun 2018-16 Jul 2018

Item

MS. 15797 digital 6

Born digital audio recordings of interview with Jana Colchester, former programming teacher at Marconi College and University of Essex
Link to digital surrogate

Comprises:

(item 1) born digital audio of track 1 of interview with Jana Colchester, former programming teacher at Marconi. Interview conducted by Georgina Ferry, 15 Jun 2018. Running time 1:00:16, topics include:

(00:00:15) early computing influences, Brighton Technical College in 1958, family life
(00:04:10) studying Maths at Imperial College London, gender split across maths students
(00:06:43) application to Oxford University and computing firms
(00:08:11) access to computers at Imperial College London
(00:08:55) reasons for pursuing computing as a career
(00:09:47) interview at University of Oxford with Professor Fox
(00:10:36) thesis topic of Monte Carlo Methods in numerical analysis applied to elliptic differential equations; movement from South Parks road with Mercury computer, to Parks Road Lab with KDF9 computer
(00:15:50) women working at the Oxford Computer Labs
(00:18:20) Linacre college [formerly Linacre house]
(00:19:09) Dorothy Hodgkin as moral tutor at Linacre before she moved to Somerville
(00:21:11) funding for computing thesis from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
(00:22:35) sailing for Oxford University women's team
(00:25:02) working at the University of Dundee [formerly University of St. Andrews at Dundee] teaching maths and computing at Dundee
(00:26:30) exchanges with Jean-Pierre Laurent on Colchester's thesis topic
(00:28:10) application to Essex University to work with Professor Barnard as a lecturer, teaching and maternity leave from Essex
(00:31:15) teaching computing at the Marconi College, Chelmsford, teaching assembly language programming
(00:36:08) women working at Marconi in non-clerical roles
(00:38:17) returning to Essex University, colleagues and variation of teaching
(00:40:19) brief experience as a secondary school teacher, working as a computer operator and teaching evening classes
(00:41:57) working at Coventry Polytechnic in the computing department, women colleagues
(00:43:59) teaching data processing at Mid Essex Tech, origin of Anglia Ruskin University
(00:45:00) computer equipment
(00:46:46) taking early retirement
(00:51:40) Leslie Fox and David Handscomb, of the Oxford computing lab
(00:53:54) John Rollett, crystallographer
(00:56:35) school education and moving around

(item 2) born digital audio of track 2 of interview with with Jana Colchester, conducted by Georgina Ferry, 15 Jun 2018. Running time 00:02:33, topics include (00:00:01) attitudes to women in maths and computing.

(item 3) born digital transcript of interview with Jana Colchester, transcribed 16 Jul 2018