The Purdue Computing Archive

An Archive of Purdue Computing History

This site is an archive of the history, photos, stories, and the people that contributed to the creation, adoption, and expansion of the computing discipline at Purdue. Some of the earliest computing pioneers trace their roots back to Purdue. Many others, like me, came along later to learn from these computing pioneers and to build on what they started. Whether faculty members, researchers, students, or staff, we have fond memories of our time at Purdue. 

With early roots in computing facilities for Engineering and Mathematics, Purdue launched the very first Computer Science department in the nation at the West Lafayette, Indiana campus in 1962. Starting in those early years, Purdue became one of the leading R1 research computing institutions in the world, with an impact that is far-reaching beyond the campus. 

My hope is that you will find something on the site that triggers a story or a memory of Purdue and the use of the various computing facilities that have been provided over the years. My original plan for this site was to highlight my time at the Purdue Computer Center (PUCC). With so many other departments contributing to computing at Purdue, the site has expanded to recognize contributions from across the university. 

Computing Facilities at Purdue

To support the emerging computing needs in engineering and math sciences, the Purdue Computer Science Center (later renamed the Purdue Computer Center) was established in the early 1960s to provide world-class computing facilities to the faculty, researchers, and students of Purdue University.

Numerous scientific breakthroughs have been made using the computing facilities that were provided by the staff of the Purdue Computing Center. Over the years, numerous computing systems, supercomputers, and high-performance computing systems have been installed and later decommissioned to support the ever-changing research and academic computing needs of the campus.

In 2001, the Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC), Management Information (MI), and the Telephone Office (TEL) were reorganized into a single IT department. The Purdue University Computer Center (PUCC) and the Purdue Computer Center department names were subsequently retired. The new IT department was called Information Technology at Purdue - IT@P or ITaP. In 2023, another reorganization combined the academic and regional campus IT units with the existing ITAP unit to form a new department, called Purdue IT. 

Contributing to the Site

If you have photos, media, timelines, or stories that you would be willing to share, that would be appreciated! Please consider forwarding those along using the feedback page. See the What's New page for recent site updates. 

The PUCC Archive site is maintained by Robert Stanfield with contributions from an ever-expanding group of Purdue friends. BTFU

See the Photos & Videos page for more photos.