[3] In 1950 Bates submitted an MSc thesis entitled "The mechanical solution of a problem in Church's Lambda calculus".
[4] This thesis documents a successful attempt to carry out higher-order logical reasoning on the extremely primitive Manchester Mark I electronic computer.
[3][2] When the Manchester Mark I was commercialised by the local electronics firm Ferranti, Bates moved to work with them as a programmer.
Whilst at Ferranti she composed several sections (some uncredited) of Vivian Bowdon's Faster Than Thought, a popular introduction to electronic computing.
[2] In 1955, Bates was pictured supervising the FERUT when it carried out the first automated remote access to a computer.