Digital Nexus building

A landmark home for Computer Science

Solving society's most pressing challenges

Climate change and dementia are issues that affect us all. Researchers in the School of Computer Science at St Andrews are collaborating with scholars in medicine and across the sciences to explore and discover solutions to these issues. Examples include pioneering work on small processors that will reduce the need for carbon and water resources to power and run AI, and collaborations with medical science to improve early diagnosis for dementia.

Creating a powerhouse to educate, inspire and discover

By building a cutting-edge home for Scotland’s leading School of Computer Science – the Digital Nexus building at the heart of the Science and Medicine Campus – we can integrate a group of talented researchers – from undergraduates to postgraduates keen to make a difference – with established teaching and research colleagues. Together, they will create an intellectual powerhouse that will educate, inspire and discover solutions – and change lives for the better.

How you can support us

We are seeking £60 million to enable us to realise this vision with naming opportunities available form £500,000. Help us to make waves of innovation and solve some of society’s most pressing problems.

Discover the vision for the Digital Nexus building in the short film below.

Discovery that changes lives

St Andrews' leading computer scientists are committed to outstanding research. This research is making an impact, and transforming the lives of individuals and communities far beyond St Andrews. Current research projects are detailed below.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) could transform our approaches to societal and environmental challenges, but only if it doesn’t make the same problems worse. Computing produces 2.1-3.9% of all carbon emissions, and that’s before the impact of generative AI like ChatGPT becomes clear.

This trajectory is unsustainable. Several major tech firms have abandoned unachievable environmental goals. Many data centres consume as much electricity as a small city. Growth is not possible without restricting power for others or radically increasing generation and grid capacities.

At St Andrews, our expertise covers power consumption, chip design, algorithm selection, resource-constrained machine learning, and applications in sensing, reasoning, and data analytics. We are in a strong position to make waves in this field. By empowering undergraduates to work with postgraduate researchers and partners, we will discover, develop and design solutions for a sustainable AI future.
Despite being relatively common, Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) is often overlooked compared to other visual impairments.

Many cases go undiagnosed, while research suggests that one child in every mainstream classroom may be affected.

Our researchers are changing lives around the world, thanks to their efforts to create virtual reality programs and educational videos to help people understand how CVI affects vision. In practice, this means that our experts have tested simulations in a wide range of environments, helping teachers, museum experts, parents and educators design better spaces for those living with CVI.

Our free resources have already reached over two hundred countries and territories.
Dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease, is one of the most pressing health challenges of our time. Despite being a leading cause of death in the UK and worldwide, it remains the last major disease without widely available or effective interventions.

Our new approach aims to revolutionise dementia research, bringing fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to tackle this devastating disease. Utilising data collected over many years, we aim to identify the earliest signs of dementia which we believe occurs in the brain decades before symptoms appear.

Our mission is ambitious but clear: to speed progress in early diagnostics and cure Alzheimer’s within the next ten years so that everyone can enjoy better brain health for life.
Modelling methods, developed at St Andrews, are used for wildlife population assessments by governments, NGOs and international organisations in more than 115 countries worldwide. They are used for biodiversity assessment, conservation, and management of a huge range of species, including whales, snow leopards, seals, elephants, apes, birds, ants, trees and flowering plants.

Our research has been especially instrumental in the ongoing battle against wildlife crime in Africa. We also collaborate with governments and NGOs to predict other threats to wildlife safety, such as climate change, land use, and human capacity.
For those who have experienced cancer and other major treatments, the fertility journey to conceive can be fraught with challenges. Now, St Andrews computer scientists have developed a Fertility Calculator designed to help couples who are navigating a journey that involves assisted conception.

By combining data with predictions, our researchers are now able to identify those who respond poorly to treatments.

The impact of this discovery is life-changing: it allows personalised interventions and so maximises a couple’s chances of conceiving a baby.

Our vision

The Digital Nexus building will:

integrate a remarkable group of talented researchers at all stages of their careers
drive collaboration and foster engagement with partners across the University
grow and diversify our outreach activity, including dedicated Gateway to Science and summer programmes
be an architectural landmark, the centrepiece of a revitalised Science and Medicine campus.

An artist's impression of the entrance to the Digital Nexus Building