Cambridge Computer Science

@cst.cam.ac.uk

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Cambridge University Computer Science & Technology Department (aka the Computer Lab). We built the UK's 1st usable programmable computer, offered the UK's 1st Computer Science degree, created the 1st ever webcam - and continue to advance the field today.

Hedgehogs frequently live in bramble patches (which hide them from predators and shelter them from harsh weather). So Cambridge University researchers are training an AI tool called TESSERA to look for patterns in the data that matched how bramble bushes scatter light from above. In this way, they can map hedgehog habitat and learn about why hedgehog numbers are declining.
Cybercrime researchers from around the world will be attending the 2026 Cambridge Cybercrime Conference on Monday 22 June. Among others, there will be sessions on understanding offender behaviour, and how AI can help detect sophisticated email phishing attacks.
A Facebook ad from a gambling firm welcomes new customers with the offer of free spins and real money winnings.
Would you be happy giving a camel access to your computer? Some of the new AI 'computer use agents' could potentially wreak the same havoc on it. So research student Hanna Foerster will argue when she asks 'Can We Trust AI to Use Our Computers?' in a talk at the 2026 Cambridge Festival.
Post-it notes, cryptic clues, a key - and someone trying to piece them all together to solve a riddle. Just like the 'Help Us Find Our Missing Computer Science Professor' escape room we're running during our Family Open Day on Sat 21 March 2026.
Come and see how the ways robotics researchers in the Department are experimenting with programming autonomous vehicles. Then have a go at programming your own cute mini robot car.
The Arm Morello board was a prototype hardware and early-stage software with the potential to block security vulnerabilities in future computer systems.
Cecilia Mascolo, Professor of Mobile Systems here, is a researcher with expertise in using AI tools to monitor human health. In the last few years, she and her team have developed and trained machine learning models to help doctors diagnose Covid from recordings of people coughing, breathing and talking.
Ötzi is carrying out a pilot to develop long-term wildfire statistics, including estimates of how many wildfires may occur over the next decade. Photo by Michael Held on Unsplash.
In summer 2025, 10 students from backgrounds under-represented in AI came to Cambridge to do a paid 8-week AI research placement with us. This was thanks to the Google DeepMind Research Ready programme, which will run again in summer 2026. Interested in applying? Visit https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/outreach/deepmind-research-ready
Cambridge University is encouraging researchers with an interest in AI to work with local authorities on ways that AI could help them to address key challenges.
Students learning with Isaac Science - an innovative and free online learning platform that our Department helped to develop - have now made over 200 MILLION question attempts on the platform.
The Department of Computer Science and Technology is based in a modern, purpose-built facility on Cambridge University's West Cambridge site.
Our CASCADE Centre is a dedicated new centre for research in computer architecture and semiconductor design.
The Guardian's Secure Messaging Service helps whistleblowers contact journalists without fear of their messages being discovered and read by others. It builds on the 'CoverDrop' secure messaging technology that was developed by researchers here, as Prof Alastair Beresford and Dr Daniel Hugenroth will discuss in their talk on Wednesday 12 November 2026.
The image shows postgraduate students working in computer architecture and semiconductor design, affective intelligence and robotics.
Xiangjian Jiang, who is developing foundational AI models to analyse and understand tabular data (i.e. data stored in tables and spreadsheets), has just been named as a 2025 Google PhD Fellow.
In October 2025, Luisa Cicolini and Qianhui Wang started their PhDs at CASCADE, our new Computer Architecture & Semiconductor Design Centre.
Cecilia Mascolo, Professor of Mobile Systems at the University of Cambridge, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Researchers Dr Guy Laban and Dr Fethiye Irmak Dogan collecting the Interdisciplinary Research Award in Social Human-Robot Interaction at the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication in August 2025.
The booklet attendees will pick up on the day explains the structure of our Computer Science degree course, what modules they can take and how to choose the ones that most interest them.
Artists urgently need stronger defences to protect their work from being used to train AI models without their consent. So say an international team of researchers from this Department and from the Technical University of Darmstadt, where this image was created.
Prof Srinivasan Keshav conducts research at the intersection of computer science and sustainability. He is the Robert Sansom Professor of Computer Science at the University of Cambridge.
The Guardian's new Secure Messaging service for whistleblowers wanting to contact journalists was developed in collaboration with security reseachers at Cambridge University.
Dr Dong Ma will join us in January 2026 as an Associate Professor in Wearable Computing. Dong is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Singapore Management University. His research interests lie broadly in the area of mobile computing with a special focus on wearable-based human sensing systems.
The annual Cambridge Cybercrime Conference brings together researchers working in interdisciplinary cybercrime research. In June 2025, the conference will cover topics including trust and identity in cybercriminal ecosystems, technical threats and disruption and resilience in illicit online activites.
Andreas Vlachos, our Professor of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning, collected the award from Head of Department Alastair Beresford at our Hall of Fame Awards ceremony on 23 April 2025.
Raoul completed his PhD in programming languages in our Department before going on to set up AI and data skills training company Cambridge Spark.
Researcher Yang Liu holds the Mark Weiser Best Paper Award, given at IEEE PerCom 2025, the International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications. Yang and colleagues won for their work in repurposing the in-ear microphones in our earbuds for collecting and analysing our breathing rates (a key vital sign), demonstrating a new way for us to monitor our health.
BBC Click viewers will see the amazing work taking place in the Prorok Lab as researchers train swarms of autonomous cars and drones to work together.
Researchers in our Prorok Lab are looking for new ways to induce AI agents – such as robots, machines and driverless cars – to achieve common goals while working in shared spaces like warehouses and roads. Visitors to our Cambridge Festival Open Day on Saturday 22 March 2-25 can enjoy a demo of what happens when a group of driverless cars, working in formation, have to interact with a human.
Dr Sam Nallaperuma is researching the ways in which we could harness AI and neuroscience to make music tuned to our own brain waves so it becomes our own personalised therapy programme for relaxation and sleep.
Visitors to our Cambridge Festival Open Day can enjoy meeting and chatting to the Furhat conversational robot.
Prof Cecilia Mascolo co-directs the Centre for Mobile, Wearable Systems and Augmented Intelligence here in Cambridge, which focuses on next-generation mobile and wearable technology, as well as mobile applications.
Willey Reveley's drawing of Jeremy Bentham's design for a 'panopticon' prison where one central guard could see into every single prisoner's cell.
Thanks to Ion Fett for making this photo of the human eye available on Unsplash at https://unsplash.com/photos/blue-eye-photo-QRawWgV6gmo?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash
Michael was one of ten interns on our first Cambridge Google DeepMind Research Ready programme, a scheme that offers an experience of AI research to those currently under-represented in this field.
Researchers in the AFAR Lab at Cambridge University are using small robots like Nao as part of a project on how robots can help assess children's mental wellbeing. This picture, of researcher Dr Micol Spitale with Nao, was taken by PhD student Nida Itrat Abbasi.
Student Bill Marino is working towards a PhD on responsible and regulation-compliant AI models and systems.
Researchers in our Department are developing humanoid robots that could assist us in the home or help support our wellbeing.
Dr Christopher Pulte is developing new techniques to mathematically analyse systems software and prove that it is functioning correctly.
PhD student Karl Mose was among the speakers when we launched our new CASCADE Computer Architecture and Semiconductor Design Centre in June 2024.
Using earbuds as health sensors would be very useful as they are so widely worn nowadays. They're also portable, very light, and much more affordable than standard clinical diagnostic devices.