Research
The School is a member of the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA).
Research in the School focuses on core themes of theoretical and practical computer science. The School's research is supported by a range of funding bodies including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Commission, and industrial collaborators.
School of Computer Science Research Excellence
Research at Scotland’s oldest university amongst the highest quality in the country.
Over 90% of research carried out by the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews is world-leading or internationally excellent, according to the results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) published today (Thursday 12 May).
The REF – a detailed analysis of the research strengths of all UK universities – found that St Andrews excelled in a number of key research areas – including Computer Science.
Professor Ian Miguel, Head of the School of Computer Science said: “The School is delighted that our overall results show a marked improvement over REF 2014. Our research environment and impact case studies were all rated either 3* or 4*, as was 90% of our return overall.”
REF found that the overall quality of research at St Andrews had increased by 5.7 % since the last assessment exercise in 2014.
Although REF itself explicitly does not rank universities according to research strengths, the metrics it produces are widely used in the higher education sector and in the media to benchmark research performance.
According to these figures, using the method of Grade Point Average (GPA), St Andrews was ranked 3rd in Scotland and 28th in the UK, one of six Scottish universities ranked amongst the top 50 research institutions in the UK.
Research at the School of Computer Science which REF judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent included:
- Evolving the Internet with Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP). https://ilnp.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
- Use of Precise Architectural Memory Consistency Models and Validation in Processor Companies. https://impact.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/reinventing-technological-protocols-and-processes/
- More effective teaching of advanced mathematics through new algorithms incorporated in open-source mathematical software. https://www.gap-system.org/
University of St Andrews REF 2021 results are available at: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/research/showcase/excellence/ref-2021/
Full details of the Research Excellence Framework 2021 is available via https://www.ref.ac.uk/