State of the art Urban Sciences Building welcomes new students

The USB is a £58m investment by Newcastle University and home to the School of Computing. It’s the second of the university’s buildings to be completed on the site, following the opening of The Key building in 2015, and has been designed not just as a place for research and learning but as a research experiment itself.

Professor John Fitzgerald, Head of the School of Computing said: “It was a big day for us when the first of over 1000 students arrived from all over the world to begin their studies in Computing at Newcastle University in the USB. Fifty years ago, Newcastle University awarded some of the first degrees in computing. Then, computers were rare and big beasts; now almost every aspect of our lives depends on networked digital devices.

“It’s been great to watch the building come to life as new students start to make this their working home. Above all, this building is there for the city. As well as the Computing School, we have created a unique set of laboratories for students and researchers to better create products and environments that improve the quality of life and prosperity in a changing, increasingly urbanised world.”

Trialling new energy systems, novel materials and smart engineering, USB forms part of the Science Central vision to create a full scale demonstrator of urban innovation – a ‘living laboratory’ underpinning research to make urban centres more sustainable for future generations.