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Newcastle University’s Urban Sciences Building almost complete

Newcastle University has announced that its Urban Sciences Building will reach completion by August 2017, strengthening the region’s digital capabilities.

The state-of-the-art structure on Science Central will be the new home for the University’s School of Computing Science and its 1,395 staff and students.

It is 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.

Encased in a web of digital infrastructure which connects walls, windows and fittings through thousands of sensors, this ‘intelligent’ building will help us better understand how to create more sustainable, efficient buildings of the future.

Trialling new energy systems, novel materials and smart engineering, the Urban Sciences Building (USB) is a key 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.

The £350m urban regeneration project, the largest of its kind in the UK, will also house the new £40m National Innovation Centre: Ageing, the £30m National Innovation Centre: Data, the £20m National Centre for Energy Systems Integration and £11.2m UKCRIC integrated infrastructure labs and urban observatory.

Professor John Fitzgerald, Deputy Head of the School of Computing Science and leading the USB project, said: “The USB is a real step forward for research and education in computer science.

“Practically every new product has computing in it, and almost every aspect of our lives depends on digital technology.

“That’s why it makes sense to bring expertise in computing and software right alongside other disciplines - energy, infrastructure, sustainability, society - and work together to drive outstanding new research, innovation, and new businesses in these key areas that really make a difference to the quality of life in the 21st Century.”

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