Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge

We're delighted to see Zhengpeng Feng, one of our PhD students, taking the stage at this week's AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. Frank is part of the team working on the Tessera project, an AI model capable of distilling millions of images captured by satellites into a format that is easily useable by researchers. It's a great project so we're delighted it's being showcased to wider audiences. https://geotessera.org/

Huge thanks to our alumnus Dr Mark Hayter for his very generous gift to this Department. He is endowing a professorship and a PhD studentship here, inspired by the pioneering computer science work that has taken place at Cambridge since a visionary team developed the EDSAC computer in the 1940's – and, in doing so, helped usher in the use of computers as everyday tools.

Mark is a serial entrepreneur who sold his most recent business (AI chip start-up Rivos) to Meta last year. He credits the eight years he spent studying at the University of Cambridge with helping him develop his boyhood fascination with computers into a string of successful businesses. "I've done well out of the skills I was taught here," he says, "and I think it is right to give back."

Mark has already helped his former college St John's College to offer financial support packages to undergraduates. Now he's helping us support PhD students here, as well as endowing the EDSAC professorship. "This is an incredibly generous gift," says our Head of Department Alastair Beresford. "I'm very grateful to Mark for the support he is giving us."
https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridges-history-pioneering-computer-science-inspires-generous-gift-alumnus

It weighed two tons. It took up a whole room. And when it came into operation in May 1949, it was a landmark in the history of modern computing. We celebrated this yesterday when we unveiled a blue plaque to EDSAC, the first computer built at the University of Cambridge. https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/blue-plaque-edsac-cambridge-universitys-pioneering-first-computer

EDSAC - or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator - was the first electronic computer to go into general use that did not need to be rewired by hand for every new task. Its development marked the birth of everyday computing. The blue plaque celebrates this achievement and will be installed, later this summer, in the location in central Cambridge where EDSAC was originally built.

We were delighted that the Mayor of Cambridge, Councillor Maria Cleminson, and Tom Bygott from the charity Cambridge Past, Present and Future (which created the plaque for us), could join us at the event. They are pictured here, along with our Head of Department, Prof Alastair Beresford.

Hedgehogs 🦔 are under threat in this country - particularly in rural areas where their numbers have fallen by 75% since 2000, government surveys suggest. But now, thanks to researchers here at the University of Cambridge, these much-loved animals are getting help from an unlikely ally: . Colleagues here are developing a powerful new AI tool called TESSERA. It analyses data from thousands of satellite measurements and images of Earth to generate exceptionally detailed scientific maps of our planet. After learning about the plight of UK hedgehogs, TESSERA researchers are mapping hedgehog habitats in the UK to find out what's causing their decline. https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/tessera-ai-model-helping-protect-hedgehogs-space

Our Cambridge Cybercrime Centre mines and analyses datasets to extract information about what are up to. This vital research enhances our understanding of what works when it comes to preventing cybercrime. It replaces guesswork with data, and ensures that how we intervene actually cuts down cybercrime, rather than shifting it elsewhere. Next month, our annual Cambridge Cybercrime Conference takes place. Topics it will cover include:
- why cybercriminals get involved with ideological , and
- how restricting customer data sharing by firms can reduce financial .
Interested in joining cybercrime researchers from the UK, US, Netherlands, Australia, Norway, Morocco, Canada & Germany at this event? See more details and how to register here:
https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/school-scoundrels-how-cybercriminals-learn-their-trade

There's a free 'Craft & Code' workshop for girls aged 9-12 here next week. It's a morning of fun for them, using craft materials and BBC micro:bit computers that they can program to do things like display messages, light up, make sounds or respond to movements. It's also part of a project by researchers here who want to understand how children make and create technology. See more details here: https://forms.office.com/e/Hrvp14ETdJ

Using some envelopes, a pin board, a handful of audience members - and some very special messages - researchers here will this Saturday demonstrate a new secure communications system they've been developing. Called CoverDrop, it helps whistleblowers contact journalists safely and is now part of The Guardian's news app. This talk, for anyone from 12 upwards, will show how the messaging technology works in a fun and accessible way. It's part of a whole day of activities that we're running here on 21 March as part of . https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/developing-secure-messaging-how-researchers-are-helping-whistleblowers-reach-journalists

agents are powerful yet passive, reading what we say and giving us suggestions. But the new 'computer use agents' being developed are active, independently running tasks for us on our computers. There’s just one problem: they can’t distinguish between the instructions we give them - and malicious instructions that might be embedded in what they read online. So how and why should we trust them? Come and hear researcher Hanna Foerster talk about this at our Computer Science Open Day on Sat 21 March, part of the 2026 Cambridge Festival.
https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/can-we-trust-ai-use-our-computers

We've been having fun this morning, testing a new 'escape room' visitors can do at our Cambridge Festival Family Open Day next week. Can you 'Help Us Find our Missing Computer Science Professor'? Search round the room, find the clues, make the connections - and see if you can solve the riddle!
This is just one of a host of activities for visitors of all ages at our Family Open Day, 10:30 - 16:30, Saturday 21 March.
https://shorturl.at/Jeu63