Computing facilities
Explore the facilities available to our computing students
Computer science students at Plymouth have access to a wide variety of specialist facilities. Spread across eight specialist laboratories, these facilities provide differing hardware and software configurations to permit a wide diversity of capability – from high computational tasks required in the design of artificial intelligence using state of the art Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) to flexible networking infrastructure required to perform penetration testing on our cyber range.
Whilst students are very much encouraged to use the faculties in person – enabling close collaboration with students and staff, much of capability is also enabled for remote provision – enabling students to virtually access our laboratories 24x7. Significant investment is made into the labs to ensure the systems are kept at the cutting edge of technology.
Cyber Security and Digital Forensics Laboratories
Our dedicated cyber security and digital forensic laboratories provide the hardware, networking infrastructure and accompanying server capability to perform a whole host of cyber-security related capabilities. The physical servers provide a cyber range capability to simulate and model industry-based IT infrastructure which subsequently provides the platform upon which students can learn to perform red-teaming in a safe and supportive environment.
The laboratories also support the delivery of digital forensics, where students have the opportunity to learn how to use Exterro’s Forensic Toolkit – industry leading computer forensic software used globally by Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) and law enforcement.
Games Development Laboratory
The Games Development Lab provides the hardware and software tools for students to design, develop and test real-world games. Leveraging engines such as Unity and Unreal, students are able to practice their skills; developing and deploying highly creative, innovative and interactive games. The hardware systems in these labs provide the necessary computation and graphical processing for timely rendering and compiling.
XR Laboratory
Extended Reality (XR) encompasses augmented, virtual and mixed reality providing a revolutionary approach to interacting with digital information. Complementary to our Games Development Lab, the lab provides the green-room space for students to develop highly interactive and commercially attractive solutions – ranging from virtual reality games to augmented reality systems to support training and education in industry.
Software Engineering and Project Laboratories
These core computer science laboratories provide high-end hardware to enable students to undertake coursework assignments and project-related activities. From the first year to the final year project, students will be encouraged to put into practice knowledge and skills they are taught, to be innovative and creative in the solutions they develop and to work in a collaborative manner with fellow students and staff. The pod-based design of these labs help to facilitate collaborative and group working, whilst the systems themselves are fully loaded with the necessary hardware and software to support software engineering.
Web Services Laboratory
The laboratory provides the capability for students to develop end-to-end web applications and services – providing industry-based software and server infrastructure for students to use. The lab also has a built-in Internet-of-Things (IoT) infrastructure to allow students to develop software and functionality to develop smart applications and understand how to develop Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable interoperability between systems.
AI Laboratory
Our AI lab supports all of our computer science programmes. The lab provides the necessary hardware and GPU capability to meet the computational requirements of a wide variety of artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks. Utilising the accompanying software tools such as python, MATLAB, CUDA, students are able to rapidly develop, prototype and evaluate models.
Should the computational needs of the project exceed the lab, students also have access to a
High Performance Computing (HPC) facility they can also utilise.
