Adastral Park
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Photo of Lisa Perkins
Photo of Lisa Perkins
Lisa Perkins
Adastral Park and Research Realisation Director

Since the beginning of the bid to secure funding of this exciting facility at Adastral Park, the University of Suffolk and BT have been working closely together to realise the vision of a Centre of Excellence for Teaching, Learning, Research and Innovation.

Following the successful delivery of the amazing teaching and research facilities at Adastral park, we see the Digitech Centre as an opportunity to grow critical mass and expertise in Digital Skills, but also to contribute these skills to cross sector innovation in areas such as Sustainability, Health and Integrated Care.

We are only at the beginning of this joint vision with the University of Suffolk and are continuing to explore exciting ideas and options to continue to expand the University's presence and contribution to Adastral Park and the region.

The DigiTech Centre
The DigiTech Centre at Adastral Park is an innovative partnership between the University of Suffolk and BT, funded by a £9.6m investment by New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, the DigiTech Centre is a Centre of Excellence in Digital Skills for Teaching and Learning, Research and Knowledge Exchange.
The DigiTech Centre is the principal hub for computing teaching to degree apprentices, mainstream undergraduate students and postgraduate master's students. Students benefit from state-of-the-art facilities, including an AI Compute Server, a Juniper Networking "Sandpit", a Cyber Range, and a Digital Forensics Laboratory. In addition to studying for their degrees and gaining a wealth of practical computing skills and expertise, our students also have the opportunity to undertake industrial certifications. All computing degree programmes incorporate opportunities for businesses to work with students on projects.
DigiTech Centre facilities
The DigiTech Centre is also home to two university research institutes - the Digital Futures Institute and the Suffolk Sustainability Institute.
The Digital Futures Institute is undertaking research across three broad themes of:
  1. Improving cyber security and resilience;
  2. Experience and interaction design with a focus on gamification and mixed realities;
  3. Achieving better outcomes to real-world problems through applying AI, data science and technology.
The Suffolk Sustainability Institute is undertaking research across three broad themes of:
  1. Green infrastructure to alleviate climate and environmental problems;
  2. Energy and resource management addressing sustainable construction, material efficiency and sustainable and renewable energy;
  3. Sustainable healthy communities.
Both research institutes are keen to work with businesses on collaborative research, consultancy and knowledge exchange activities.
Digitech Smart House
One of the teaching areas we have on site includes a Smart Living and Sustainability lab on an landscaped area adjacent to the Digitech Centre. This is a two-storey smart home built from fully sustainable means, with solar panels, rainwater collection, highly efficient heating and cooling, and biodiverse planting. It is also fully sensor-enabled, with smart controls to be as efficient as possible. It's a real insight into what homes of the future will look like. We hope this will be an ever evolving base for sensor enabled home/smart living technologies and advancements in the future!
DigiTech Centre smart house
The DigiTech Centre at the University of Suffolk
To find out more about the DigiTech Centre, please visit the University of Suffolk website, or email digitech@uos.co.uk.
DigiTech Centre facilities