Research Groups

New Chair in Artificial Intelligence

Professor Lars Kotthoff has been appointed as the Johann and Gaynor Rupert Chair in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of St Andrews.

The role, based in the School of Computer Science, is a crucial appointment to explore and advance the critical role of AI, both now and in the future.

Professor Kotthoff completed his PhD at St Andrews and returns to his alma mater from the University of Wyoming where he was Templeton Chair in Computer Science, Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, Founding Adjunct Professor in the School of Computing, and Presidential Faculty Fellow.

He has held postdoctoral appointments at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and University College Cork, Ireland. Professor Kotthoff also holds a Diploma from the University of Leipzig, Germany.

His research focuses on developing approaches in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that empowers domain scientists and practitioners to apply state-of-the-art methods to solve real-world problems. Part of this is making cutting-edge research available to, and usable by, non-experts. His contributions span foundational AI, applications of AI in other areas such as materials science, and the development and support of AI tools that are widely used across a broad range of areas.

Of his appointment as The Johann and Gaynor Rupert Chair in Artificial Intelligence at the University of St Andrews, he said: “I very much look forward to re-joining St Andrews after a 13-year absence. AI is becoming increasingly important in all areas of science, and I am excited to explore opportunities with my colleagues in Computer Science and beyond. St Andrews’ world-class staff and collaborative environment make it an ideal location for advancing AI and its application in other areas.”

This position was made possible by a donation from regular participants of the Dunhill Links Championship who collectively donated £3m for an endowed chair in Johann and Gaynor Rupert’s name, as a thank you for the years of participation in the Dunhill Links Championship, and also in thanks for what Mr Rupert has done for golf and St Andrews since the original Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1985.  This new academic Chair is part of the University’s Making Waves Campaign, a £300-million fundraising initiative to foster world-leading research, attract and retain talented academics and students. It also aims to address global challenges by developing new infrastructure and expanding academic and entrepreneurial initiatives.

 

 

 

Seminar series on computing intelligence

There will be a series of talks at the Global Research Centre for Diverse Intelligences which might be interesting to staff in the School.

It will be a mix of discussions about how different fields (i.e., not just CS) think about intelligence and some talks about various sub-fields of AI presented by CS staff.

Talks by Ruth Hoffmann, Nguyen Dang, and Phong Le will be about foundational AI topics: https://diverseintelligences.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/

 

PGR Seminar – Sharon Pisani & Mirza Hossain

The next PGR seminar is taking place this Friday 3rd October 11:00-12:00 in JC 1.33A.

Below are the Titles and Abstracts for Sharon and Mirza’s talks – Please do come along if you are able.

Sharon Pisani

Title: Building Sustainable Heritage Virtual Museums for Communities using Sociodata

Abstract: Virtual museums are moving beyond simple digitisation of artefacts to become dynamic platforms for community engagement and sustainable development. This talk introduces the VERA Platform, which combines a flexible Virtual Museum Infrastructure with a new layer of sustainability-oriented contextual data called sociodata. Sociodata links heritage objects to their cultural landscapes, local communities, and relevant Sustainable Development Goals, enabling richer discovery, analysis, and reuse. In this talk, I will outline the platform’s architecture and metadata model. The talk will highlight technical challenges such as interoperability with European data spaces, and supporting interactive storytelling at scale—issues highly relevant to digital infrastructure and data-driven research in the heritage sector.

Bio: Sharon is a PhD researcher examining the role of emergent digital technologies in preserving and engaging with cultural heritage while supporting sustainable development. Her research focuses on digitising cultural landscapes—both natural and cultural heritage—to assess various impacts on heritage and community identities. She explores how digital tools, including 3D scanning, 3D modeling, and mixed reality, can aid in recreating and safeguarding heritage at risk.

Mirza Hossain

Title: Fishing for monosemantic neurons in histopathology foundation models

Abstract: This early-stage study introduces Histoscope, an interactive system for examining sparse autoencoders (SAEs) that are trained on top of the UNI pathology encoder. Vision transformers for histopathology often exhibit superposition, where single neurons respond to multiple distinct tissue patterns, making interpretation difficult. Histoscope provides quantitative metrics and visualisations to assess whether neurons are monosemantic—associated with a single concept—or polysemantic—associated with multiple concepts. The work highlights methods for analysing internal representations of histopathology foundation models and contributes to efforts toward more transparent AI in pathology.

Bio: Mirza Hossain is a second-year PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on multimodal AI in medical imaging with an emphasis on mechanistic interpretability of large foundation models. He is supervised by Dr. David Harris-Birtill.

 

The St Andrews Global Research Centre for Changing Climates Science, Society, Solutions

The next 600 years of St Andrews history will be set against a radically altered climate. The St Andrews Centre for Changing Climates, initiated this September, will leverage insights from climate change past and present, spanning science and society, to better understand the diverse array of challenges posed by a changing climate, and the solutions required to address them. Structured around cross cutting themes (Thresholds, Extremes, Solutions) and critical research topics (Environmental history; Climate and culture; Climate fundamentals and impacts; Adaptation and mitigation; Climate, health, and wellbeing), the Centre will pursue a distinctively diverse, cross-disciplinary agenda of research and impact, of benefit to researchers, decision makers, and the public. With a vision of interdisciplinarity possible only at an institution like St Andrews, the Centre will inspire uniquely nuanced, well-informed, and long-term perspectives on the scientific, political, ethical, and social dimensions of climate change.

The Centre’s Director, Dr James Rae, Reader in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: “St Andrews is uniquely well positioned to pull together research on the plurality of changing climates – physical, economic, social, cultural – to better understand how we can address this critical global challenge. Dr Alan Miller from the School of Computer Science will be participating in the research center.

St Andrews Computer Science makes big splash at Digital Heritage 2025

Sharon Pisani, Maria Andrei, Junyu Zhang and Alan Miller travelled to Siene for Digital Heritage 2025. Four paper presentations, project workshops and much networking later we reflect on a successful conference.

We are proud to announce that Sharon Pisani from Open Virtual Worlds has received the Best Paper Award for her wonderful work “Introducing Sociodata in Virtual Museums: A Holistic Approach for Sustainable Development in Cultural Landscapes”, at the leading international conference of Digital Heritage Congress 2025! The conference was inspiringly hosted in the beautiful medieval city of Siena. Congratulations to Sharon on her well-deserved achievement!

The papers presented included:

Remaking Lost Communities in Virtual Cultural Landscapes
Junyu Zhang, Miriam Sturdee, Perin Westerhof Nyman, Iain Oliver, Jacquie Aitken , Alan Miller

Designing a Virtual Museum Ecosystem for the Cloud
Alan Miller , Catherine. Cassidy Sharon. Pisani , Maria. Andrei  Junyu. Zhang , Sarah. Kennedy , Iain. Oliver , Jacquie. Aitken, Raymond . Williams,, and Vanessa. Martin,

Introducing Sociodata in Virtual Museums: A Holistic Approach for Sustainable Development in Cultural Landscapes
Sharon Pisani , Alan Miller , Catherine Cassidy , Loraine Clarke , Iain Oliver , and Gonçalo Gomes

Bridging Psychological Distance from Climate Change through Experiential Learning with Heritage Organisations
Maria Andrei, Sonja Heinrich, Jason Jacques, Iain Oliver, Sharon Pisani, Alan Miller, Richard Bates

We also participated in a workshop lead by HERITALISE Horizon Europe project developing tools for the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage.

Thank you to the Timespan Museum and West Highland Museum for their support and participation as well as the Schools of Earth and Environmental Sciences, History and Biology for contributions.

Thanks also to the School of Computer Science, and  Innovate UK for funding the presentations and to the HERITALISE project https://heritalise-eccch.eu/ and the CULTURALTY project https://culturality.museum/, for supporting  work reported in two of the papers.

Research Activities by Open Virtual Worlds Research Group

Throughout July, the research group Open Virtual Worlds from the School of Computer Science was involved in digitalising the archaeological artefacts, historical sites, and natural landscapes in collaboration with their important partner, Timespan Museum in Helmsdale, Highlands.

Two PhD students, Junyu Zhang and Sharon Pisani, who are researching digital heritage and sustainability, were using 360 photogrammetry to document the local area, which included the Helmsdale Harbour, the former fish curing yards, the Jurassic Coast, the Flow Country UNESCO World Heritage Site, and other natural reserves.

The efforts and work from the Open Virtual Worlds will contribute to the HERITALISE project, which includes seventeen partners from seven different European countries – the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Scotland, Malta, and Cyprus, forming an interdisciplinary group to bring about intelligence, methodology and expertise towards the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.

old and new harbours in Helmsdale

old and new harbours in Helmsdale

old and new harbours in Helmsdale

old and new harbours in Helmsdale

outdoor fieldwork at natural reserve sites, historical landscapes and heritage ruins

outdoor fieldwork at natural reserve sites, historical landscapes and heritage ruins

members from Open Virtual World and Timespan Museum

members from Open Virtual World and Timespan Museum

members from Open Virtual World and Timespan Museum

Interviews with descendants of historical heritage site

3D scanning of archaeological artefacts

3D scanning of archaeological artefacts

Helmsdale

Research Software Group Seminar: talk by Volodymyr Kharchenko

Timer clock 3pm

Tear off calendar Thursday 19th June

Pin JC 1.33A

Please join us for a talk at Research Software Group seminar by our guest Dr Volodymyr Kharchenko from the Department of Economic Cybernetics at the Faculty of Information Technologies, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (https://nubip.edu.ua/en).

Talk title: Current research and collaboration opportunities with the Faculty of Information Technologies, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (https://nubip.edu.ua/en)

Abstract: Dr Volodymyr Kharchenko is the Head of the Department of Economic Cybernetics at the Faculty of Information Technologies, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (https://nubip.edu.ua/en). The scientific and innovative work of the faculty focuses on the areas of design, creation and implementation of modern information technologies in society and environmental management, in particular, on the development of methods and information technologies of agromonitoring using satellite image processing systems, the creation of a hybrid cloud-based informational and educational environment of the university, development and introduction of electronic agricultural advisory system of Ukraine, research of methods of processing big data, development of applied information systems in various subject areas. He will present these directions and outline opportunities for potential collaborations.

EDI Talk: Why Do We Need Diversity in Research Software Engineering

On Thursday 22nd May the EDI committee hosted a talk on “Why Do We Need Diversity in Research Software Engineering?” by the Software Sustainability Institute Fellows Deborah Udoh (OLS) https://www.software.ac.uk/fellowship-programme/deborah-udoh and Olexandr Konovalov (St Andrews) https://www.software.ac.uk/fellowship-programme/olexandr-konovalov. On display we had a collection of posters designed by students to promote and raise awareness of EDI aspects, and celebrate cultural differences in the School and in our discipline. This was accompanied by coffee and cakes.

This talk was the story of two members of the global research software community whose paths converged thanks to the Software Sustainability Institute. One a Ukrainian mathematician and computer scientist in Scotland, the other a Nigerian nurse in tech – they are from vastly different backgrounds, but share more in common than meets the eye, and have already begun to shape an inclusive future for researchers from all walks of life.

Through lived experiences, they explored the real-world barriers they faced – from underrepresentation and visa limitations to the invisible weight of imposter syndrome — and the communities and infrastructures that helped them keep going: OLS, the Carpentries, and the SSI.

They spoke of using their platforms to build better pathways into research and research software engineering, especially for those who never imagined they belonged in these spaces, and how institutions, allies, and community members play an active role in creating more equitable, mentally healthy spaces — and why your involvement matters.

SACHI Seminar – Prof Sampsa Hyysalo: Design Participation | Fri 23 May, 15:00–16:00, JCB 1.33A

We are excited to invite you to a special SACHI seminar this week with Prof Sampsa Hyysalo, who will be visiting us from Aalto University in Finland. This is a great opportunity to hear from one of the leading voices in participatory design and user innovation.

📅 Friday 23rd May | 🕛 15:00 – 16:00 PM | 📍 JCB, Room 1.33A

Title:

Design Participation: Changing Roles of Users in Innovation and Research

Abstract:

In this talk, Sampsa will introduce ideas from his forthcoming book Design Participation (September 2025, cover attached), which presents doable and demonstrated ways by which design can become a major contributor to social and environmental change. This entails a shift from seeking to define solutions to opening spaces in which others—activists, entrepreneurs, civil servants, neighbourhood communities, politicians (and so on) —can effectively elaborate on and find (re)solutions to the matters they are facing. He will reflect on over two decades of research, offering insights into how participatory methods can help tackle complex social and environmental challenges. The talk will draw from work in health tech, energy transition, and civic design.

This session should be particularly relevant to colleagues working in Human-Computer Interaction, Science and Technology Studies, systems design, and research that intersects with communities, policy, and practice.

Bio:

Sampsa Hyysalo is a Professor of Co-Design at the Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. His research focuses on designer-user relations in sociotechnical change. This includes engagement in participatory design, co-design, open and user innovation, open design, peer knowledge creation, user communities, citizen science and user knowledge in organizations, design ethnography, longitudinal ethnography, social shaping of technology, process studies of innovation, practice theory, and sustainability transitions.

More about Sampsa: https://www.aalto.fi/en/collaborative-and-industrial-design/sampsa-hyysalo

He is the author of several books, including:

Research Software Group Lunchtime Seminar – Friday 23rd May

There will be a Research Software Group Lunchtime Seminar on Friday May 23rd at 1pm, in room 1.33B.

Talk Title: “People First: Sustaining Research Software by Sustaining the People Who Build It”

Speakers are Software Sustainability Institute Fellows: Deborah Udoh (OLS) and Olexandr Konovalov (St Andrews)

– https://www.software.ac.uk/fellowship-programme/deborah-udoh

– https://www.software.ac.uk/fellowship-programme/olexandr-konovalov

Abstract

What does it mean to build sustainable research software—and sustainable research software communities?

Too often, sustainability is framed in terms of clean code, reproducibility, funding and long-term maintenance. But sustainability is also about people: who gets to stay, who gets to lead, and who burns out or leaves before their potential is fully realised.

This talk invites us to look beyond technical best practices and consider the human infrastructure that truly sustains research software: the developers, contributors, maintainers, and collaborators who often work in the margins of recognition. We’ll explore how issues like burnout, impostor syndrome, and lack of psychological safety threaten not just individual wellbeing, but the continuity and health of the software ecosystems we care about.

Using real-world examples from both academic and open-source contexts, we’ll share practices and small culture shifts that have helped sustain people in research software roles.

This session will include a short, interactive exercise where participants will reflect on their own sustainability needs, and collectively brainstorm people-first practices for healthier RSE communities.