As part of London’s global university, UCL Computer Science is committed to engaging with the wider world and changing it for the better – and the wider we reach, the more we can change.
The most impactful innovations are often the most adaptable ones. Applying our computer science research across different scales and settings helps us refine new technologies, to make them more robust and cost-effective.
Our global initiatives are reinforced by our long track record and experience of achieving long-term social and economic impact in low-resource settings around the world. We use strategies like cross-subsidising to leverage different funding contexts, or building partnerships that enable bulk buying and economies of scale.
By democratising technology, we can reduce inequity and rise to the global challenges that ultimately affect us all.
How is UCL Computer Science helping address global challenges?
Healthcare challenges
More than half of the people in Africa lack access to basic healthcare services. In response, UCL Computer Science researchers are exploring multiple ways to help.
Our medical image computing researchers are developing 'smart image’ algorithms that increase the effectiveness and reduce the costs of MRI scans for neurological diseases – making critical resources go further.
They’ve also created an open-source AI foundation model for diagnosing eye disease. Trained on vast datasets stored in high-income countries, this foundation model is being deployed globally to streamlinine clinical pathways, reduce wait times and bring down costs.
Along with this, we’re involved in epidemiology modelling that helps policymakers look at the bigger picture. In Malawi, the Thanzi la Onse (Health for All) project has helped create a simulation model of health needs and service delivery. The project is guiding national policy and decision-making about resource allocation, and improving health across the entire East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region.
Financial and economic challenges
UCL computational finance research is giving policymakers and regulators new insights and evidence about systemic risk and financial inclusion. Using machine learning and network science, we can stress-test financial institutions to predict financial crises before they happen.
With mixed-method approaches that draw on science, policy and social justice theory, we can design strategies for climate finance to support sustainable development.
We've also developed models that simulate the actions and decisions of thousands of individual workers and companies. This research helps us better understand how complex systems and international market changes affect labour markets, and the people who make up those markets.
Disability challenges
The challenges of low-resource settings can exacerbate the issues already facing disabled people worldwide. UCL’s Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub examines ways to develop and implement assistive technologies to overcome these barriers.
For example, in Ghana we’ve worked with Google to collect non-standard speech and create bespoke language models that give Ghanian disabled people a voice through text-to-speech technology. We’re expanding the project to start incorporating other languages that are often underserved by speech and language technologies.
Another strand of the GDI Hub’s work focuses on strengthening local production and repair networks. Projects that help Kathmandu wheelchair users or prosthetics technicians in Sierra Leone equip communities to meet the needs of disabled people and prioritise their mobility, independence and dignity.
What’s coming next?
Building on the success of these projects in Africa, UCL Computer Science is establishing networks and designing projects in partnership with policymakers and organisations in South America and Southeast Asia.
We’re also partnered in the UK-India Future Networks Initiative (UKI-FNI), bringing together leading UK and Indian engineers, scientists, industry and government agencies to accelerate next-generation telecoms research and collaboration.
As our partners in low-resource settings all over the world increase their capacity, the ideas and approaches we share will take on lives of their own, and become embedded in international development toolkits and national infrastructures.
