Growth in Dundee’s digital technologies sector has outpaced all other UK-based clusters, with revenues now close to £100 million annually.
Research for the latest Tech Nations 2017 report found Dundee generated the highest turnover growth of any major cluster – including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow – in the five-year period between 2011 and 2015.
Dundee – which is famed for its strengths in computer gaming and is home to 4J Studios, the phenomenally successful producer of console editions of Minecraft – saw 171% digital turnover growth in the period, with economic output increasing to £97m.
Abertay University was first in the world to offer a degree-level qualification in computer games development and its Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education generates graduates each year.
Abertay offers the UK’s only Masters programme in ethical hacking covering penetration testing, digital forensics, information security management, Malware analysis, port scanning, buffer overflows and password cracking.
Meanwhile, a new uncrackable security system created by researchers at the University of St Andrews, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the Center for Unconventional Processes of Sciences (CUP Sciences) is set to revolutionise communications privacy.
The international team of scientists created optical chips enabling information to be sent from user to user using a one-time unhackable communication that achieves ‘perfect secrecy’.
