Over the last 40 years Swansea University has been at the forefront of international research in the area of computational engineering. Internationally renowned engineers at Swansea, such as the late Professor Olgierd (Olek) Cecil Zienkiwicz CBE, FRS, FREng, have pioneered the development of numerical techniques, such as the finite element method, and associated computational procedures that have enabled the solution of many complex engineering problems. Originally, the activities in this field were led by the academic staff of the Civil Engineering Department, which has consistently achieved the highest rating in all the Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) carried out to date. To strengthen this research excellence, and to broaden its application to other areas of engineering, the Civil and Computational Engineering Centre has been formed by including academic staff and researchers from other engineering disciplines who are also active in computational or applied mechanics. The resulting group of researchers represents an unrivalled concentration of knowledge and expertise in this field. Moreover, the Centre has utilised an award of £3m from the Science Research Infrastructure Fund (SRIF) to provide state-of-the-art research facilities.

The Civil and Computational Engineering Centre is recognized as a Centre of Excellence by the Welsh Development Agency and has been designated as a preferred academic partner by BAE SYSTEMS in the areas of computational electromagnetics and computational engineering. The Centre offers an outstanding international environment for research and provides fully-financed research-training programmes at Masters and Doctorate levels: MSc, MRes, MPhil, PhD. The Centre is housed in modern purpose-built accommodation in the Talbot building. The Centre has excellent computing facilities which include a state-of-the-art multi-processor super computer with virtual reality facilities and high-speed networking. Current research includes a continuously expanding number of topics in the area of computational and applied mechanics.