911��պ�� events

Blyth Gallery Retrospective

2025-09-24T10:29:30+01:00

Photographs looking back through the past 20 years of exhibitions installed in the Blyth Gallery.

Blyth Art Fellowship Exhibition

2025-09-04T13:14:01+01:00

A mixed media exhibition this years Blyth Art Fellows. 911��պ�� College Students Melina Lee and Ronak Sabu

2026 LCN Symposium: The Importance of Life Cycle Teaching, Skills and Knowledge in Achieving Sustainable Futures

2026-04-17T10:11:35+01:00

2026 LCN Symposium: The Importance of Life Cycle Teaching, Skills and Knowledge in Achieving Sustainable Futures

The 911��պ�� Network of Excellence in Sustainability through Life Cycle Approaches aims to connect life cycle-related research and researchers. Our 2026 Symposium will bring together scholars, practitioners and policymakers to discuss and explore the importance and need of life cycle (environmental, economic or social) teaching, skills and knowledge, and how these are crucial for achieving sustainable futures. The symposium aims to facilitate knowledge exchange, collaborative research, and strategic partnerships that can lead to impactful solutions for global sustainability challenges.

Key Themes

The application of life cycle thinking to tackle sustainability issues
The current state of life cycle teaching and the need for skills by industry
How life cycle teaching will change in the future

These themes will tie together and emphasise the importance of life cycle thinking education and skills in creating sustainable futures.

The Symposium will consist of keynote speakers, paper and poster presentations, and two panel discussions. The paper and poster sessions are open to anyone working in the area of life cycle sustainability (environmental, economic or social) to present their work and prizes will be awarded to the best posters and presentations.

Agenda for the day

9.00-9.30 Registration and coffee
9.30-10.00 Housekeeping and welcome (Anna Korre)
10.00-11.15 Panel session 1

Bridging the gap between academia and industry

Jem Woods (911��պ��), Anna Korre (911��պ��), Simon Gandy (SLR)

11.15-12.00 Paper presentations 1
12.00-13.30 Lunch and posters
13.30-14.30 Paper presentations 2
14.30-15.30 Keynote speakers

Alejandro Gallego Schmid (University of Manchester)

The pedagogical framework for teaching Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) at the University of Manchester is presented, emphasising the transition from tool-based instruction to the development of systems thinking and critical judgement. While LCA is increasingly central to engineering decision-making(driven by policy demands, climate change, and circular economy strategies) its integration into higher education curricula remains inconsistent, resulting in a persistent skills gap among graduates. The proposed approach reframes LCA not merely as a computational tool, but as a conceptual lens through which students learn to define system boundaries, evaluate trade-offs, and support informed decisions. Teaching is structured around the ISO LCA framework, including goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation, with particular emphasis on iteration and contextual understanding rather than linear calculation. Pedagogically, the programme integrates lectures and tutorials with real-world case studies and problem-based learning. Industry engagement plays a key role, exposing students to practical applications and enhancing employability relevance. Case studies (such as comparisons between transport systems) are used to challenge assumptions and highlight the importance of functional units, system boundaries, and multi-impact trade-offs beyond climate change alone. A central component is a multi-day coursework project in which students model the environmental impacts of a plastic water bottle using LCA software. Through scenario analysis (e.g., lightweighting, bio-based materials, recycling, and cogeneration), students assess environmental, economic, and social implications, culminating in group debates and negotiated decision-making. This structure fosters critical thinking, teamwork, and communication skills alongside technical competence. Overall, the approach demonstrates that effective LCA education requires integration of theory, practice, and real-world context, positioning LCA as a way of thinking essential for addressing complex sustainability challenges

Rob Pell (Minviro)

As demand grows for credible LCA data across supply chains, the gap between LCA as a discipline and LCA as a business capability has never been more important. This talk draws on Minviro’s experience building LCA-native tools and consultancy services, working with companies across automotive, electronics, and mining to move beyond compliance tick-boxes toward genuinely defensible environmental data. The central argument is that tooling is only as good as the practitioner behind it: the rise of streamlined LCA software risks creating a generation of users who can produce results without understanding the mechanics that generate them. Maintaining rigour means investing in LCA education, building practitioners who understand system boundaries, allocation choices, and uncertainty, not just dashboards.

Piya Gosalvitr (University of Manchester)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used to support the development of bio-based and emerging materials that are expected to contribute to net-zero and circular economy ambitions. However, assessing these systems presents a range of methodological challenges, including biogenic carbon accounting, co-product allocation, circularity, and avoided impacts. In addition, different methodological approaches, reporting frameworks, and system boundaries can lead to different environmental conclusions for the same system, creating challenges for both practitioners and decision-makers.

This keynote draws on the work of the UK LCA Network (previously known as LCARSIN) Bio-based and Upcoming Materials Working Group, which explored these challenges through case studies on sustainable aviation fuels, circular materials, construction products, and novel biomaterials. The findings demonstrate how methodological choices, reporting requirements, and system boundaries can influence LCA results and their interpretation. The case studies highlight that the key challenge is often not the generation of LCA results itself, but rather the interpretation of differences arising from alternative methodological choices and their implications for decision-making.

The challenges identified across the case studies suggest that future LCA practitioners need skills that extend beyond technical competency, including the ability to compare alternative approaches, critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of standards and frameworks, understand how methodological choices influence results, and recognise when important aspects such as end-of-life impacts, carbon storage duration, or future circularity pathways may not be fully captured. Addressing these challenges also requires life cycle thinking and a holistic understanding of the system to ensure that results are interpreted within their broader environmental and decision-making context. Using examples from the working group, this keynote will discuss how these challenges can inform the development of future life cycle education and help prepare practitioners and decision-makers to interpret and use LCA results more effectively.

Sharizal Ahmad Sobri (Nottingham Trent University)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly expected of engineers, managers, and policy-facing professionals, but teaching it effectively remains challenging. Learners often struggle to connect LCA theory with real operational decisions, interpret uncertainty and system boundaries, and translate results into actions that organisations can actually implement.

This keynote shares a practice-informed approach to developing LCA literacy and employable sustainability skills by combining (1) clear conceptual scaffolding, (2) authentic industry-context problems, and (3) tool-supported learning activities that encourage systems thinking and evidence-based decision-making. Drawing on teaching experience across the UK and Malaysia, the talk highlights how LCA education can be strengthened through: use of case-based assessment (e.g., transport and manufacturing contexts), structured engagement with EPDs and real datasets, and integration of simulation and modelling (e.g., climate-action simulators) to help students understand trade-offs, rebound effects, and the consequences of policy and operational choices.

The session concludes with a simple, transferable framework for designing LCA teaching that balances rigour with accessibility, i.e. covering recommended learning outcomes, assessment formats, and practical strategies for supporting diverse cohorts within time-limited modules.

15.30-15.45 Coffee break
15.45-17.00 Panel session 2

The Future of LCA Education: What Should Graduates of 2035 Know?

Jacqueline Edge (University of Birmingham), Wei Xing (University of Sheffield), Richard Murphy (University of Surrey)

17.00-17.15 Closing remarks and prizes

17.15 onwards- drinks reception

Please note this event is in person only

Register for the event has now closed. Please contact us to be added to a waiting list.

Abstract submission has now closed.

How to get here

The event will be hosted at 911��պ��, in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building on the South Kensington Campus, which is easily accessible by public transport. To get to the City and Guild Building, please take the London underground to South Kensington Station (District, Circle and Piccadilly lines) and follows the signs for the museums and Royal Albert Hall. 911��պ�� is located on Exhibition Road next to the Science Museum. The City and Guild Building is accessed through the entrance on Exhibition Road. For more information on how to get to 911��պ��’s South Kensington Campus, please see the information on this page.

Parking is available but in limited capacity, and if you do require parking, please let us know as soon as possible so it can be arranged.

42nd STUOD Sandbox Workshop – Alexey Fedorov (Yale University)

2026-05-20T14:47:57+01:00

The 42nd meeting of the Sandbox Series will be held in-person and online:

To join in-person:

Please ensure you register in advance as spaces are limited in Rm 747 and only for those that have registered.

To join remotely via Webex:

https://stuod.my.webex.com/stuod.my/j.php?MTID=m21cd5717a2974d86f46df732d3390767

Millennial variability, regime shifts, and equilibrium states of global ocean meridional overturning circulation in long climate simulations

Abstract:

The long-term response of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) to radiative forcing is critical for regulating Earth’s climate. To investigate this response, we perform long climate simulations (up to 20,000 years) under atmospheric CO₂ concentrations ranging from 0.35× to 16× the preindustrial level. In the warming experiments, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) rapidly collapses because of enhanced upper-ocean stratification in the subpolar North Atlantic. The AMOC recovers in the 2×CO₂ and 4×CO₂ experiments, but not in the 8×CO₂ and 16×CO₂ cases. In the 4×CO₂ experiment, a spontaneous activation of the Pacific MOC (PMOC) occurs about 2,500 years after the experiment begins. Several cooling experiments exhibit self-sustained millennial oscillations resembling Dansgaard–Oeschger events of the late Pleistocene, driven by interactions between salinity stratification and overturning circulation in the North Atlantic. We also observe millennial variability in the warm 2×CO₂ experiment, linked to the abyssal overturning cell and deep convection in the Ross Sea. This rich global MOC dynamics emerges only on long, multi-millennial timescales.

Schedule

11.00-12.00: Alexey Fedorov

12.00-12.30: Questions

12.30-13.30: Lunch

13.30-14.30: Round table “Ocean Dynamics Open problems”

14.30-15:00: Coffee and Tea

Quantum Seminar – Jessica Eastman (Australian National University, Canberra)

2026-06-02T15:47:25+01:00

Beyond Mean-Field: Modelling Atom Interactions in Compact Rotation Sensors

Atomic matter-wave interferometers have demonstrated exceptional long-term stability in precision rotation sensing under controlled laboratory conditions [1]. Translating this performance to compact, mobile platforms could revolutionise navigation technologies. Guided matter-wave gyroscopes, which confine ultracold atomic gases in optical potentials, offer a promising route toward miniaturisation and ruggedisation [2]. However, the tight confinement required for portability inherently enhances interatomic interactions—introducing complex many-body effects that are absent in free-space configurations [3]. To assess the feasibility of such devices, it is essential to quantify how atom-atom interactions degrade interferometric sensitivity. In this work, we present a detailed numerical characterisation using the multi-mode truncated Wigner (TW) method [4], which captures quantum fluctuations and spontaneous scattering processes beyond the scope of mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii treatments [5]. We also perform an analytical analysis using a simple few mode ansatz in order to fully understand the underlying mechanismsby which the atom-atom interactions cause significant degradation. By isolating and characterising the degradation due to phase diffusion and four-wave mixing, we identify optimal operating regimes and design parameters for guided matter-wave gyroscopes. This work lays the foundation for compact, high-precision rotation sensors suitable for mobile platforms, and highlights the necessity of many-body quantum modelling in the development of practical cold atom technologies.

References
[1] R. Geiger et al. AVS Quantum Sci. 2, 024702 (2020).
[2] M. M. Beydler et al. AVS Quantum Sci. 6,014401 (2024).
[3] T. L. Gustavson et al. Class. Quantum Grav. 17, 2385 (2000).
[4] S. A. Haine, New J. Phys. 20, 033009 (2018).
[5] J. L. Helm et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 134101 (2015).

Fluid Dynamics Seminar: Thomas Salez (Bordeaux)

2026-04-13T09:15:19+01:00

Brownian motion near complex interfaces

Buddhist Meditation: Online and In-person

2020-03-04T16:35:06+00:00

Buddhist meditation can help you to unplug and detach from the stress of daily life. These sessions are especially suitable for those seeking to reduce anxiety, re-align balance or practice loving kindness. It has plenty of time for meditation. There is also some input from Buddhist teaching on aspects of meditation and the concepts that are being used. Some people go to both Tuesday non-religious Mindfulness sessions and Friday Buddhist meditation, so you are welcome to try it. As you might know, Mindfulness was originally an application for clinical settings of Buddhist meditation techniques. So they are in the same family of meditation.

When I engaged in meditation on altruistic love and compassion, Tania noted that the cerebral networks activated were very different. In particular, the network linked to negative emotions and distress was not activated during meditation on compassion, while certain cerebral areas traditionally associated with positive emotions, with the feeling of affiliation and maternal love, for instance, were.

Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and bestselling author of Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World

Fridays 13:05-13:50

Led by Karuna Priya, Chaplain and Buddhist Faith Advisor. You can contact Karuna at k.priya@imperial.ac.uk

Personalised conversation about one’s practice is available after the meditation if required, or you can arrange to meet with the Buddhist Chaplain(s) for a one-to-one consultation.

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This event will be held both in-person and virtually.

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HEP seminar: Gioacchino Ranucci (INFN Milan) – The JUNO detector and its first results

2026-05-01T10:28:59+01:00

The JUNO (Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory) experiment is a gigantic liquid scintillator neutrino detector, built in southern China, with a size of 20,000 tons, whose primary goal is to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, in addition to the high-precision measurement of some of the parameters governing the neutrino oscillation phenomenon; furthermore, it has been designed to realize also a large number of astroparticle investigations. After a decade of preparation, the installation and filling of JUNO have been recently completed, data taking started at the end of August 2025, and the first result released after two months of operation, already improving upon existing data. The seminar will illustrate physics potentials and objectives of the experiment, review briefly the various systems and subsystems that compose it, and describe the initial performances of the detector. Finally, the first oscillation result related to the values of the so called “solar” oscillation parameters Δm²₂₁ and sin²Θ₁₂ will be described.

Geometry and Topology Seminar – Federico Ardila (Queen Mary)

2026-06-04T12:40:34+01:00

Federico Ardila (Queen Mary). Polytopes from amplitudes.

Abstract: Scattering amplitudes and other quantities in physics are given by enormous, intricate sums that are very challenging to compute in practice, and often involve mysterious, extensive cancellations. A powerful technique to explain this phenomenon is to encode the combinatorial complexity of these sums in a geometric object. I will introduce some of the beautiful polytopes that arise and discuss their rich combinatorial structure. Our two central examples will be the associahedron (first discovered in homotopy theory and rediscovered in scattering amplitudes) and the cosmohedron (first discovered in cosmology and seeking a homotopy theoretic interpretation).
My talk will discuss joint work with Marcelo Aguiar and {Nima Arkani-Hamed, Carolina Figueiredo, and Francisco Vazão}, and will not assume previous knowledge of this topic.

More information on the GT seminar website

Junior Geometry Seminar – Yuting Liu

2026-06-03T22:22:00+01:00

Title: Linear Series on K3 Surfaces

Speaker: Yuting Liu

Abstract: In this talk, we study the base loci of nef and big line bundles on K3 surfaces and discuss their higher-dimensional analogues on hyperkähler manifolds.

We begin with classical results of Saint-Donat and Mayer on linear systems on K3 surfaces. In particular, we describe the movable and fixed components of nef and big line bundles that are not base point free. We also discuss the role of Reider’s theorem and its consequences for the base-point freeness of multiples of such line bundles.

We then turn to higher-dimensional hyperkähler manifolds. After reviewing the Beauville–Bogomolov–Fujiki quadratic form and the associated Riemann–Roch formula, we explain how positivity properties of line bundles can be expressed in terms of this quadratic form. Finally, we present results of Riess and others describing the fixed divisorial components of nef and big line bundles on hyperkähler manifolds. These results may be viewed as higher-dimensional analogues of the classical theory for K3 surfaces.

Some snacks will be provided before and after the talk.

Go to the seminar main page.

Subscribe to the mailing list.

911��պ�� Inspires Hong Kong: Scholarships for future global leaders

2026-05-21T14:13:14+01:00

Join us at CyberArena, The Arcade on Saturday 13 June at 10.30 China Standard Time (CST) for a special launch event for 911��պ�� Inspires, our transformative scholarship programme for talented students from around the world.

911��պ�� Inspires scholarships will support the next generation of global innovators and leaders in science, technology, medicine, engineering and business to tackle the world’s most urgent challenges.

For 2027 entry, we’re offering at least 300 scholarships worth £15,000 per year of study for international students studying selected undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses.

At this event, we’ll explore:

the research and innovations produced by the 911��պ�� community that are helping navigate some of the world’s toughest challenges – from global health to climate change, AI, tech and business leadership
the impact of an 911��պ�� education – from developing the future-focused skills employers want to supporting 911��պ�� entrepreneurs turn ideas into real world products and businesses
how an 911��պ�� Inspires scholarship can help you to achieve your potential and how you can apply

You’ll also have the opportunity to meet 911��պ�� alumni and members of our Recruitment team at an exclusive networking session.

About 911��պ�� Inspires

Learn more about our 911��պ�� Inspires scholarship programme, including eligibility criteria and how to apply, on our website.

Read more about 911��պ�� Inspires.

If you have any questions or would like further information about this event, j.ganymede@imperial.ac.uk.

Summer Series: Union House Party

2026-04-23T10:59:03+01:00

Our most popular event during Welcome is coming back, but with a twist 🤫

Union House Party returns with another huge Beit building takeover and this time we’re levelling up. Take a walk around our house across 3 floors and through 6 different rooms with surprises around every corner 👀

This isn’t your usual house party though.

Expect the unexpected and wind your way around to see what it’s all about. We’re talking a walk down memory lane where you’ll enjoy different music and activities behind each door, and maybe even some side quests along the way…

Join us for the last union club night before the summer break and discover the union like you’ve never seen it before!

This is one of our biggest events to wrap up the year as part of Summer Series. See you at the party 🪩

📅 Saturday, 13 June

🕑 9pm – late

📍 Beit Building, South Ken campus

💸 Ticketed event

This event is part of Summer Series presented by 911��պ�� College Union. A 2-week series of events carefully curated for 911��պ�� students to celebrate all their hard work and wrap up the year together.

Summer Series: Queen’s Tower Supper Club

2026-04-23T11:06:37+01:00

Ditch the puffer and get your black ties and black dresses at the ready, we’re bringing a touch of class to Summer Series 🌞

Under the beautifully restored Queen’s Tower, expect a sophisticated evening of drinks, hors d’oeuvres and a sit down meal with the people that make your time at uni so special.

And after the celebrations have drawn to a close at the Queen’s Tower, head over to the union for a secret after party 👀

📅 Sunday, 14 June

🕑 7pm – 11pm

📍 Queen’s Tower Rooms, South Ken campus

💸 Ticketed event

Cancer Population Genetics Club (CANPOP)

2026-03-17T09:24:18+00:00

The Centre for Evolution and Cancer at the Institute of Cancer Research are excited to announce their 2nd edition of the Cancer Population Genetics Club (CANPOP). The meeting will be held on Monday 15th June from 1-5pm at the Institute of Cancer Research in Chelsea (123 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3RP; Nearest Tube: Gloucester Rd).

CANPOP is a new initiative of the Centre for Evolution and Cancer at the ICR and aims to provide an informal platform to bring together researchers interested in integrating theory and data to better understand how cancers evolve. After a fantastic turnout at our first meeting in December, this second edition will feature a series of short presentations from selected abstracts and a keynote from Martin Taylor (University of Edinburgh). We gratefully acknowledge the support of Novogene and Oxford Nanopore.

This event is open to all. Registration is free and is now open (please email Maximilian Strobl for the registration link – m.strobl@imperial.ac.uk).

To submit an abstract for a short presentation, please enter it during the registration process and submit by Fri 10th April at 5pm. Registration will remain open after the 10th, but abstracts will no longer be accepted. Decisions on whether your abstract has been accepted will be circulated by April 17th.

Men’s Health Month – Circuits

2026-05-21T12:28:30+01:00

Move will be putting on a number of events through June to celebrate Men’s health month and to help people get active. These events are all beginner friendly and designed to be social, fun and encourage exercise and movement in different ways. Although these sessions are to celebrate men’s health month, everyone and anyone is welcome to join these events and get involved – we would love to see you there regardless of gender!

Christian Meditation: Online and In-person

2025-01-08T03:36:06+00:00

Christian Meditation begins 13:10-13:40 and every week in term time. Using a range of meditations from the Christian tradition of silent prayer. No previous experience needed. Open to students and staff.

Format: In person and Online (hybrid)

In Person: Chaplaincy, 15 Prince’s Gardens, South Kensington Campus, SW7 1NA (Drop-in)

Online via private Zoom Meeting invite. You can subscribe to our weekly mailing list to get the weekly Zoom Link.

Anyone outside the Colleges of South Kensington who would like to attend online please contact Andrew Willson a.willson@imperial.ac.uk

Facilitator: The Christian Meditation sessions are led by Andrew Willson, College Chaplain.

About Christian Meditation

Christianity has a long and rich history of meditation and contemplative prayer. These ancient Christian traditions have their roots in the monasteries of the desert hermits of the second century. Jesus himself often prayed in times of stillness and solitude. Many of these long established practices are now shared by Christians from Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Churches. We offer a range of meditations practices including:

silence and stillness
slow reading of scripture (Lectio Divina)
using imagination to encounter scripture (Ignatian Contemplation)
meditation review of the day or a project
Centering prayer
using experience and emotions in prayer
discernment when making changes in life

These practices also have many resonances with the contemporary practice of Mindfulness meditation.‌

Present with impact sessions

2026-02-23T16:06:14+00:00

Reach your audience by translating complex technical content into clear, impactful messaging within a coherent narrative framework. Use your voice to engage.

Join us for one, two or all of the following sessions. Add the event(s) you wish to attend to your calendar!

1 June	Present with impact 1: Narrative By the end of this session, you will: have analysed a presentation to reveal its narrative have understood how narrative structures a presentation have planned and given a short presentation, focussing on its narrative have considered strategies for guiding our audience through the narrative be shown how to access CfAE’s wider provision
8 June	Present with impact 2: Audience By the end of this session, you will know more about and have practised: ways to engage different audiences in different contexts with differing aims effective ways of starting a presentation to engage the audience how to adapt your presentation to a specific audience accessing CfAE’s wider provision
15 June	Present with impact 3: Voice By the end of this session, you will: understand the importance of controlling speed and explore the role of phrasing and pausing in effective delivery have identified and employed techniques for highlighting key messages have identified and practised employing common intonation patterns to guide the audience and ‘add colour’ to your message accessing CfAE’s wider provision

Junior Analysis Seminar – Augusto Del Zotto (Zurich)

2026-06-11T12:32:07+01:00

Title

Exponential mixing and enhanced dissipation on the unit sphere via Rossby-Haurwitz flows

Abstract

We exhibit an incompressible velocity field on the two-dimensional unit sphere such that the time evolution of any mean-free initial data passively advected by the velocity field is mixed exponentially fast. In the presence of molecular diffusivity, we show that the solution to the associated advection-diffusion equation experiences enhanced dissipation with optimal decay rates. The mixing velocity field is an alternating combination of two Rossby-Haurwitz flows with random amplitudes and constitutes a spherical analogue to the sine shear-alternating example of Pierrehumbert.
This is a joint work with Marc Nualart (ICMAT).

Please note that the seminar will take place in person in room 411 of Huxley Building.

Click here to get to the Junior Analysis Seminar webpage.

MAGIC Seminar – Andrea Fanelli and Luca Tasin

2026-06-10T12:34:23+01:00

Andrea Fanelli: Explicit birational geometry over imperfect fields and the Cremona group

Luca Tasin: Positivity of Direct Images for Families of Foliations

More details can be found on /geometry/seminars/magic-seminar/

Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library – The Intractable Decathlon

2026-05-21T10:02:23+01:00

Title: Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library – The Intractable Decathlon

Abstract: Optimization is the methodological backbone behind the operations of major industrial areas, including Logistics, Manufacturing, Power Systems, and Process Systems Engineering (PSE) [1], among others. In the face of numerous challenging Combinatorial Optimization problems, the development of novel, specialized hardware has been an active research area over the past decade, leading to fundamental advancements in Quantum Computing and other Physics-inspired devices and algorithms [2]. Optimization is a well-established domain in quantum applications research, particularly for existing and near-term quantum hardware [3]. The field is driven by heuristic quantum algorithms compatible with the hardware, such as the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm, or QAOA [4]. Recent hardware improvements pave the way for thorough benchmarking of heuristic quantum algorithms at scale [5].

This work presents ten optimization problem classes that are difficult for existing classical algorithms and can be linked to practically relevant applications, aiming to enable a fair, comparable, and meaningful benchmarking effort for quantum optimization methods. The initial compilation contains instances of the problems known as Market Split, Low Autocorrelation Binary Sequences, Minimum Birkhoff Decomposition, Steiner Tree Packing, Sports Tournament Scheduling, Portfolio Optimization, Independent Set, Network Design, Vehicle Routing Problem, and Topology Design. These are primarily typical Combinatorial Optimization problems best known through their Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) formulations, which were then cast into a corresponding QUBO formulation [6].

While these problem classes vary in their individual properties, such as objective and variable types, coefficient ranges, and density, they all become challenging for established classical methods at system sizes of approximately 100 to 10,000 decision variables. The small sizes at which difficult problem instances appear enable testing quantum algorithms for these problems already today. This is not, however, a static collection, and the archive is expected to grow over time with contributions. We envision the OR community being able to provide this database with interesting and relevant instances and solutions to the challenging problems within it, as it did, for example, in the composition of the library of Mixed-Integer and Continuous Nonlinear Programming Instances (MINLPLib) [7].

In this talk, we reference the results from state-of-the-art solvers for instances from all problem classes and demonstrate exemplary baseline results obtained with quantum solvers for selected classes. The baseline results illustrate our suggested benchmark reporting, aiming for comparability of the used methods, reproducibility of the respective solutions, and trackability of algorithmic and hardware improvements. We encourage the optimization community to explore the performance evaluation of available classical or quantum algorithms and hardware with the benchmarking problem instances presented in this library.

This work was an effort of the IBM Quantum Optimization Working Group and resulted in the paper “Quantum Optimization Benchmark Library The Intractable Decathlon,” which has already been submitted to ArXiV but is still pending publication, as well as the Quantum Optimization Benchmark Library (QOBLIB) repository [8].

WE Innovate 2026 Grand Final | 911��պ�� Enterprise Lab

2026-06-01T09:04:15+01:00

WE Innovate is 911��պ��’s flagship pre‑accelerator for women‑led ventures, supporting 25 teams each year through a structured programme of masterclasses, expert business coaching, tailored 1:1 support, peer mentoring, and access to 911��պ��’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The programme empowers women founders to develop, test, and scale their ventures, and culminates in a high‑profile Grand Final Showcase, where finalist teams pitch live to compete for prize funding and recognition.

WE Innovate National: Year Two

This year marks the second year of WE Innovate National, a growing UK‑wide programme expanding the WE Innovate model beyond 911��պ��.

Alongside 911��պ��, Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University, and Loughborough University are each hosting their own Grand Final showcases on their respective campuses—celebrating local talent while contributing to a shared national ecosystem focused on supporting women‑led innovation.

Looking ahead, WE Innovate Nation is set to expand to seven universities next year, supporting 175 women‑led start-up teams nationwide.

👉 Explore all WE Innovate finalists and semi‑finalists: https://we-innovate-2026.startbook.app/

Event Details

Location: Lecture Theatre 200, City & Guilds Building, Exhibition Road, 911��պ��
Date: Monday, 15 June 2025
Time: 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The evening will feature live pitches from 911��պ��’s finalist teams, followed by the announcement of the Grand Final winners. The event will conclude with an open networking reception, bringing together founders, judges, partners, investors, and members of the wider entrepreneurial community.

Book now – to claim your free space

Important Information

Doors close promptly at 6:00pm
Late arrivals will be able to watch the pitch event via live stream in a dedicated room within the venue

We look forward to welcoming you to celebrate the next generation of women‑led ventures emerging from 911��պ�� and across WE Innovate Nation.

911��պ�� College of Science, Technology and Medicine (the “College” or “911��պ��”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during and after your relationship with us, in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation and the College’s Data Protection Policy.

Please find the 911��պ�� – Enterprise Division Privacy Notice here.

Summer Series: Outdoor Cinema

2026-04-23T11:30:01+01:00

We’re transforming the centre of the South Kensington campus like you’ve never seen before. An outdoor cinema is coming to you as part of our Summer Series celebrations! 🌞🌛

Come along for an open-air movie night on Queen’s Lawn for you to kick back and unwind after all your hard work. The cinema wouldn’t be complete without classic movie snacks, so we’re also bringing along food and drink stands for you to enjoy too!

This is a unique opportunity to enjoy a film on the big screen with the backdrop of the Queen’s Tower and the centre of campus, but there’s also another twist…

This isn’t your regular cinema, some of you will be bringing it to life yourself with pedal-power! Stretch the legs while watching the film and pedal along on a stand-still bike to generate the electricity needed to power the projection.

This event is in collaboration with Sustainable 911��պ�� 🌱

📅 Monday, 15 June

🕑 From 8pm

📍 Queen’s Lawn, South Ken campus

💸 Free event

Industrial AI and Data Science Workshop 2026

2026-02-16T15:14:57+00:00

Now an IChemE‑approved course.

Participants will be introduced to real‑world process data challenges and how to solve them with Industrial AI and data science.

You will learn how GenAI tools (ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini…) support and accelerate the application of machine‑learning techniques—and when to use them.

We cover essential methods for regression (supervised learning) and anomaly detection (unsupervised learning) applied to continuous and batch process data, enabling subject‑matter experts such as process engineers to work independently.

Subject‑matter experts such as process engineers will:

Using Industrial AI, you will learn to:
– Define the problem
– Access relevant knowledge
– Extract and transform process data
– Quantify variability and detect significant process changes
– Quickly identify likely root causes to improve processes
– Plan additional experiments when needed.

The workshop is learn‑by‑doing: each day includes hands‑on exercises where you can work with your own datasets on your own laptop. Basic statistics (e.g., Six Sigma concepts) are helpful but not required. Programming background is not necessary (Python, MATLAB, etc.).

Programme:

Day 1 – Troubleshooting processes with Industrial AI and Data Science

Industrial AI in manufacturing: what’s useful vs. hype; how GenAI supports problem framing, documentation search, and reporting.
Core machine‑learning concepts via agentic workflows (prompting → exploratory data analysis → feature importance → quick root‑cause analysis), using the distillation tower case; apply random forest/boosted trees to relate drivers to yield.
Industrial data landscape: tags & historians, automation pyramid (ISA‑95/88), events/batches, and ERP/LIMS joins.
Import your own CSV/Excel for analysis; curated datasets are also provided.

Day 2 – Monitoring assets

Introduction to analytics for batch processes: KPI definition for an industrial dryer (feature engineering) and variability tracking (visual analytics, SPC, robust statistics).
Batch alignment using phase/event markers (e.g., time warping); FPCA vs. KPI summaries.
Anomaly detection with PCA, KNN, autoencoders, and decision trees; identify plant changes in datasets such as the Tennessee Eastman process.

Day 3 – Modelling & decision support

Problem definition for improvement vs. prediction; avoiding the “optimise the wrong thing” trap.
Variable screening at scale: decision trees, bootstrap forests, boosted trees; controlling overfitting (time‑split/cut‑point).
Explainable AI with SHAP: ranking drivers and interactions.
Modelling tactics: missing data, Lasso, neural networks; inferential sensors & digital twins.
Introduction to Bayesian Optimisation vs. DOE.

Industry rate: £1700 (from 16 April 2026 until 29 May 2026)

Early bird Industry rate: £1400 (until 16 April 2025)

Academic rate: £550 (from 16 April 2026 until 29 May 2026)

Early bird academic rate: £450 (until 16 April 2026)

UCAS Fair | Undergraduate Study | Liverpool

2026-01-13T12:09:22+00:00

911��պ��’s Student Recruitment team will be attending this UCAS fair.

Visit our stand in order to find out more about a wide range of academic opportunities, and discover a future that is right for you by chatting with our staff and students about student life.

If you’re a teacher or adviser, sign up via the website to make your school’s group booking.

Coffee Morning #3

2026-06-01T14:21:03+01:00

☕ Coffee Morning is back – for the third time!

Following two wonderful meetings, we’re delighted to invite you to our third Coffee Morning, brought to you by the DoBS EDI Committee. This time we’re coming back to the Mezzanine, Burlington Danes.

Drop by for a chat, grab a coffee and take a moment to connect with colleagues old and new. Whether you’re a regular face or joining us for the first time, everyone is welcome!

📍 Location: Mezzanine, Burlington Danes

📅 Date: Tuesday, 16 June 2026

⏰ Time: 10.00am–11.00am

☕ What to expect: A relaxed, informal get-together with tea, coffee and biscuits.

We look forward to seeing you there!

SPC Seminar – Climate – Mark Rodwell (ECMWF)

2026-04-16T08:56:49+01:00

Speaker: Mark Rodwell (ECMWF)

Title: TBC

Abstract: TBC

IDE Seminar Series – Dr Shevanthi Nayagam

2026-06-08T12:15:43+01:00

Challenges and opportunities in Hepatitis B elimination

Chronic hepatitis B remains a major cause of global mortality, despite the availability of effective vaccines and antiviral therapies. The burden falls disproportionately on LMICs, where significant barriers persist in achieving equitable access to the interventions needed for elimination.

In this seminar, I will discuss progress towards hepatitis B elimination and the opportunities and challenges that remain. Using examples from clinical epidemiology, modelling and health-economic analyses, I will explore how interdisciplinary approaches can help inform implementation, policy development and future research priorities across diverse settings.

Location: White City, School of Public Health Building
Room: SPH 204 – Seminar Room
In-person event. If you wish to join online, please register here.

Mindfulness Meditation

2025-10-21T12:43:43+01:00

Our weekly Tuesday Mindfulness Meditation runs from 13:10–13:50. Please arrive a little early to find a space and settle in before the meditation begins. Students and staff from 911��պ��, RCA, and RCM are welcome to join for free. Simply drop in – there’s no need to book in advance.

Mindfulness can help you stay calm, focused, and better manage the pressures of life. Everyone can benefit from Mindfulness, but you might find it especially helpful if you are:

feeling stressed or overwhelmed
struggling to concentrate
feeling like a failure

“The present is the only time that any of us have to be alive – to know anything – to perceive – to learn – to change – to heal. Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally, to the unfolding of experience, moment by moment.”
— Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and author of Full Catastrophe Living

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness teaches you to pay attention to the present moment through simple breathing and meditation practices. It helps you manage your thoughts and emotions by developing the ability to notice them with acceptance and to step back from worry and negative thinking.

You can practise Mindfulness anywhere — on your own, in a group session, or one-to-one.

The Chaplaincy provides regular sessions on meditation and Mindfulness, which many students find helpful in managing stress. You can also contact the Chaplains if you’d like a one-to-one conversation about your meditation or Mindfulness practice, or if you have any questions.

Led by Hogetsu Baerndal, Chaplain and Mindfulness Teacher.

Sessions are held both in-person and online via Zoom.

If you’re visiting the Chaplaincy Multi-Faith Centre for the first time, you’ll find us at:
15 Prince’s Gardens, South Kensington Campus, SW7 1NA

Please download Zoom in advance.
The meeting link will be sent via Mailchimp to students and staff on our mailing list.
Subscribe using your college email (including RCA and RCM addresses).
You only need to subscribe once to each mailing list.

You can subscribe to our weekly mailing list or contact at chaplaincy@imperial.ac.uk for more information.

Abdus Salam Colloquium – Andrei Bernevig – The rise of moire systems

2026-04-23T07:15:37+01:00

The rise of moire systems

We will review the beginning of experimental and theoretical studies of moire systems and their evolution up to present. This type of systems represent a new way of “growing” materials, and has tremendous potential both for fundamental physics as well as for applications. Two dimensional periodic crystals, whose separation between atoms is of order angstroms, can be twisted controllably with respect to each other such that they form new “periodicities”, called moire periodicities. In the new “unit cell” we find thousands of atoms of the original crystal. These atoms behave in ways that are incredibly counterintuitive. We show how the controlled twisting of graphene and MoTe2 layers has led to a slew of states of matter not possible in bulk conventional materials. We will show how the collective behavior of thousands of p orbitals in a moire unit cell of graphene can create single Heavy fermion at moire scale, and how the interaction between such fermions can lead to a perfect quantum simulator of an Anderson model. We will then present a catalogue of possible twistable materials and show how a huge variety of strongly interacting models can be realized in twisted homo and hetero twisted bilayers and multilayers of these materials.

Astrophysics weekly Seminar -Ellen Hang : Large-scale structure cosmology

2026-05-11T11:59:01+01:00

Astrophysics weekly Seminar –Ellen Hang : Large-scale structure cosmology

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Blyth Gallery Retrospective

Blyth Art Fellowship Exhibition

2026 LCN Symposium: The Importance of Life Cycle Teaching, Skills and Knowledge in Achieving Sustainable Futures

2026 LCN Symposium: The Importance of Life Cycle Teaching, Skills and Knowledge in Achieving Sustainable Futures

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Quantum Seminar – Jessica Eastman (Australian National University, Canberra)

Beyond Mean-Field: Modelling Atom Interactions in Compact Rotation Sensors

Fluid Dynamics Seminar: Thomas Salez (Bordeaux)

Buddhist Meditation: Online and In-person

HEP seminar: Gioacchino Ranucci (INFN Milan) – The JUNO detector and its first results

Geometry and Topology Seminar – Federico Ardila (Queen Mary)

Junior Geometry Seminar – Yuting Liu

Title: Linear Series on K3 Surfaces

Speaker: Yuting Liu

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Summer Series: Union House Party

Summer Series: Queen’s Tower Supper Club

Cancer Population Genetics Club (CANPOP)

Men’s Health Month – Circuits

Christian Meditation: Online and In-person

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Junior Analysis Seminar – Augusto Del Zotto (Zurich)

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Quantum Optimization Benchmarking Library – The Intractable Decathlon

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Event Details

Important Information

Summer Series: Outdoor Cinema

Industrial AI and Data Science Workshop 2026

UCAS Fair | Undergraduate Study | Liverpool

Coffee Morning #3

SPC Seminar – Climate – Mark Rodwell (ECMWF)

IDE Seminar Series – Dr Shevanthi Nayagam

Mindfulness Meditation

Abdus Salam Colloquium – Andrei Bernevig – The rise of moire systems

Astrophysics weekly Seminar -Ellen Hang : Large-scale structure cosmology

911��պ�� events

911��պ�� Inspires Hong Kong: Scholarships for future global leaders

WE Innovate 2026 Grand Final | 911��պ�� Enterprise Lab