CDT WIRe Annual One-Day Conference 2026

The CDT WIRe Annual One-Day Conference took place 12 July 2026. The event is a fantastic day for our PhD students to come together alongside industry partners, supervisors, and CDT WIRe alumni to celebrate their research and catch up with colleagues.

A man presents to a room full of people sat at round tables
Peter Jarvis opening the conference

The CDT WIRe Annual One-Day Conference began with an inspiring keynote presentation from Dr Sam Fox, Chief Strategic Planner at United Utilities, who led us through his career since completing his PhD at The University of Sheffield – demonstrating how completing a PhD opened up exciting career opportunities. Sam highlighted the need for impactful research across the water sector, outlining several key challenges faced by the sector that require innovative solutions.

 

With demand increasing but supply becoming less predictable in the face of climate change, how do we improve the resilience of our water sector long-term? ‘We need to collaborate, innovate and look at new sustainable solutions’.

 

We need to know the scale of demand we are working at, but with increasing uncertainty, challenges also increase – for example, how do we predict water use for the year 2100?

 

Sam’s advice for our students: ‘Start with the punchline to get people’s interest and then engage with the depth and value of your work’

A man stood in front of a projector screen presents to an audience that is not in frame.
Dr Sam Fox presenting
an audience of people sat at round tables
The conference audience

Throughout the day, students from Cohort IV presented full-length talks on their research over the last four years. 

a man presenting with a projector screen behind him
Ishara Perera presenting
a woman presenting to a conference audience
Blessing Mobolaji presenting

Students from cohorts V-VII presented posters of their research, which we were able to read and discuss during the breaks between talks.

 

As well as producing posters, students in Cohort V presented 3-minute poster pitches; we are always impressed with how our students clearly explain their research in such a small amount of time!

people stood near scientific posters. the people are deep in conversation
Delegates discuss posters
A woman stands smiling next to a scientific poster
Lubabah Hossain's poster
A woman stands smiling next to a scientific poster
Madeleine Tate's poster
a man stands in front of a projector screen presenting to a room of people who are sat around round tables
Mohammad Shekofteh's poster pitch

A massive congratulations to the winners of our conference prizes:

 

🎉 Best Poster: Tomas Hotzel Escardo ‘Advanced sensing and AI for risk detection in rail environments’

✨ Best Poster Pitch: Vladislav Dukhovskoy ‘City-Scale Strategies for Urban Drainage to Regulate Quantity and Quality of Flow’

🏆 Best Talk: Jen Hollands ‘Disrupting disruptions: Drinking water treatment resilience to chemical shortages’

🏅 We also awarded the prize for the highest achieving student from our induction semester - well done Joanna Karska!

two men stand smiling at the camera. between them is a roller banner promoting CDT WIRe
Tomas wins the prize for Best Poster
two men stand smiling at the camera. between them is a roller banner promoting CDT WIRe
Vlad wins the prize for Best Poster Pitch
A man and a woman stand smiling at the camera. between them is a roller banner promoting CDT WIRe
Jen wins the prize for Best Talk
A man and a woman stand shaking hands and smiling at the camera. between them is a roller banner promoting CDT WIRe
Joanna wins the prize for Highest Achieving Student from our induction semester

It was a brilliant day of talks and posters; we can’t wait to see what our students do next, both with their projects and beyond the PhD journey!

A large group of people wearing business attire stand in rows smiling at the camera. They are outside on grass, the weather is sunny with blue skies and behind them is a doorway to a red brick building. They are delegates from the CDT WIRe Annual One-Day Conference
All delegates of the CDT WIRe Annual One-Day Conference

This was Cohort IV’s final Annual One-Day Conference! Their talks highlighted how much progress they have made during their time with CDT WIRe, and they are now on the final stretch of their PhD journey - we wish them all good luck as they get ready to submit their theses!

A group of people stand smiling at the camera, they are outside in the sun, stood in front of a red brick building.
Cohort IV

After the conference, we walked into the centre of Sheffield to Gameshow Allstars to unwind with some games, puzzles, and healthy competition.

 

Students in Cohorts V-VII then travelled to Rotherham to take part in the annual WIRe Summer Challenge. This year's topic was robotics, and you can find out what we got up to here.