Continued advances in Frontier AI capabilities were achieved through escalating compute, electricity, cooling, water and infrastructure demand.
Further progress, and the full realisation of the potential societal benefit of this technology, is now constrained not only by computational model quality, but by the physical limitations, energetic and environmental costs of the underlying computational infrastructure.
In light of a clear need for cheap, low energy, sustainable compute solutions, researchers and innovators have been exploring different physical signals that could potentially transform future computing paradigms.
This session will bring together panellists and speakers across sectors to discuss the challenges and opportunities for a radical transformation of our approach to computing.
While research findings are promising, large scale deployment of any new technology will require the convergence of efforts across governments, industries, innovators and users.
Please check back for the full list of speakers.
This event is taking place as part of the two-day COMPUTING WITH WAVES WORKSHOP 2026 taking place at Imperial 21-22 September. Should you wish to register for the wider programme, please complete this form.
About the School of Convergence Science
The School of Convergence Science at Imperial College London brings together research that addresses societal challenges of significant scale that defy conventional approaches, through the deep integration of disciplines and cross-sector partners.
Within the School, the Human and Artificial Intelligence missions explore new approaches to intelligence and computation, with Nature-efficient AI as a key pillar of SYMBIOSIS: drawing inspiration from the remarkable efficiency of biological intelligence to develop more sustainable, capable and adaptive AI systems.
Guiding our theme are four interdisciplinary Co-Directors whose collective expertise, networks and experience are driving a new era of innovation, where humans and machines work in partnership to unlock transformative possibilities.
Got questions? Get in touch with the Human and Artificial Intelligence team at hai@imperial.ac.uk.