Event programme

Monday 23 March

09.00 - 10.00 Registration and poster session with morning refreshments. There will also be a LMS Project demonstration taking place in the SAF Foyer.

10.00-10.15 Welcome speech
By Professor Peter Haynes, Provost

10.15-11.15 Keynote session - Preparing the Class of 2030 
By Richard Carruthers, Deputy Director of Careers at Imperial College London and Charlie Ball, Head of labour market intelligence at Jisc

11.30-12.00 Parallel session 1

1a: Rethinking synchronous live classes in the age of AI for the Global online MBA
By Penny Hoffmann-Becking, Senior Teaching Fellow Strategy and OB, M&E Department in the Business School

I am leading a project to improve engagement in the live teaching sessions for the Global online MBA (GMBA). The GMBA is the Business School’s top-ranked MBA programme (no 1 in the world in QA rankings). While most learning happens asynchronously via the Hub, each 10 week module is augmented with around six “Live” synchronous sessions on Zoom. Recently some module leads have noticed a drop-off in attendance.
My research shows that students increasingly rely on lecture recordings and AI to help them understand concepts and therefore are less reliant on live content delivery. However, when Live sessions are designed to augment the asynchronous learning and support meaningful interaction, students really value them. This presentation will explore how we are supporting faculty to rethink Live sessions to deliver learning experiences that cannot be replicated by watching lecture recordings at 1.5x speed.

1b: Atomic Learning – Reimagining Asynchronous Learning Resources
By Dr Chris Cooling, Early Career Researcher Institute

In the Research Computing and Data Science team at the Early Career Researcher Institute, we teach a wide range of computing courses to a wide range of learners. We are working on a new way to present our material online so it can be accessed asynchronously by learners across the university. To do this, we are developing a resource known as the Atomic Learning platform. This resource organises our content in a new way, noting the relationships between small “atomic” pieces of content. This allows educators to rapidly construct a coherent and well-sequenced learning path from existing material and then share it with their learners. Atomic Learning also allows learners to automatically be presented with a sequence of content to help them reach their learning goals. By constructing a large pool of shared content, our goal is to revolutionise how we develop and deliver asynchronous materials, and to share this with the wider university and beyond.

1c: From text to presence: how different types of AI tools influence learning in an experimental study
By Dr Nai Li (Head of Research and Impact), Ms Jamina Ward (Head of Learning Design) & Mr Richard Banks (Director of Digital Education), IDEA Lab, Business School

As universities prepare students for workplaces shaped by generative AI, the key question is no longer whether AI tools should be integrated into teaching but how they should be designed to truly support student learning. This session presents findings from an experimental study comparing two types of AI tools used in taught modules: AI avatars designed to mirror the voice and presence of teaching staff, and more conventional text-based chatbots. Drawing on student survey data and focus group interviews, the study explores how students interacted with each tool and their experiences of its impact. The session highlights pedagogical issues and aims to prompt critical discussion of the design and implementation of AI tools in higher education, as well as to encourage reflection on how different types of AI tools affect teaching practices.

1d: Developing an AI-Powered General Practice Clinical Simulation to support self-directed learning
By Dr Viral Thakerar (First / lead presenter), Principal Clinical Teaching Fellow in Digital Education Undergraduate Primary Care and Dr Argita Zalli (Co -presenter), Principal Teaching Fellow in Quality Improvement, Undergraduate Primary Care

Large language models (LLMs) in medical education can enable medical students to practise virtual patient consultations and receive automated feedback. However, many systems are text-based and do not reflect real-world consultations. We developed a novel AI-powered telephone virtual patient consultation platform, integrated with a simulated electronic patient record, designed to provide a safe learning environment for practising and receiving feedback on consultations. Through the platform, students receive a patient query, review the electronic patient record to identify key clinical information and may conduct a simulated telephone consultation with the virtual patient, including developing a shared management plan. Structured automated feedback is designed to support self-directed, situated, experiential learning. This data, together with consultation logs, can also inform students’ feedback conversations with faculty. Each virtual patient was developed to provide a consistent clinical history and authentically reflect the patient’s perspective, while minimising stereotyped portrayals. Patient and community input informed development to strengthen each virtual patient's authenticity. This general practice simulation has been successfully piloted with students and is being developed further for integration within the primary care curriculum. We will continue to shape this exciting innovation in preparation for the class of 2030.

12.00-13.00 Lunch break
There will also be a LMS Project demonstration taking place in the SAF Foyer.

13.00-13.30 Parallel session 2

2a: Unlocking the power of storytelling at Imperial, in the workplace and beyond
By Mr Neil Taylor CfAE and Dr Raj Mann NHLI

NHLI and CfAE present a new collaboration to help the class of 2030 use storytelling to communicate more impactfully.
Storytelling is a powerful tool which communicates complex issues to a variety of audiences. Its use as a pedagogical tool is being increasingly explored. Here at Imperial, CfAE has collaborated with NHLI on one module of its innovative Bioscience Futures MSc. This module teaches students to use storytelling to communicate bioscience research to the public, policy makers and other stakeholders. In this talk we share how storytelling offers a transferable skillset that enhances students’ ability to synthesise knowledge, collaborate across disciplines, and articulate impact with clarity and authenticity. We discuss how storytelling enables learners to frame problems, convey value and navigate ambiguity, which are essential for entrepreneurship and success in diverse STEMM professions. Storytelling, then, is a valuable workplace-ready skill, which we argue will be needed by the class of 2030.

2b: Voices of International Collaboration: Sharing Stories of Research Experiences at Imperial
By 3-4 PhD students currently enrolled in the Global Development Fellowship

The programme supports capacity building and knowledge exchange for doctoral students in low resource settings, as many Fellows hold lectureships and other teaching posts at their home institutions so are in an influential position to cultivate the Imperial-Partner collaborations and support development of their peers. More broadly the programme contributes to Imperial’s international engagement, building bi-directional links with new partner institutions in a number of different countries across the world. There are some really wonderful stories that have emerged from these Fellowships over the last few years since we started running the programme, both professional and personal which we would be keen to amplify though this session.

2c: Students as Science Activists – A Manifesto
By Dr Mike Tennant

Global challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and social inequalities, define our present and future times. We have a moral duty to teach our students how to use their disciplinary learning to tackle these and create positive and meaningful interventions in the world. This aim should form the basis of future education at Imperial.
In this talk I will present a manifesto that positions students as “science activists”. Students and graduates of the Class of 2030 will desire to, learn about, and have opportunities to actively make a difference in the world through the rigorous application of their science. This has profound implications in how and what we teach, and how students learn.
This work was developed as part of the Education for Sustainability Task and Finish group, and informed by the FoNS education away day.

2d:  Supporting research staff to supervise Master’s projects: Insights and recommendations from ECRI
By Dr Anna Seabourne, Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI), Head of Consultancy and Dr Jo Collins, Research Coach (Coach, Trainer and Consultant Researcher)

Early Career Researchers are widely involved in Master’s supervision, but feedback highlights issues with support for this role. Imperial’s Early Career Researcher Institute commissioned a review of support for researchers supervising MSc and MRes projects in 2024. This mixed-methods research examined how Imperial supports researchers supervising Master’s projects; pinpointed barriers for researcher supervisors; and identified good practice within departments. Findings highlighted high levels of supervisory confidence, yet a lack of foundational guidance which created unclear role boundaries and time pressures. This session shares the review’s findings and recommendations for Imperial’s future support for research staff supervisors of Master’s projects. We argue researchers are core to delivery of successful Master’s dissertation supervision and completion, and need peer learning, guidance, inclusion in processes, and regular research staff feedback integrated in supervisory support.

13.40-14.10 Parallel session 3

3a:  Bringing Theory to Life: Activity-Based Learning in Business School Teaching
By Poornima Luthra, Principal Lecturer of People, Culture and Inclusion, M&E (Business School)

This presentation explores how activity-based learning (ABL) can be used at master’s level to move business students beyond passive consumption of theory towards active testing, critique, and application. In business education, theories are often presented as stable models; yet in practice they are provisional, contested, and context-dependent. ABL provides a powerful way to surface this tension and help students engage with theory as something to be interrogated rather than memorised.
Drawing on examples from postgraduate business teaching, the session will demonstrate how theory-led activities can be designed around real or research-informed problems that involve ambiguity, competing perspectives, and consequential decision-making. These activities align with higher-order cognitive processes - analysis, evaluation, and creation - and are closely mapped to learning outcomes.
The presentation will reflect on how ABL supports future-focused education by developing graduates who can apply disciplinary knowledge flexibly, collaborate effectively, and exercise judgement in uncertain environments. Participants will leave with practical design principles for using activity-based learning to bring theory to life, test its boundaries, and better prepare the Class of 2030 for complex business challenges.

3b: Operationalising EDI for the Class of 2030: Advocacy, Representation, and Humility
By Michael Cole, Principal Teaching Fellow in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Department of Primary Care and Public Health

This presentation introduces a strategic approach to evaluating and developing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the Undergraduate Primary Care Curriculum. Re-articulated as ‘Advocacy, Representation, and Humility’, it operationalises EDI to enhance curriculum design and faculty development, equipping the Class of 2030 to thrive in evolving landscapes while advancing equity.
Advocacy promotes students’ agency in acting to protect patient wellbeing and address systemic inequities. Representation ensures curricula appropriately include and fairly reflect historically underserved groups. Humility involves self-reflection, critical thinking, cultural learning, and awareness of systemic drivers of inequity. The framework aims to foster an approach that develops socially responsible practitioners and is transferable across disciplines. Delegates will gain insight into the implementation journey within a departmental unit and engage in critical conversation about this approach.

3c: Students for Humanity. A unified platform for skills development and compulsory training
By Katie Stripe, Senior Learning Designer - Education Office

This session will introduce Students for Humanity, a centrally funded project to create something similar to ‘Imperial Essentials’ for students and combine it with a unified portfolio of skills and professional development training. During the session the main workstreams of the project will be discussed, these include:
• Developing high quality EDI training for students.
• The creation of a platform by which students can learn, track, develop, and articulate skills for the development of their professional futures.
• A data platform which will allow staff to track and incorporate skills training within academic teaching more effectively.
• Student led approaches for engaging the student body with the project.
As a ‘choose your own adventure’ presentation the audience will be given a brief overview of the key project areas and then given the opportunity to ask questions about the areas which are most important to those in the room.

3d: Reflections on the Assessment and Feedback Review
By Dr Jonathan Rackham, Materials, Dr Ioanna Papatsouma, Maths and other Faculty Review Coordinators from the Assessment & Feedback Review

The university's Learning and Teaching Strategy committed to initiating a university-wide substantial collective effort to rationalise how we assess students and enhance their feedback, while reducing workload for staff and students. This has been taking place over the last three years, with Faculties appointing teams of coordinators to bring about change from the bottom up.

This session will reflect on the university-wide review of Assessment and Feedback. We shall compare the context and approach of the review at Imperial College with other institutions undergoing similar processes, before reflecting on the steps taken and lessons learned through the process. This session will end with a brief summary of the next steps for the project, and will have extended Q&A time to collect audience input on these.

14.15-14.45 Parallel session 4

4a: Designing a Mathematics Degree for the Future
By Dr Chris Hallsworth, Mathematics, Dr Ioanna Papatsouma, Mathematics, Dr Cordelia Webb, Mathematics

The mathematics class of 2030 will need to be able to fluently communicate their ideas within a broad global and digital community while working in diverse interdisciplinary contexts and in an increasingly skills-based economy. Having been awarded funding though the Maths Degrees for the Future programme to develop a more collaborative and computational degree program, we will discuss our three stranded approach and the early steps we have taken to develop a mathematics degree fit for the future.
While embedding interactive theorem provers and a more skills-developing approach to current courses, we are also creating new cutting-edge statistics modules, grounded in primary research, and a micro-credential in maths education for existing and aspiring teachers. By design, the resources we are developing are shareable and modular to encourage adoption far beyond Imperial and with the potential to transform the teaching of mathematics across the sector.

4b:  Learning to craft sustainable visions: a gateway to developing general and sustainability competencies
By Nigel Forrest (Centre for Environmental Policy); Maria Vinograd (Centre for Environmental Policy), Mark Pope (Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication)

Resolving sustainability problems requires having a shared vision of a future in which the problem no longer exists. Such visions are not superficial notions or fantasies but are serious images of the future that can inspirate, motivate, educate, and guide action and around which transformational strategies can be built. Yet teaching students how to create sustainable visions is not commonly done.
In this session, we present case studies of teaching visioning to students at Imperial. In one case, master’s level students are introduced to visioning through lectures and practical sessions in the Environmental Technology MSc based on the use of five quality criteria for sustainable visions. Other cases, from Change Makers modules within the Imperial Horizons programme, employ imagination, critical discourse analyses and real-world experience as foundations for creating alternative narratives as drivers of sustainable development. Across all cases, students not only learn visioning methods, but develop essential general competencies, including critical analysis, collaboration, communication, and interdisciplinarity, which can be enhanced through the use of generative AI. And more specifically, visioning builds the sustainability competencies of futures thinking, system thinking, and normative thinking. As such, visioning should be integral to educating sustainability change agents and the class of 2030.

4c: Code is Cheap: Teaching Vibecoding to the Class of 2030
By Jay DesLauriers, Senior Teaching Fellow, Early Career Researcher Institute, AI Futurist in Education, Imperial Business School

Introductory programming is now a standard component of many non-computer science degree programmes, often delivered using teaching approaches and learning outcomes inherited from computer science curricula. As "vibecoding" becomes increasingly common, what should we teach when students can generate plausible code quickly? Is writing code from scratch still the most relevant first step for all learners?
In this talk, we introduce the idea of an AI-native introductory programming module for non-CS students. We discuss possible ILOs and what topics might be included, including problem formulation, prompting and iterative development, reading and critiquing code, testing, verification, debugging and documentation.
The talk considers which programming fundamentals still need explicit teaching and how these might be taught through code reading and evaluation rather than from-scratch implementation. We also review the role of tools and the implications for assessment design.

4d: Imperial Micro Procedural Article Critique Tool (IMPACT) v0.1
By Dr Deepak Barnabas, Imperial College School of Medicine, Dr Mike Wilson, Department of Surgery & Cancer, Dr Fiona Culley, National Heart and Lung Institute

IMPACT is a novel assessment tool designed for the age of artificial intelligence, focused on developing and assessing students’ ability to critically evaluate research articles. The tool guides learners through 12 scaffolded, interactive steps informed by cognitive load theory. By breaking the critique process into manageable, sequential components, IMPACT supports deep learning while reducing cognitive overload. The same structured workflow operates in both formative and summative modes: students can learn the skill through guided practice and then apply it independently for assessment.

14.45-15.00 Refreshment break

15.00-16.00 Plenary session - What are employers looking for in graduates in the Class of 2030
By Careers, Imperial

We will hear from an expert panel of some of Imperial’s key graduate employers on what the main priorities in terms of skills, preparedness and how to support our students to go beyond technical mastery. Our panellists will share their industry insights on what makes graduate applicants stand out, and offer ideas on how Imperial can support the student experience such that it enables students to transition smoothly from academia into industry.  

16.00-16.15 Closing speech
By Professor Martyn Kingsbury, Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship

Tuesday 24 March

09.00 - 10.00 Registration and poster session with morning refreshments. There will also be a Learning Analytics Dashboard demonstration taking place in the SAF Foyer.

10.00-10.45 Keynote session - What needs to change to deliver on the Class of 2030
By Emina Hogas, Student Union, and more

Imperial’s commitment to creating pathways into STEMM for the community it serves has been at the forefront of Science for Humanity. We will celebrate the numerous widening participation and outreach-focused centres and initiatives at Imperial and showcase the impact our increasingly diverse student and faculty community has made. By centring inclusion, collaboration, and adaptability, this conversation panel featuring Emina Hogas, (Deputy President Education, ICU) and XX explore what needs to change to deliver on the goal for the Imperial Class of 2030 to be the most talented, the most enterprising and the most diverse yet. 

10.45-11.15 Parallel session 1

1a: Using Multi-Modal Diaries to Reveal the 'Materiality of Emotion' in Students' Feedback Experiences
By Lauren Shields, CHERS

In this presentation, I discuss how my PhD’s methodological design – an interview-diary-interview approach – generated rich data on what I call the ‘materiality of emotion’ in students’ experiences of feedback. I reflect on the process of generating and analysing this data and share my early findings.
Despite feedback being considered an emotional process (Ryan and Henderson, 2018), existing research tends to frame emotion through humanistic, constructivist perspectives. By contrast, my sociomaterial approach examines how material elements shape emotional meaning-making. I argue that feedback meaning-making is a deeply entangled process in which materials play a crucial but overlooked role (Gravett, 2022). This perspective is particularly important in increasingly digitalised feedback environments, which will only become exacerbated as we approach 2030.

1b: Cooperation, AI, and Empathy: Building Agency and Workforce Readiness for the Class of 2030
By Dr Tatia Codreanu, CCLC

This session proposes a practical framework for building empathy and agency in AI interactions, helping students transition confidently from higher education into complex STEM labour markets.
Drawing on cooperation dynamics (cooperators, defectors, discriminators, super-cooperators) and the concept of Cooperative AI and Polite AI, I will explore how interaction choices such as tone, turn-taking, context-sharing, and reciprocity shape outcomes in teamwork, leadership, and customer-facing scenarios. The session connects to extended learning and enterprise. It shows how placements, mentoring, employer partnerships, and proactive careers guidance can embed reflective practice and value articulation in GenAI-enabled work environments. The session will diagnose defector-mode AI behaviours, redesign prompts to produce empathetic and inclusive outputs and identify simple indicators to evaluate impact on student readiness.

1c: A Tripartite Framework for AI-Assisted Feedback: Structural, Factual, and Evaluative Dimensions in Higher Education Assessment
Dr-Ing Demetrios Venetsanos; Department of Aeronautics

Providing timely, constructive feedback on written reports remains persistently challenging in higher education, where resource constraints increasingly compromise learning quality. A tripartite feedback framework is proposed, distinguishing low-level structural feedback, intermediate-level factual validation, and high-level critical evaluation. Grounded in established feedback and evaluative judgement theories, the framework provides a principled approach to allocating tasks between AI systems and human assessors. While AI may support bounded, rule-based tasks such as formatting verification and computational checking, the framework explicitly reserves interpretive judgement and pedagogical expertise for humans. This allocation is examined through worked examples across disciplines, demonstrating how each feedback level serves distinct pedagogical functions requiring different cognitive demands and epistemic commitments. It identifies conditions for successful implementation, examining current technological capabilities and limitations whilst acknowledging risks including factual unreliability and security vulnerabilities. A comprehensive mixed-methods evaluation design is proposed, specifying evidence for framework validation including effectiveness, equity, security and pedagogical integrity. This work contributes structured analytical tools for principled decision-making about AI integration in assessment whilst maintaining human accountability and professional judgement.

1d: Equipping Medical Educators for 2030: Principled Spaces for Difficult Dialogue
By Mr Michael Cole- Department of Primary Care and Public Health and Dr Naa Okantey- Department of Primary Care and Public Health

This presentation showcases a framework developed to support teaching involving discussions of sensitive topics. In increasingly polarised times, amidst free-speech concerns, political and global tensions, ‘safe’ space approaches often fall short. Anecdotal evidence highlights a clear tension: low confidence in facilitating conversations alongside strong need for practical guidance. We have progressed developments of the ‘principled space’ concept – designing a resource that aligns with Imperial’s Professional Values and Behaviours and facilitates transformative learning. We invite colleagues to join us and experience ‘principled spaces’ as a novel approach to group dialogue. We will explore why the framework was developed, explain its elements and theoretical grounding, and its use thus far. Co-creation of a principled space will be modelled, inviting questions and discussion. Delegates will gain insight into the framework and be invited to consider it in their educational practices.

11.30-12.00 Parallel session 2

2a: From Data to Change: Evidence-Based Student Advocacy for Future-Focused Education
By Mr Jordon Millward, Imperial College Union

The Class of 2030 will expect education systems that actually respond to student voices. This presentation shows how Imperial College Union uses evidence-based advocacy to represent undergraduate and postgraduate students, embedding student voice into institutional decision-making rather than treating it as an afterthought.
We'll share practical frameworks developed over 18 months of representation work, drawing from PTES/PRES survey data, College-wide research, ICU's own investigations, and direct feedback from student forums. These frameworks don't just gather student opinions helping to translate data into concrete institutional improvements while building students' capacity to advocate on issues that matter to them beyond their immediate academic work.
The session covers our approach: taking survey results (like Imperial's bottom-quartile performance in assessment feedback), combining them with insights from advice cases and focus groups, and working with staff and students to develop targeted interventions. We'll share examples of what's worked and what hasn't.
Attendees will understand the key issues affecting Imperial students, see examples of interventions we've already implemented, and learn practical approaches for championing student voice in Staff-Student Liaison Committees, programme committees, and other forums where decisions actually get made. You'll leave with approaches you can adapt for your own context rather than generic principles.

2b: Student Feedback – Problems and Solutions
By Ms Catherine Webb, CLCC

The problems:

Student surveys are getting fewer and fewer responses making the results statistically meaningless.
Using Students reps on a programme as diverse as I-Explore was failing to provide useful actionable feedback at a programme level.
Our approach:
Systematically engage students as partners in the I-Explore programme to form a cohort which flexibly collaborates with staff. These Student Partners:
• Help to identify and define themes and issues within the programme as a whole as well as within specific modules.
• Shape solutions.
• Give qualitative feedback to shape new module proposals
In this session we will discuss the practicalities of this approach, outline some of its successes and give ideas on how it may be more widely applicable.

2c: Evaluating Scientific Argumentation Skills in Undergraduate Lab Reports at Scale
By Dr Oxana Andriuc, Department of Physics

Evaluating the efficacy of teaching scientific argumentation skills in undergraduate courses is an important task for ensuring that we are providing a high-quality education that prepares students to be scientific leaders in an increasingly polarised society. We propose an approach that leverages recent advancements in computational methods to automate the extraction of text from undergraduate student lab reports and identify elements of scientific argumentation. Building on existing argumentation frameworks, we develop a new coding scheme that encompasses content labels, inter-sentence relations, and physical and logical correctness. Applying this method to a series of lab reports reveals insights into how students structure their arguments and the impact of teaching interventions. Finally, we explore the use of open-access Large Language Models (LLMs) towards building a fully automated pipeline for evaluating our teaching of scientific argumentation.

2d: Delivering a Vision for AI in Education at Imperial
By Konstantinos Beis, Reader in Membrane Protein Structural Biology, Department of Life Sciences - Faculty of Natural Sciences and AI Futurist, Emma Blyth, Senior Instructional Designer, Faculty of Medicine and AI Futurist, Caroline Clewley, I Explore Lead and STEMM Module Stream Lead, Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication and AI Futurist, Jay DesLauriers, Senior Teaching Fellow, Imperial Business School and Early Career Researcher Institute and AI Futurist, Rhodri Nelson, Senior Teaching Fellow in Computational Data Science, Department of Earth Science & Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and AI Futurist, Coco Nijhoff, Senior Teaching Fellow (Library Services) and Lead AI Futurist, Sean O'Grady, Lead Learning Designer, IDEA Lab and AI Futurist

The AI Futurists were established in July 2024 with funding for Learning and Teaching Innovation at Imperial to address the rapid adoption of AI tools and platforms, which created an imperative to reimagine the design and delivery of the taught curriculum. Today, the AI Futurists are a group of seven working across the university to devise ways to further Imperial’s AI capabilities in the education space.
In line with the goals of the Imperial Class of 2030 Programme, the AI Futurists have launched the development of a Vision for AI in Education at Imperial. The student and learner of 2030 belong to a cohort described as the most talented, enterprising, and diverse yet (Imperial College London, 2025). These students will bring high aspirations, global outlooks, and lived experiences that challenge traditional academic pathways.
The Vision for AI in Education aims to reconcile the most pressing needs, opportunities and issues we face as we responsibly adopt AI while eliciting futurist, forward-thinking approaches. The Vision will align with and complement existing strategy, while ensuring that opportunities and issues surrounding AI in Education are appropriately addressed and considered.
As well as presenting the aims and ambitions of the Vision, we will outline the approaches and motivations that drove its development. The session will incorporate a Q&A, with prompts to the audience to reflect on the Vision and its place at Imperial.

12.00-13.00 Lunch break
There will also be a Learning Analytics Dashboard demonstration taking place in the SAF Foyer.

13.00-13.30 Parallel session 3

3a: Ignite session

1. Community insights on healthcare: themes from community-engaged student projects during undergraduate GP placements
By Dr Celine Esuruoso: Undergraduate Primary Care Education Unit, School of Public Health and Miss Stephanie Powell: Undergraduate Primary Care Education Unit, School of Public Health
Medical education must equip future doctors to provide person-centred care for diverse patient populations (1). To support this, there is a need for medical curricula to better reflect the perspectives and priorities of communities (2). During their GP placement, Year 2 medical students undertake community-engaged projects, working with local community organisations to explore their insights. This study aimed to identify themes from these community insights to inform Imperial’s undergraduate primary care curriculum.
We reviewed the presentation slides of 112 student projects to thematically analyse community insights. Student projects encompassed a range of population groups, including those experiencing social exclusion. Insights were categorised into three themes: 1) experiences of accessing healthcare (including barriers), 2) the healthcare consultation itself, and 3) further support or care. The value of person-centred, community-centred and coordinated care were emphasised.
Community insights and priorities identified from our analysis are being embedded across Imperial’s undergraduate primary care curriculum and faculty development programme, including through case studies and project guidance. Through this approach, our curriculum is better reflecting what matters most to communities.
2. Interdisciplinary Communication through Software Engineering
By Dr Katerina Michalickova, Early Career Researcher Institute
In this talk, I will introduce ECRI’s Research Computing and Data Science team and the work we do in our Interdisciplinary Research Computing I-Explore module. This module brings together interdisciplinary student teams to develop scientific computing projects. I will describe how we support these teams and how we simulate a realistic research environment.
I will then highlight the role of software and software development as a means of communication in highly interdisciplinary teams. Often, software is the primary artefact of collaboration, acting as both a shared vocabulary and a single source of truth. The platforms that support this collaborative process are highly developed environments, offering asynchronous, traceable communication with a clear history of decisions and changes. While these tools are routinely used for software development and related technical communication, their role in the qualitative, interdisciplinary dimensions of collaboration remains largely unexplored.
3. Meaningful work - Student ambassadors' experiences of earning, learning and paying it forward
By Dr Ada Mau, Outreach
3b: Admissions tests: efficient or exclusionary?
By Beth Hocking, CHERS
Admissions tests are an efficient and apparently objective way of reducing the pool of applicants to elite undergraduate STEM courses. Their use is widespread and expanding, with testing increasingly computerised and outsourced. This has created greater distance between tests and the institutions that rely on them, reducing scrutiny and oversight of the testing landscape. As a result, it is no longer clear where responsibility for the fairness of tests lies. This is problematic, as admissions tests can favour students from particular educational and social backgrounds, forming an invisible barrier to access. Drawing on doctoral research, I highlight the risks posed by tests to the inclusion of women and socioeconomically disadvantaged students and the impact on course culture of foregrounding tests in an admissions system. I propose policies and practices to reduce these risks and encourage reflections on the style of admission system likely to support diverse student cohorts.
3c: Preparing for a more diverse 2030: perspectives from young people engaging with Imperial Outreach
By Emma Watson, Outreach Evaluation Officer, MORA
Imperial’s Outreach team engages disadvantaged young people through a portfolio of STEM activities, including those underpinning Imperial’s Access and Participation Plan. In preparing to support, engage and teach a more diverse Class of 2030, insights gathered early in the student journey through Outreach initiatives help to illustrate the unique experiences of future Imperial students. Recent external evaluation of two flagship Imperial Outreach programmes shed light on the perspectives of Black Heritage and socioeconomically disadvantaged young people. Both STEM Potential and STEM Futures engage disadvantaged young people across Years 10-13, with STEM Futures tailored specifically for those from Black heritage backgrounds. The external evaluation completed by Cosmos in 2025 surfaced insights that resonate far beyond Outreach which we would like to share: challenges participants face, effective supports, and perceptions of life at Imperial, particularly as a Black Heritage student.
3d: Imperial Thrive: Creating a Supportive Environment for our Widening Participation Students
By Indie Beedie, Education Projects Manager (APP and Monitoring) and Rebecca Halliday, Education Projects Manager (Student Progression and Belonging)
The Imperial Thrive programme supports Widening Participation (WP) students through targeted transition activities, including pre‑arrival residentials and ongoing wraparound support. Designed to enhance belonging, resilience and academic confidence, Thrive increases awareness of university‑wide services, strengthens peer networks, and contributes to the Class of 2030 vision of a supportive learning environment.
This session will share insights from the inaugural Thrive Residential, drawing on student feedback and emerging data to consider how we can build and strengthen the academic environment for WP students. We invite colleagues to reflect on, and contribute, their own experiences of working with WP students, to inform how we design and target support. As Thrive focuses on support beyond the curriculum, effective collaboration with departments and faculties is essential to delivering a whole‑provider approach that improves retention, student experience and success for WP students.
13.40-14.10 Parallel session 4
4a: Do doctors trained in health coaching as medical students retain and apply these skills in practice?
By Dr Katie Scott, Dr Argita Zalli, Dr Arti Maini, Primary Care
Undergraduate training must prepare medical students for future practice, including person-centred care and reflective skills. Health coaching training can contribute to this, yet its long-term impact is unclear. This study explored how doctors who completed health coaching training at Imperial College London as students apply coaching in clinical practice. Five doctors participated in semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed thematically, informed by transformative learning theory. Doctors faced real-world challenges and enablers influencing coaching application. Coaching was embedded in their practice, shaped their professional identity and they noted positive patient engagement. Coaching skills also influenced teaching, supervision, teamwork and wellbeing. Health coaching skills learned during undergraduate training were retained and applied in postgraduate contexts, supporting lifelong learning in preparing doctors for future practice, and supporting person-centred care.
4b: Future Facing Education: Integrating sustainability across the curriculum
By Dr. Neha Ahuja, Undergraduate Primary Care Education Unit, School of Public Health
Education across all STEM disciplines is being called to respond to one of the most pressing challenges of our time and essential for the class of 2030: preparing future professionals to deliver solutions that meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. In healthcare, this includes equipping learners to deliver sustainable healthcare. Our team reviewed the undergraduate primary care curriculum using the Medical Schools Council Sustainable Healthcare Framework to embed sustainability principles into the curriculum.
We outline an integration process that could be adapted across STEM disciplines, highlighting the strategies, challenges, and practical solutions that supported meaningful change. Our aim is to provide educators with a roadmap for embedding sustainability into curricula and equipping future professionals to contribute to a more resilient and sustainable future.
4c: Learning to learn with AI: educating Business School students on the responsible use of AI
By Mrs Cloda Jenkins, Mr Jay DesLauriers, Mr Stephen Vaz, Ms Heather Mack, Business School

At the Business School we have been facilitating discursive sessions on ‘Learning to learn with AI’ for our incoming students as part of their inductions. The sessions have landed messaging around the responsible use of AI in an academic setting. The students leave the session with an understanding of how they can use AI in their studies in a way which supports their learning, strengthens their employability by developing critical thinking skills, and maintains the academic integrity of their degree. Students undertake one of three task-based activities that demonstrate ways they might use AI in their studies: brainstorming; summarising; or as a revision tool. Initially they work by themselves, then in pairs, and finally in larger groups. At each stage the students reflect on the outputs from AI, considering what has worked well, and what has not worked well. We then encourage the students to apply these reflections outside of the session and apply them to their own learning.
4d: Developing Enterprise-Ready Judgement: Embedding Secondary Market Evidence in GenAI-Enabled Innovation Projects
By Dr Wei Hutchinson Dyson School of Design Engineering
In GenAI-enabled workplaces, graduates will be valued for judgement: the ability to justify decisions, articulate value, and act under uncertainty. In interdisciplinary STEM innovation projects, students often move quickly from idea to prototype while market claims remain selective, weakly evidenced, or overly shaped by confident AI summaries. This can widen inequities for learners with less exposure to enterprise cues and market reasoning.
This presentation introduces a practical teaching approach that embeds secondary evidence into innovation learning to strengthen opportunity judgement and enterprise readiness. Students work with three types of signals: market context from library and trade or standards sources, demand proxies from search trends, and voice of customer data from reviews, Reddit, and Kickstarter. GenAI supports synthesis and theme extraction while keeping claims traceable to sources.
In 20 minutes, the session will cover three recurring reasoning failure modes, a simple classroom workflow for triangulating signals and stating uncertainty, and one worked example showing the shift from weak claims to defensible opportunity statements. Attendees will leave with a one page evidence ledger template and assessment prompts to help students translate market signals into value narratives and design or venture directions.
14.15-14.45 Parallel session 5
5a: Ignite session
1. Emotions and feelings in lifelong learning: physician-scientists’ perspectives on CPD events
By Stefano Sandrone, Department of Brain Sciences
CPD activities are essential for physician-scientists to maintain and hone their skills. We interviewed a group of physician-scientists about key factors, emotions and feelings related to CPD, immediately after administering a questionnaire called the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-GEN) to obtain an ‘emotional snapshot’. Participants disputed the utility of current assessments, often seen as box-ticking exercises. While frustration, hostility and other negative feelings were voiced regarding compulsory CPD activities, non-compulsory CPD activities were welcomed with excitement, curiosity and a sense of adventure. Enthusiasm and excitement were reported both the night before and the morning of non-compulsory CPD activities. Enhancing enthusiasm and engagement while reducing frustration surrounding compulsory CPD is essential. Investigating the emotional side of learning might help create a more effective learning environment.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39543585/
 
2. Complexity, Uncertainty and Challenging Consultations: Preparing the Class Of 2030
By Dr Neepa Thacker, School of Public Health
Imperial’s Class of 2030 will enter healthcare systems shaped by complexity, uncertainty, innovation, and evolving societal expectations. Preparing learners for this reality requires authentic educational approaches grounded in real-world practice.
The ‘Complexity, Uncertainty, and Challenging Consultations’ teaching session was developed for Year 5 students on GP placements. Experienced GP tutors use complex primary care scenarios, real-world medicolegal cases and film scripts to support facilitated reflection, linking learning with experience. Key themes include person-centred care, managing uncertainty, ethical decision-making, patient safety, multidisciplinary working, learning from mistakes, and recognising when to seek support.
Evaluation shows increased student confidence in navigating clinical complexity. This work offers transferable insights for educators preparing the Class of 2030 for high-quality, person-centred care in unpredictable clinical environments.
5b: Ignite session
1. "I was just thinking,,," metacognition and meta-thinking for academics
By Mrs Heather Hanna, DOID
As academics, we are often judged by how many outputs we generate and how many activities we do, but is there enough space for “thinking time”? This “Ignite” presentation explores the value of thinking time as a legitimate work activity that is vital to our lifelong learning and improving our academic offerings to remain relevant and meaningful. I explore the psychology of metacognition and resultant meta-thinking. I also consider some ways of incorporating it more into our routines for the benefit of our colleagues and students.

2. Balancing psychological safety and liminal learning in the age of GenAI
By Miss Fanny Mozu-Simpson (Surgery and Cancer)
Drawing on liminality and the framework of recognitive and extrarecognitive feedback (Corbin, Tai & Flenady, 2025), I consider how GenAI, when positioned as a form of extrarecognitive feedback, can disrupt the liminal space of learning. This space, where students grapple with troublesome knowledge is essential for movement towards post-liminality and conceptual transformation. By offering quick and often confident responses, GenAI can reduce productive uncertainty, limiting opportunities for reflection and deeper sense-making.
By contrast, recognitive feedback arises through teacher–student interaction. It is relational, grounded in shared vulnerability, and supports students in developing scholarly identity and evaluative capabilities required for AI-rich professional practice.
I therefore argue that we should embrace GenAI as the ‘sandbox’ which functions as a psychologically safe space, while recognitive feedback is used to preserve the liminality to ensure transformation.

3. Developing Competencies Through the I-Explore Portfolio
By Dr Mark Pope, CLCC, Annabel Chi (Bioengineering), Mahedy Basher (Medicine),  Sasha Burina-Ling (Biology), Masha Donchenko (Chemistry)
This presentation reports on our StudentsShapers project investigating the development of undergraduate students' key competencies. We adopt a future-focused approach, considering how development could be improved and made more relevant for future years. We focus on I-Explore but strongly contextualise students' experiences within their core degrees. Through a combination of analysis of curriculum documentation and four focus groups, we provide insight of relevance to I-Explore and the university as a whole.
5c: Ignite session
1. A Student Choice-Based Approach to address AI-Assisted Plagiarism in Computational Numerical Analysis Coursework
By Nicolas Cinosi, Mechanical Engineering
The wide use of generative AI by students when solving coursework in computational numerical analysis has challenged traditional approaches, where problem-solving processes matter as much as final results. Rather than attempting to detect or prohibit the use of AI, this short presentation proposes a simple, lightweight, design-based remedy that reframes AI as a pedagogical choice with explicit accountability.
Students are offered two clearly defined pathways when completing coursework. In the first option, students commit to not using AI tools and are required to present mathematical formulations and derivations using the same notation and structure adopted in the lecture materials. This pathway emphasises conceptual alignment, precision, and fidelity to taught methods. In the second option, students may use AI tools, but every derived result, algorithmic step, or explanation must be explicitly linked to specific content/part/page of the course lecture notes. This requirement shifts the focus from answer production to interpretation, verification, and engagement with first principles.
The session will briefly outline the rationale behind this dual-path approach, illustrate how it is communicated to students, and share early observations on student engagement and submission quality. The central argument is that structured choice can reduce incentives for covert AI use while promoting transparency, deeper interaction with course materials and preventing cognitive offloading.

2. Career Companion - tools for personal career skills development
By Miss Jessica Popplewell, Careers Service
The Career Companion is a series of tools to develop individual career skills like decision making and labour market research as well as confidence in the practical aspects of breaking into a new role or career like interviews, presentations and assessment centres. They are all short and interactive - the goal is that they break down the often daunting task of career development into bite-sized pieces that fit in around other priorities. This session will introduce the Career Companion suite to you, with an opportunity to try some of them too.

3. Designing future-proof authentic assessments
By Dr Maria Vinograd, CEP
Essays, dissertations, and group reports are increasingly vulnerable to AI-assisted production, raising urgent questions about validity, equity, and graduate preparedness. In this talk, I will argue for a deliberate move away from written coursework towards oral, authentic assessment that better reflects how knowledge and expertise are demonstrated in professional practice.
Drawing on experience from the MSc Environmental Technology, I will present a range of assessment approaches designed to simulate real workplace situations and assess skills that matter beyond the degree. Examples include assessed discussion panels, where students take on the role of an expert contributor responding to challenge, and assessed consultancy-style project meetings, where teams present and defend project plans to a critical client audience. These formats assess professional judgement, communication, teamwork, and disciplinary reasoning in ways that traditional assessments struggle to capture, while also being inherently resistant to inappropriate AI use. The session will also introduce innovative assessment formats currently in development for future cohorts, including hot-seat questioning, structured job interviews, and closed-book oral examinations supported by a transparent question bank. These approaches are intended to be rigorous, future-proof, and adaptable to undergraduate contexts, while reducing assessment workload, enhancing academic integrity, and stimulating life-long learning.
5d: Ignite session
1. Reflections and use of feedback from the online summative assessments in two statistics modules: a dialogue between students and educators
By Dr Samantha Alvarez Madrazo, Nick Jayanth, School of Public Health
On the Master of Public Health Online (MPHO) programme, the Statistics for Public Health module (core) and Advanced Statistics and Introduction to Data Science module (elective) have similar fully online summative assessments. Students are provided with a scenario, research question and R output. Until 2024/25 the assessments had three parts: (1) write an abstract, (2) answer multiple-choice questions and (3) free-text questions. The students receive formal feedback for Parts 1 and 3. To reflect on the assessments, use of feedback and potential AI use, a dialogue was created between students and educators with focus groups. Through this talk, we will present our findings and how they informed current assessment and feedback modifications.

2. Enabling doctoral students to collaborate in interdisciplinary and international research contexts
By Dr Elena Forasacco, Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI)
The current research context builds on interdisciplinary and international collaborations. HE institutions are challenged to prepare their students for this new context with subject-specific knowledge as well as interdisciplinary and international collaboration competencies.
In this session I introduce the development and design of an online modular course for doctoral students at Imperial and NTU, co-created with NTU Singapore Graduate College. Our collaboration supports the course rationale: we aim to enhance collaboration competencies and allow students to explore career opportunities.
The course design is the outcome of a project funded by Imperial Global Fund. This project has different stages: last November we started with the verification of the teaching approach to make it suitable for all participants; we will finalise the course design by August; we will deliver the course by October.
Students are co-creators: we collaborate with a student programme partner throughout the project and collect suggestions from participants at different stages of the project. Their voices will allow us to tailor the course to their specific needs and create a meaningful lifelong learning opportunity.
14.45-15.00 Refreshment break
15.00-16.00 Plenary session
The Imperial Experience within and beyond the classroom
Panel: Heather Haseley (Lifelong learning); David Miller and David Pitcher (Hackspace); Sarah Ranchev-Hale and Ben Mumby-Craft (Entrepreneurship) + some alumni entrepreneurs
As labour markets and STEM industries evolve with increasing complexity, universities must move beyond technical skill acquisition to cultivate student agency, adaptability, and leadership. Successful transitions from education to employment depend on learners’ ability to apply knowledge, articulate value, and navigate uncertainty, supported by intentional mechanisms such as industry partnerships, work placements and mentoring. Featuring Lifelong Learning, the Hackspace and Entrepreneurship, this panel brings three world-leading areas expanding access and provision across Imperial together to share insights on developing the Class of 2030. 
16.00-16.15 Closing speeches
By Professor Alan Spivey, Interim Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience)
16.15-19.00 Social networking event
Join us for drinks and nibbles in the SAF Foyer.

Wednesday 25 March

This day will be a post-conference workshop day (with the option to drop-in and out of the day).

09.00-09.30 Refreshments and poster session

09.30-12.30 Parallel session 1 - Half day workshops
1a: What Can XR Do for You? Fast Demos and Conversations
By Daniel Mitelpunkt, Digital Media Lab

Imperial’s Digital Media Lab has been working with academic and professional colleagues over the years to deliver varied solutions in simulation, visualisation and interactive media, catering to different objectives, settings and subject matter. From virtual reality to web apps, from high compute and complex to clear and simple, DML has a diverse toolbox of solutions to cater to diverse needs and opportunities.
Rather than mere show and tell, the intention is to allow colleagues to ponder, together, solutions, opportunities, and approaches that might best suit their needs (but yes, it will also involve showing and telling, including with VR headsets).
The intention is for simultaneous fun, hands-on and practical conversations about what can and should be done, and the increasing number of different simulation solutions already in use and available.

1b: Hackathons to activate the Student Voice – build your own student hackathon blueprint
By Mehdi Moussaoui, Data Engineer and Analyst (Learning Analytics), Education Office, Charlotte Whitaker, Product Designer and User Researcher (Learning Analytics), Education Office, Helen Walkey, Education Office, Head of Learning Analytics

In this 2-hour workshop, we will introduce student hackathons as a vehicle for capturing the Student Voice and gaining creative insights into what students think will enhance their student experience. We will draw on the recent Imperial Learning Analytics Hackathon, co-designed and co-organised with Student Shapers as an example. We will then support workshop participants to develop their own hackathon blueprints.
Participants will work in small groups to generate outline plans for the different stages of hackathon organisation and delivery: design, logistics, technical preparations, recruitment and communications, delivery, celebration, and dissemination. We shall use prompts to initiate group conversations. Groups will be encouraged to share their ideas in whole-room discussions. We will share examples of tools to use at different stages and learnings from testing them, e.g. GitHub and MS Teams.
This workshop is intended for staff who are interested in an alternative way to engage students and elicit their feedback. Workshop participants will learn how to plan and deliver their own hackathons and come away with a blueprint that could be used in their own context.

1c: Empathetic group working: Equipping the Class of 2030 to be inclusive collaborators
By Kate Ippolito, CHERS, Asha de Silva, Department of Computing (student), Argita Zalli, School of Public Health, Chloe Agg, Mechanical Engineering

Student groupwork is widely recognised as enabling disciplinary learning, development of transferable skills and social connections, and professional body accreditation. However, it can also present challenges, particularly for neurodivergent students and culturally and socially diverse groups. While inclusive group work design and mechanisms can help, these may fail to result in inclusive experiences if students are not equipped nor empowered to contribute inclusively themselves.
This workshop will enable sharing of student and staff experiences and integrate research to identify how to facilitate more inclusive and effective group-based and collaborative learning. With the emphasis on student agency, we will identify approaches for fostering empathetic and equitable peer interaction. Workshop activities will include co-designing group working elements that improve learning experiences and reinforce development of interpersonal skills, rather than leaving this to chance. An output will be a co-created teacher-learner guide, offering principles, strategies and tools for designing and facilitating more inclusive group work.

09.30-10.30 Parallel session 1 - 60 minute workshops

1d:  The Power of Words in Learning: Towards Inclusive Medical Education
By Dr Mohammed Sabri Abdu Mohammed Abdu and Michael Cole, School of Public Health

Language is not neutral: it shapes power, belonging and agency in learning and practice. In medical education, terminology can either reinforce inequities or cultivate empathy and inclusion, capabilities key to preparing the Class of 2030. This workshop invites educators to critically examine language as a form of power and to explore how person-centred communication supports equitable outcomes for learners, staff and stakeholders.
Through facilitated discussion and arts-informed activities, participants will reflect on assumptions embedded in common educational and clinical language, considering how words can dehumanise and blame, or validate and promote agency. Informed by research and aligned with the festival theme, this workshop will share insights into our person-centred language approaches to medical education. Delegates will be encouraged to consider their own STEMM contexts and apply strategies that help foster inclusive learning and teaching practices.

1e: Embodied Learning: Creating Regulated, Connected Learning Spaces through Somatics
By Eleni Erotokritou Early Career Researcher Institute, Activate Mentoring Coordinator, Imperial Coach

This workshop explores how gentle somatic practices can support inclusive, future‑focused teaching by helping students and educators settle, connect, and learn with more ease. Through simple, accessible micro‑practices—grounding, choice‑based invitations, low‑stimulus pauses, and relational exercises—we’ll look at how embodied awareness can strengthen belonging, agency, and reflective capacity across the student lifecycle. The session offers practical tools for neurodiversity‑affirming, trauma‑aware learning design, inviting educators to create classrooms where the body is welcomed, safety is felt, and learning becomes more human, spacious, and responsive to the needs of the Class of 2030.

11.30-12.30 Parallel session 2 - 60 minute workshops

2a: Exploring Open Educational Resources: Adoption, Adaptation, Creation
By Irene Barranco Garcia (Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian) and Heather Lincoln (Liaison Librarian (Business and Professional Development) from Library Services

Open Educational Resources are learning, teaching and research materials released under an open license which allow no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose and redistribution (UNESCO, 2019). OER’s allow customisation and flexibility in curriculum design so students can co-create class resources. The class of 2030 will use them to enhance their learning in an inclusive pedagogical environment which aligns with Open Science principles and Imperial’s Sustainability Strategy. This interactive workshop will allow attendees to: Familiarise themselves with the concept of OERs exploring benefits to their teaching practice. Explore different OER directories to discover and compare resources. Understand how Pressbooks (Imperial’s online tool for creating OERs) can support attendees to create, adapt, adopt OERs produced in other HEI's across the world. Explore the opportunities that Open Pedagogy offers while discovering and curating existing OERs, involving students in this process.

2b: Analytics in Action: informing interventions
By Dr. Jonathan Rackham, Dr. Peter Johnson, Prof. Camille Howson, Dr. Victor Shi, and other facilitators

Higher education institutions increasingly collect rich learning analytics data, yet a persistent gap remains between data availability and meaningful use in teaching and student support. While technical infrastructure for analytics is rapidly advancing, less is known about what types of analytics-informed interventions stakeholders value, trust, and consider feasible in practice.
This one-hour workshop is intended to share current interventions from across Imperial, collect staff and student views on how learning analytics can be used to inform educational interventions, and to identify which data-informed actions are most valuable, realistic, and acceptable in real teaching contexts, ensuring that future designs are grounded in real user experience.
The session emphasizes dialogue, co-creation, and shared understanding between educators, professional services staff, researchers, and students. Through examples in practice and interactive group activities, participants will explore intervention opportunities, discuss benefits and concerns, and collaboratively shape priorities for implementation. The workshop is designed as an early-stage information sharing, consultation and idea-generation forum to guide on-going evidence-based interventions.

12.30-13.30 Lunch break

13.30-16.30 Parallel session 3 - Half day workshops

3a: Automated formative feedback - you can do it!
By Dr. Peter B. Johnson, Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Phil Ramsden, Mathematics

Marcus Messer, Mechanical Engineering, Alexandra Neagu, Mechanical Engineering
This workshop will introduce you to Lambda Feedback, a self-study platform that provides automated feedback, including on essays and handwritten mathematics.
Lambda Feedback was developed at Imperial over the past five years and is used widely by thousands of students and hundreds of teachers, providing feedback on over 10,000 questions over 1 million times per year.
The workshop will prepare you to deploy automated formative feedback in your teaching. After a basic introduction to the system features and creation of static study content for students, we will guide you through configuring and testing automated feedback.
To complete the workshop you can choose a specialist sub-group for a masterclass in:
  • Educational chatbots for dialogic feedback
  • Customised automated feedback on submissions
  • Advanced usage of the platform features including latex content management, data analytics, and module evaluations.
13.30-14.30 Parallel session 3 - 60 minute workshops
3b: Co-designing Imperial Leap: The new co-curricular programme for the Postgraduate Class of 2030
By Dr Ana P. Costa-Pereira, Dr Caroline Clewley, Dr Daisy Pataki (CLCC)
Imperial Leap is the new co-curricular programme for MSc and MRes students currently in development, with first delivery planned for academic year 2027/28. Inspired by Imperial Horizons and I-Explore, it will provide safe, inclusive spaces for postgraduates to reflect on their disciplines, contextualise their training within complex global challenges, and develop skills addressing unmet needs in current provision.
Led by the programme development team, 3 interactive workshops (3 consecutive 1 h long workshops) offer participants the opportunity to shape Imperial Leap's design. Together, we will explore:
• Thematic areas where additional skills or disciplinary context prove most valuable
• Delivery models accommodating diverse timetables and student demographics
• Approaches enabling systems thinking for volatile, uncertain, complex professional contexts
• Mechanisms for building community within compressed one-year programmes
Participants will identify opportunities and co-create solutions that feed directly into programme development. This session addresses the Class of 2030 vision by examining how flexible co-curricular programmes equip graduates with agency, adaptability, and professional confidence for uncertain futures.
3c: Adapting the Wheel of Power and Privilege as a Classroom Tool
By Chloe Agg - Head of Student Experience - Mechanical Engineering
As the module leader for the EDI in Engineering module, I already use Sylvia Duckworth's Wheel of Power and Privilege (WPP) to introduce my students to the concept of positionality and to reflect on their own identities and that of their groups.
Based on this, I used the WPP in my MEd research to again encourage participants to come to a shared understanding of positionality and also as a tool for gathering nuanced demographic data. As part of my research interviews my participants and I critiqued the WPP, and in this workshop I will share some of these critiques. Together workshop participants and I will build on this same process of reflection and critique, and both collectively and individually reconstruct the WPP to make it appropriate for our own practice and that of EDI work in STEM higher education more broadly. I will then build on the workshop findings to extend my own practice, research and publications.
3d: Worldbuilding Futures: Applying African Speculative Fiction to Research, Policy, and Education
By Muna Khogali (director ASFS), Onesmus Mwabonje (CEP)
This workshop introduces the Applied African SF program (appliedafricansf.com) as a practice-led, participatory methodology for anticipatory governance and futures work grounded in African perspectives. The project started as a collaboration between The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS), Imperial College London, the University of Nairobi, Vector magazine (vector-bsfa.com), and the International Black Speculative Writing Festival and brings African writers, scientists, and researchers into structured collaboration. Through commissioned writing, interdisciplinary workshops, and applied teaching, the project explores how speculative narrative can be used to interrogate research cultures, derisk policy design, and imagine futures that are grounded in diverse histories and values, culturally situated, and socially responsive.
Derisking Research Through Fiction: In the workshop, participants will use fiction as an educational tool to examine risk, uncertainty, and power within research and policy frameworks. Through guided prompts, groups will analyse how narratives can reveal blind spots in modelling, expose ethical tensions, and surface questions around equity, representation, and unintended harm. This approach demonstrates how speculative fiction can support anticipatory governance by enabling researchers and policymakers to explore “what if?” questions in a safe but critical space before real-world implementation.
3e: Implementing Neuroinclusive Practices in Assessment Design
By Dr. Vijesh Bhute, Senior Teaching Fellow, Dez Mendoza, Co-chair of ABLE Disability Network, Library Services, Student facilitators: Hanka Mehager, Biochemistry, Marsela Marku, Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication, Olive Ndungu, Materials Science and Engineering, Wendy Wang, Materials Science and Engineering, Grace Wiggall, Geology

 

In this workshop, we would like to showcase the work carried out as part of the Learning and Teaching Strategy funded project on designing inclusive assessments from neurodivergent student perspectives. We have developed several resources including skill-assessment map, skills checklist, and assessment cards which offer practical recommendations on how to make assessments more inclusive. These cards contain details such as potential barriers experienced by students and how to overcome them by either incorporating inclusive practices or reasonable adjustments.
Participants will be asked to enter basic information such as assessments that they currently use and what skills they expect the students to showcase in those assessments. The audience will be divided into groups and a facilitator will discuss the skills assessment map to check whether the chosen assessment aligns with the skills expected by audience members. Facilitators will discuss the role of implicit and explicit skills. Audience will receive a card containing information about barriers, inclusive practices and reasonable adjustments for their chosen assessment type(s). Facilitator will be available to answer any questions and facilitate discussion around potential best practices that can be included in their current practice. Audience members will have an option to explore any other assessments or look at non-assessment related inclusive practices.
15.30-16.30 Parallel session 4 - 60 minute workshops
4a: Collecting and presenting role-models to showcase diverse academic stories
By Katie Stripe, Education Office and Linda van Keimpema, Outreach
This workshop will share how we collected and presented diverse role-models from our community. The literature highlights the benefits of relevant and representative role models for developing a sense of belonging, academic ambition and retention. In STEM disciplines underrepresented groups have few prominent role models. The aim of this project was to find stories which are not often heard, from history, from contemporary science, and from our own community.
We will discuss what it means to be a role-model and then facilitate the collection of stories from the audience. We will present methods for collecting stories and explore ways that participants can use these ideas in their own context. Then share some of the outputs we have created to provide ideas on what can be done.
Finally, we will explore ways to present these stories in different contexts and look at how they can be used for community building, decolonisation, or curriculum development.
4b: Brave New Futures: Embedding Entrepreneurial Competencies for the Class of 2030
By Dr Anne Burke-Gaffney, National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Dr Michael Weatherburn, Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication, Dr Mark Pope, Centre for Languages Culture and Communication, Dr Daisy Pataki, Centre for Languages Culture and Communication, Dr Nigel Forrest, Centre for Environmental Policy, Faculty of Natural Science, Ms. Camille Reltein, Expert-in-Residence, Imperial Enterprise Lab
This interactive workshop introduces practical ways to embed key entrepreneurial competencies into teaching across disciplines. We draw on the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework (EntreComp), which underpins QAA (2018) guidance for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship education, and on our experience teaching on Bioscience Futures MSc. We will show how three EntreComp competencies, “Spotting Opportunities”, “Vision”, and “Ethical & Sustainable Thinking”, can be integrated into interdisciplinary and futures-focused learning.
We will examine how students can identify and act on opportunities to create value by analysing social, cultural and economic contexts. We will explore how futures-thinking tools, such as visioning and scenario planning, help students turn ideas into purposeful action. We will also show how ethical and sustainability frameworks, supported by reflection, enable learners to evaluate the long-term impacts of their decisions.
Through structured activities, colleagues will explore ways to redesign a short section of their teaching by incorporating opportunity-scanning exercises, vision-building prompts and ethical and sustainability impact checks. This aligns with Imperial’s Class of 2030 vision to integrate entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary learning within a future focused environment. Participants will leave with adaptable micro-activities and prompts for embedding these entrepreneurial competencies into their own teaching.
4c: Who are our learners? Exploring inclusivity in medical education- A workshop for medical educators
By Dr Anna Coulson, Faculty of Medicine and Dr Emma Lewis, Faculty of Medicine

 

Despite efforts to widen participation in medicine and increasing awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion, evidence demonstrates an ongoing differential attainment gap at undergraduate and postgraduate level. We are also teaching medicine in a challenging climate, balancing growing demands in curricula, restricted delivery time and a wish to meet individual learner needs. In this workshop, we will work collaboratively to consider who our learners are and how we as educators can aid their training journey. This session offers a space to reflect critically upon practice and consider our own inherent biases, recognising how they may affect our learners. We will also consider who our learners are today, recognising the varied skillsets they bring to our profession. Using the lens of neurodivergence, we will reflect upon how we can adapt teaching approaches in line with universal design for learning principles, promoting inclusivity and helping students to reach their full potential.

End of the event