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AI for Research That Matters
AI for Research That Matters
Please save the date for the upcoming AI for Research Day at the University of Sheffield.
🗓️ Date: 1st October 2026
📍 Venue: INOX, University of Sheffield Students' Union, S10 2TG
Audience: All University of Sheffield researchers (including PGRs, early career and established researchers) and Professional Services colleagues.
About the event
About the event
This event is being held under the theme “AI for Research That Matters” and is led by the Centre for Machine Intelligence at the University of Sheffield.
Research that matters to the world: Sheffield researchers use artificial intelligence (AI) to push the boundaries of what’s knowable, from materials discovery to medical imaging to the social sciences. This event showcases that work.
Breakthroughs that matter to your work: practical, hands-on, and applicable to what you do each working day, whatever your discipline.
The conference is designed to help researchers across the University of Sheffield discover how AI tools can enhance their own research. It is aimed at researchers who are curious about AI but haven't yet incorporated it into their work — whether they're in the arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, or any other field.
Learn new skills
Learn new skills
The day combines talks from Sheffield researchers and industry partners from Dell and NVIDIA with hands-on afternoon workshops, giving attendees both inspiration and a genuine starting point. By the end of the day, you'll leave with a clearer sense of how AI could fit into your own research, practical experience with at least one tool or technique, and awareness of the support, infrastructure, and people here at Sheffield to help you take the next step.
What to Expect
What to Expect
Morning Sessions: Inspirational talks, panel discussion, and case studies from Sheffield researchers and industry experts from Dell and NVIDIA.
Afternoon Workshops: Hands-on technical sessions providing a practical starting point for using AI tools and techniques in your own research.
Networking: Opportunities to connect with fellow researchers and the University’s research support ecosystem, including the RSE team and the Centre for Machine Intelligence.
By the end of the day, you will leave with a clearer understanding of how AI can enhance your work and the practical experience to take your next steps.
The programme
The programme
The morning opens in plenary with remarks from the University's Vice-President for Research & Innovation, Professor Sue Hartley OBE, a session on innovation at Sheffield, and a talk from NVIDIA on the art of the possible in research, followed by a panel discussion bringing together CMI theme leads and senior University voices.
Parallel research talks then run across the disciplines, with topics including self-driving labs for materials science, grounded AI for Alzheimer's research, what clinical notes can tell us about loneliness and dementia, and making sense of the research literature. The afternoon adds a series of technical sessions from NVIDIA spanning robotics, medical imaging and materials discovery, alongside lightning talks from across the University.
The day closes with hands-on workshops offering a practical starting point in your own research:
AI for Research 101 — a grounding in the tools and where to begin
Agentic AI for research — working with AI agents
AI tools for literature search — finding and synthesising the literature faster
Industry partners Dell and NVIDIA join researchers throughout the day, and there'll be dedicated time to network with colleagues from across the disciplines and the University's research support community.
Research AI Hackathon
Research AI Hackathon
Following the main event, we are also hosting full-day, hands-on workshops on Friday, 2nd October 2026, led by the Research Software Engineering team and the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute. These intensive sessions will provide in-depth technical training on cutting-edge AI workflows and tools, offering researchers a practical path to mastering and applying AI in their specific fields. For more information, please contact Twin Karmakharm.
Centre for Machine Intelligence
Centre for Machine Intelligence
The Centre for Machine Intelligence serves as the primary hub for AI excellence within the university. The CMI drives the technical and theoretical agenda for the event, showcasing how machine learning and autonomous systems can be applied to solve complex real-world problems. Their involvement ensures a high level of scholarly rigour and technical depth throughout the programme.
Partners
Partners
The AI for Research Day 2026 is made possible through the collaboration of our research institutes and industry partners. These relationships bring together world-class computational expertise, cutting-edge hardware solutions, and innovative research frameworks to foster an environment where artificial intelligence can thrive across all disciplines.
A global leader in AI computing, NVIDIA provides the underlying hardware and software platforms that make modern AI research possible. Their contribution to the event focuses on GPU-accelerated computing and deep learning frameworks, offering researchers insights into the latest technological advancements that are speeding up data processing and model training.
Dell Technologies plays a crucial role in providing the robust infrastructure and scalable systems required for large-scale research initiatives. Their expertise in high-performance computing (HPC) and data management solutions helps researchers bridge the gap between theoretical AI models and practical, enterprise-grade deployment.
The Research Software Engineering team at the University of Sheffield acts as a vital bridge between software development and academic research. By collaborating with researchers across all disciplines, the RSE team ensures that research code is robust, reproducible, and efficient. From providing dedicated project support and "Code Clinics" to leading training in FAIR principles and GPU computing, they empower the research community to leverage high-quality software as a cornerstone of modern discovery.
IT Services
IT Services
The Research & Innovation IT team provides the computing infrastructure and specialist support that Sheffield researchers rely on every day. The team runs Stanage, the University's flagship high-performance computing (HPC) cluster, giving researchers across all faculties access to substantial CPU and GPU computing power for large-scale and data-intensive work. The Data Analytics Service (DAS) support researchers with AI and data: a team of skilled analysts who work directly alongside research projects to tackle complex data challenges, develop machine learning workflows, and build practical AI skills across the institution.
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