The CDE Annual Event took place on 31st May and 1st June 2017, at the Edge, University of Bath.  This year the conference was organised by the students for the CDE students and wider community.  Bringing together students, academics and industrial partners in a fabulous showcase of research, sharing ideas and networking.

The main conference was opened by CDE Director Prof Peter Hall and was followed closely by a welcome speech and outline of the schedule from Daniel Finnegan and Daniela De Angeli, committee chair.

We were treated to keynote talks from Tom Dolby, Head of Simulations at AiSolve Ltd, giving us an insight into their VR applications within industry and where they see VR in the future, and from Sylvia Pan of Goldsmiths University of London, entertaining us with her research on ‘Virtual Social Interaction’.

CDE students were able to submit presentations, posters, workshops and demos to showcase the diverse research taking place within CDE at the moment.  This really made the conference an interactive experience for all attendees.

The conference was a great success and it was a real pleasure to see the CDE community coming together and sharing, experiences, skills and knowledge.

Co-Director of the CDE, Prof Jian Jun Zhang, gave the closing speech at the conference and said “This is the first time our CDE annual event was organised and run by our students. I was so impressed to see so much variety of the activities at the conference, from student presentations to posters and keynotes. I’m so proud to see them rapidly grow into maturer researchers.”

The event was also a good opportunity to say a fond farewell to our Centre Manager Denise Cooke.  Having been with CDE for the past year, Denise really made some great improvements to the operational elements and we will all be very sad to see her go, but we wish her well in her new venture.  When asked how she felt the event went Denise said “It was a great opportunity for the students to get together as a cohort and for the first year students to learn about the placement experience from the students already based in companies”.

Daniel Finnegan, Papers Chair found the conference to be a great experience, “It was exciting to be on the organising committee this year. Its always inspiring to hear what my peers are up to, and as the CDE expands, the diverse set of projects becomes a testament to the widespread domain leading research happening within the UK”

Original post by  Zoe Leonard, CDE Research Events Co-ordinator. For more photos from the event visit the CDE Website.