COMPUTING WITH WAVES WORKSHOP 2026 

21-22 September 2026

Imperial College London, UK 

This 2-day workshop will bring together researchers across photonics, electromagnetics, acoustics, solid-state systems, and related areas, and will consist of a focused programme of invited talks, with approximately ten invited speakers, aimed at identifying common challenges and stimulating new collaborations in computing and information processing with waves.

  • Computing with Waves 2026 will bring together researchers working on emerging approaches to computation and information processing using physical wave systems. 

    The workshop will cover broad areas in wave-based computation across photonic, electromagnetic, acoustic, solid-state, magnonic, quantum, and metamaterial platforms, with a focus on how physical wave systems can be used for computation, information processing, optimization, and signal transformation. 

    The aim is to provide a focused forum for discussion across theory, experiment, and applications, and to identify future opportunities for wave-based computing platforms.

    • Giada Risso (Imperial College London)

    • Andrea Alù (CUNY Graduate Center)

    • Jack Gartside (Imperial College London)

    • Humeyra Caglayan (Eindhoven University of Technology) 

    • Philipp del Hougne (Université de Rennes, CNRS)

    • Nick Farmakidis (University of Exeter)

    • Marco Di Renzo (King's College London)

    • Jiaqi Chu (Microsoft Research Cambridge)

    • Dave Phillips (University of Exeter)

    • Ugur Tegin (Koç University)

  • Day 1 (21/09/2026)

    • 09:30 – 09:40 Opening Speech, Riccardo Sapienza
    • 09:40 – 10:20 Talk 1 - Andrea Alù (CUNY Graduate Center)
    • 10:20 – 11:00 Talk 2 - Humeyra Caglayan (Eindhoven University of Technology)
    • 11:00 – 11:20 Coffee Break
    • 11:20 – 12:00 Talk 3 - Jack Gartside (Imperial College London)
    • 12:00 – 12:40 Talk 4 - Nick Farmakidis (University of Exeter)
    • 12:40 – 14:10 Lunch
    • 14:10 – 14:50 Talk 5 - Ugur Tegin (Koç University)
    • 14:50 – 15:30 Talk 6 - Jiaqi Chu (Microsoft Research Cambridge)
    • 15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
    • 16:00 – 16:40 Talk 7 - Philipp del Hougne (Université de Rennes, CNRS)
    • 16:40 – 18:00 Informal Discussion and Networking
    • 18:00 Dinner

    Day 2 (22/09/2026)

    • 09:30 – 10:10 Talk 8 - Dave Phillips (University of Exeter)
    • 10:10 – 10:50 Talk 9 - Marco Di Renzo (King's College London)
    • 10:50 – 11:10 Coffee Break
    • 11:10 – 12:00 Talk 10 - Giada Risso (Imperial College London)
    • 12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
    • 13:00 – 15:00 Panel - Nature-inspired computation: real world challenges and opportunities
    • 15:00 – 15:10 Conclusion

  • Riccardo Sapienza, Imperial College London 
    Matteo Nerini, Imperial College London 
    Steven Koufidis, Imperial College London 
    Romain Tirole, King’s College London, currently at The City University of New York 
    Zeki Hayran, Imperial College London 

  • John Pendry, Imperial College London 
    Riccardo Sapienza, Imperial College London 
    Jensen Li, University of Exeter 

  • Sorina Damsa 

  • The workshop will take place at Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus. 

    Address: 
    170 Queen’s Gate 
    Imperial College London 
    London, UK 

  • Multiple, disruptive wave-based technologies (acoustic, elastic, radio-frequency, terahertz, and optical) would emerge if the response of the underlying materials could be modulated at will, varying throughout space and time.

    META4D is a UKRI sponsored Programme grant that will simultaneously explore the fundamental physics of space-time-modulated materials and be the first to demonstrate their potential in realworld application.

    Further in formation can be found here https://meta4d.co.uk/

  • The workshop is also supported by the ERC Advanced Grant LUMINOUS, PI: Riccardo Sapienza. 

  • The workshop is further supported by CNRS. CNRS and Imperial College London have developed an institutional partnership supporting collaborations across mathematics, quantitative sciences, engineering, physics, computer science, and related fields. 

    Further information can be found here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/cnrs-imperial-international-research-centre/ 

  • The workshop is also supported by the Royce Institute Atoms2Devices Research Area.

Programme

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