Workshops

Hosted by: 

Stefanos Xenios 

Industrial Process Systems Engineering Unit, National Technical University of Athen

This workshop will examine how conversational AI can be developed for chemical engineering use cases, with a particular focus on bioprocess-related environments. It will explore the concept of a pilot LLM interface designed to interact with selected experimental and operational knowledge sources, such as lab notes, datasets, and process documentation, in order to support more effective access to technical information. The session will also consider the possible addition of structured knowledge layers, such as knowledge graphs, and discuss future opportunities for near real-time assistance during experiments or process operation. The workshop is intended as an open exploration of potential directions, use cases, and development strategies rather than a definition of a final system.

Hosted by:

Iraj Ghofrani, Ranjith Chiplunkar Daniele Pessina, George Spencer, Cleo Kontoravdi, Maria M. Papathanasiou

Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London

This workshop introduces the fundamental concepts, methodologies, and practical applications of design space identification (DSI) for process development and decision-making under uncertainty. Process systems are increasingly challenged by variability arising from measurement noise, material variability, scale-up effects, environmental disturbances, and model uncertainty. In this setting, identifying operating regions where process performance and quality requirements are satisfied is critical for robust process design and operation.

The workshop will cover DSI workflows and methodologies for identifying feasible and robust operating regions, flexibility assessment, uncertainty-aware process evaluation, and high-dimensional design space analysis. Topics will include deterministic and probabilistic DSI approaches, surrogate modelling methodologies, adaptive sampling strategies, and sensitivity analysis. The relationship between DSI, Quality by Design (QbD), Quality by Digital Design (QbDD), and modern process development frameworks will also be discussed. The presented methodologies are broadly applicable across pharmaceutical, bioprocessing, chemical, energy, materials, and wider process systems engineering applications. The session is intended for researchers, experimentalists, modelling experts, and engineers interested in uncertainty-aware process development, efficient experimentation and robust operational decision-making. In addition to the theoretical concepts, the workshop will include illustrative examples on our software, FlexDesign.

Hosted by:

Rachael Rothman

Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Sheffield

Environmental sustainability is no longer an afterthought, it’s a design constraint. Join us for Bridging the Gap: Integrating LCA into Computer Aided Process Engineering, a fast-paced, 2-hour workshop engineered specifically for academics and industry professionals who live in the world of mass balances, flowsheet simulations, and process optimization. 

This session is 80% peer-driven discussion focused directly on your core competencies. Together, we’ll explore how to map simulation streams to LCI databases, tackle the thermodynamic head-scratchers of multi-product allocation, and build multi-objective optimisation frameworks that balance net present value with ecosystem health. Stop treating environmental metrics as a post-design box-checking exercise, learn how to turn your process simulator into a powerful sustainability engine from the very first iteration.