2026 Annual General Meeting

Technical Symposium

The proceedings opened once the AGM had been successfully concluded, with some introductory words from the lively and engaging Dr Róisín Hyde, who was chairing the symposium. She set the scene with some helpful guidance on the terminolgy likely to be raised by the programme, and introduced the speakers in turn.

Entitled ‘Concrete in the Digital Era’, this was the third in the ICT's series of symposia under the running banner, The Pursuit of Net Zero Concrete. It was a theme likely to harness the input of speakers from beyond the usual range of materials companies and certainly it captured the participation of clients and technology suppliers, as well as researchers and those closer to concrete production. Who would have anticapated the involvement of logistics giant Amazon and leading property developer Canary Wharfe? The line up was correspondingly diverse, youthful and with a balanced gender split, and representing organisations in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA, as well as the UK. With the use of AI an underlying unifer to the programme, it is probably fair to say the vibe was a little different from previous Conventions.

Thank you to our principal sponsor

The Young People's Poster Competition

The annual poster competition, held at the Convention for its third year, attracted seven entries (plus a couple more who eventually were unable to attend). Those taking part are listed to the left with their project title.

Posters were prominently displayed along the back wall of the auditorium, and the contributors made themselves available in the breaks to explain their projects to anyone interested. A spare 20-minute slot in the afternoon geve the opporunity for a surprise poster pitch, in which entrants were able to present to a wider audience.

In the evening the winners were presented with a framed certificate and cash prize kindly donated by Martyn Fear of Carbo Nullo Fabrica. Winning first prize was Min Zhou, with Gauthier Leclercq and Nirosha Ushettige second and third respectively. A consolation prize was offered to Priyanshu Sinha, who had missed out on a top three place by just one point, and so was able to enjoy a ‘podium finish’.

Exhibition

With an expanded range of Supporting Organisations this year, the Convention was fortunate to have a good number of participants in the accompanying exhibition.

Laboratory visit

Welcoming the ICT party, host Professor Kevin Paine explained that Bath offered the only joint department of Architecture and Civil Engineering in the country; the department doesn't offer joint degrees, but enables students to learn through joint projects. There are a thousand students and a postgraduate programme for MSc and PhD. The department was placed first for research in 2019. Several members of staff were present, including Drs Juliana Calabria-Holley, Veronica Ferrandiz-Mas and Ilda Tole. Each introduced the research programmes for which she was responsible. These included projects on mechanicochemical activation and mineralisation, clays and digital fabrication (Ilda); densifiying the microstructure of Portland cement to achieve a lower carbon and more durable material, and engineered synthetic aluminosilicates (Juliana); and phase change materials and biochar composites to enhance the thermal storage capacity of concrete in buildings (Veronica). Kevin Paine added an outline of his own work on s elf-healing concrete, conducted in collaboration with the universities of Bradford, Cambridge, Cardiff and others.