Frances Lloyd and Chris Cox spoke at the 2026 Association of University Engineers Conference

Having shared our experience of reducing energy consumption through our partnership with Eyesea Green with fellow Oxford colleges and departments, Frances Lloyd and Chris Cox presented this to a wider audience at the 2026 UAE event: 'Engineering the Future of University Estates'.

University and College Estates face a shared challenge: achieving significant energy savings and meeting sustainability objectives without compromising the fabric, character, or functionality of historic buildings. Wadham is committed to being part of Oxford University's efforts to improve environmental sustainability, locally and globally. We are working on a programme of improvements at our College to sustain the environment for future generations.

Together with colleagues from Eyesea Green, Dr Anna-Maria Kypraiou and Dr Tashiv Ramsander, Frances and Chris introduced Eyesense by Eyesea Green, a revolutionary distributed energy management system that utilises distributed intelligence to optimise energy consumption without the prohibitive costs of traditional Building Energy Management Systems. They demonstrated how deploying non-intrusive controllers and smart plugs can transform student accommodation into intelligent environments that monitor occupancy, light levels, temperature and humidity in real-time.

Drawing on successful trials at Oxford and Cambridge colleges, including Wadham, Frances, Chris, Anna-Maria, and Tashiv explored how AI-driven collective intelligence allows for demand-based optimisation, ensuring heating, lighting and ventilation operate only when needed — delivering substantial energy savings while reducing reliance on whole building invasive retrofits. Such initiatives have contributed already to significant reductions of gas consumption at Wadham this academic year.