EWSHM 2026 Students and young professionals Challenge

Aims of the challenge

With this challenge, we want to encourage and honour young professionals to apply, invent and present their ideas to an international community coming from academia, authorities, industries and research organisations. We also want to increase the participation of young professionals to international scientific conferences and to provide them a platform for their future career as well as deepening their interest into the field of SHM.

 

Subjects

Three subjects are proposed and each team must choose one of them:

  1. Data-driven detection of trends and anomalies in civil engineering application — proposed by OSMOS group
  2. Embedded algorithms for detection and location by elastic guided waves of controlled delamination-type damages in laser-impacted composite plates — proposed by CEA-List and ENSAM
  3. Bring innovations into a low-power wireless sensor node dedicated to SHM — proposed by UGE and LAAS-CNRS

Only a limited number of teams can apply to subject 3 due to limited availability of hardware that will be sent by the organisers.

 

Organisation

In the months before the conference, developments and tests can be performed in teams own labs and must be properly documented (paper, recordings, diagrams, video, etc.) such that the evaluation procedure can be well presented during the conference. Teams are encouraged to interact with the organisers during this period to ask questions and share preliminary results / difficulties.

During the conference, in a dedicated session, the teams will present their approach and the results of their research, including a live demonstration. This could be a video showing the SHM system in action, or the method could be demonstrated live during the presentation.

 

The jury

The jury is composed of the people who elaborated the subjects. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, young professionals of the organising institutions cannot participate to the specific subject proposed by their colleagues.

The jury members have a strong background in SHM, they represent different profiles (academia / research organisations, industry, young researchers) and different sectors.

 

Eligibility

This young researcher challenge is open to any Master student, Ph.D student or young researcher within 1 year after their Master or Ph.D diploma at the time of registration.

Teams must be composed of at least 2 young researchers, and up to 5.

Teams can be accompanied by a supervisor of their institution, but the supervisor cannot present the results during the conference.

Young researchers who want to participate but do not have a teammate should contact the organisers before December 31th, 2025 to find a potential teammate.

 

Evaluation criteria

The criteria upon which the challenge and hence the successful winners will be decided are the following:

  • 40 %: Quality of the scientific approach, clarity and effectiveness of the presentation, quality of the discussions with the jury
  • 40 %: Quality of the results obtained (including quality of the code published) and presented / demonstrated during the special session
  • 20 %: Innovation and expected impact in the field

Rank of the teams will be first established independently for the three subjects.

If only one team is registered on a subject or if the overall quality of the contributions are considered insufficient on a subject, the jury can decide to convert the prize initially dedicated to this subject in a special award for which all the teams are eligible (for example: “Most Sustainable Solution”, etc.).

 

Important dates

  • Publication of detailed subjects and datasets and definitive challenge rules: November 30th, 2025
  • Application deadline: January 31st, 2026
  • First virtual meeting to present subjects and answer questions of participants: beginning of February, 2026
  • Conference: from July 7th to 10th, 2026
  • Winners’ announcement: July 9th, 2026 during EWSHM 2026 Gala Dinner

 

Awards

Four prizes – including the Audience Prize of 3 k€ – will be awarded during the conference to the teams with the best evaluations.

 

Costs

Registration to the challenge is free but at least one person of the team (except potential supervisor) should be in-person registered to present during the conference. No travel and accommodation costs will be covered.

Data and/or hardware will be provided by the organizers at no cost (with a restriction on the number of teams registered on subject 3). Hardware should be given back by the teams to the organisers before or during the conference.

 

Registration

Must be completed before January 31st, 2026

To register, send an e-mail to the organisers (ewshm2026@cofrend.com) with all the following information:

  • Team name
  • For each young researcher: Name, e-mail, level study, affiliation
  • For the supervisor (if relevant): Name, e-mail, position, affiliation
  • The chosen subject
  • ½ page abstract describing the technical proposition

 

Guidelines / Miscellaneous

  • The teams are encouraged to share code/data under open-source licenses and to publish their results after the conference.
  • The teams are welcome to seek for technical and financial support from industries and research organisations.
  • At least one team representative must present the results on stage during the conference. Evidence of teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration will be favourably evaluated.

 

Organisers

  • Gaël Loubet, LAAS-CNRS
  • Odile Abraham, Univ. Eiffel
  • Nazih Mechbal, ENSAM
  • François-Baptiste Cartiaux, OSMOS Group
  • Arthur Bouché, Univ. Eiffel
  • Clément Fisher, CEA
  • Daniela Dragomirescu, LAAS-CNRS
  • Bastien Chapuis, CEA