Bienvenue à Belfast, Mathieu !

The symposium is sponsored by the IEEE Region 2 Philadelphia Section, Temple University, and the Neural Engineering Data Consortium. The conference is run by a dedicated group of volunteers. There is no registration fee so that it is very easy for students to attend.

The symposium will be held on 5th December 2026.

The submission deadline is 1st July 2026.

The symposium typically consists of a plenary talk, two oral sessions and a poster session. We usually accept 12 papers for oral presentations and 8 to 12 posters. Acceptance rates for the conference average about 50%. Papers that are not accepted for an oral presentation are given a chance to be resubmitted as a poster presentation.

The conference will be held online using Zoom since this seems to work best for our international audience. In addition to publication of your paper or abstract, a video recording of your contribution will be made available from the conference technical program web page. Please refer to last year’s program to see examples of these presentations.

The conference technical committee will also select a best paper based on both the written submission and oral presentation. Poster submissions are not eligible for this award. After the conference, the organizing committee will invite selected authors to submit an expanded version of their contribution for inclusion in a book published by Springer.

This symposium is intended to bring together a wide range of professionals interested in applications of artificial intelligence (AI), signal processing and clinical applications in medicine and biology. Signal processing and AI are rapidly transforming healthcare due to the significant success deep learning technology has enjoyed recently.

Symposium Topics:

• Signal and image analysis (e.g., EEG, ECG, MRI)
• Artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining
• Quantum computing applications in healthcare
• Clinical applications of signal processing and AI technology
• Smart health systems based on artificial intelligence

For more information, please head on to the official website for SPMB26 here.

The technical programme takes place on Friday 24th April 2026 at ATU Sligo. Mark will deliver a talk entitled: “Digital Twins, Fault Diagnosis, and Simulation Testbeds: From Automotive Engines to Advanced Manufacturing”

Other confirmed speakers include Dr. Pantelis Sopasakis (QUB), Dr. Marion McAfee (ATU), Dr. Edin Omerdic (UL), Dr. Aidan O’Dwyer (TU Dublin), Prof. John Ringwood (Maynooth University), Patrick Lawless (ABB), Dr. Panpan Zhou (University of Galway), Dr. Siyuan Zhan (TCD), and Prof. Vikram Pakrashi (UCD).

Supported by Invest NI and the DfE NI, this groundbreaking 5-year project aims to enhance competitiveness, boost productivity, and promote the ethical and responsible use of AI across diverse industries. Named as a priority for prosperity in the NI Programme for Government (2024–2027), the AICC’s vision is to accelerate AI adoption within SMEs, build AI skills capacity, foster collaboration, and drive innovation across key sectors including healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, engineering and finance. This will ultimately position NI as a global leader in AI innovation and implementation.

More details about the AICC can be found here.

This academic-led and student-run event welcomed around 200 visitors across the five-hour session, drawing in families, students, and industry professionals. The event showcased the breadth of robotics research and technology available at MAvRiC, with hands-on activities that engaged visitors of all ages.

Highlights of the day included:

• Live demonstrations of collaborative robotic arms (cobots), where visitors could witness and interact with precision robot manipulation up close
• A quadruped robot demonstration that drew large and enthusiastic crowds
• 3D printing showcases, with 3D printers creating objects from everyday items through to industrial components in real time
• A miniature robot-building workshop for children, proving a huge hit with younger visitors

The event also featured an industry showcase from Elite Electronic Systems Ltd, who demonstrated non-destructive testing (NDT) technologies alongside the MAvRiC team, highlighting the real-world applications of the lab’s research across aerospace, manufacturing, and materials development.

A big thank you to all the staff and students who helped make the event such a success, and to everyone who came along on the day!

The MAvRiC team:  

Please use this link to access the latest and most up-to-date technical program.

The full proceedings of all SPMB papers can be accessed on IEEE Xplore here.

Mark will join other experts in the field from Ulster University, QUB, and universities in wider UK in shaping the technical focus and directions of research and advancements in DT technologies.

More details about the UKDTC can be found here.

• 2x ER-FLEX 250 (UR-5e cobot + MiR250 AMR combo)
• 4x Turtlebot4
• 3x Bambulab X1 Multi-Filament (AMS) and Multi-Material-capable 3D-Printers
• 3x OrangeApps KUKA-compatible Robotic Arms
• 4x MinSeg Robotic System
• Sonotec PR 200 Combi Pulser
• Picoscope 5443D Oscilloscope
• Ultrasonic Immersion and Contact Transducers

Other existing equipment featured in the lab, bringing it to more than £500k in value including the new equipment above are

• INTECO Dual-Rotor Aerodynamical System
• INTECO Antilock Braking System (ABS)
• Festo CP LAB Variant 3, which includes the following:
  • 6x Pallet Transfer System
  • 4x System Trainers With A4 Frames
  • 2x CP Bridge
  • 1x Robotino + SIM Environment
  • 2x Magazine Modules
  • 1x Measurement Module
  • 1x Muscle Press Module
  • 1x Tunnel Furnace Module
  • 1x Workpiece Output Module
• NVIDIA Jetson TX2

The lab will facilitate research and teaching in the fields of robotics and mechatronics systems, control theory, digital twinning, additive and advanced manufacturing, rapid prototyping, non-destructive testing (NDT) using ultrasonic testing (UT), etc. Furthermore, these activities will be supported by other tied-in facilities available at Ulster such as the Dell Bright Cluster HPC and Digital Twin System, which consists of the following components:

• 1 PowerEdge R6525 Head Node
• 3 PowerEdge R6525 Compute Node
• 1 PowerEdge R750 GPU Node
• 1 PowerEdge R6515 SDP Node

To date, MAvRiC has been made a showcase during the recent UCAS Open Day as well as the East Belfast Summer School.

In addition, MAvRiC also hosted Martin and Tomáš, who joined through the EU Erasmus+ Summer Traineeship Programme. Both Martin and Tomáš have played key role in helping to establish the fundamental setup of the lab, which include an arena for autonomous SLAM for the Turtlebots, as well as the robot-robot communication and simulated manufacturing showcase for the ER-FLEX’s.

MAvRiC, with key research members Mark Ng, Prof. James McLaughlin, Dr Morteza Tabatabaeipour, Dr Ming-wei Chang, Prof. Dewar Finlay, and wider members of the School of Engineering, welcomes and looks forward to establish crucial academic and industry collaborations in the key tech areas above.

For more information and interest in collaboration, please contact Mark Ng at mark.ng@ulster.ac.uk.

Featured facilities in MAvRiC:  

Martin and Tomáš, with Mark and Morteza in the lab:  

Some showcases of current activities in the lab:

Supported by Invest Northern Ireland and the Department for the Economy NI, this groundbreaking 5-year project aims to enhance competitiveness, boost productivity, and promote the ethical and responsible use of AI across diverse industries. Named as a priority for prosperity in the NI Programme for Government (2024–2027), their vision is to accelerate AI adoption within SMEs, build AI skills capacity, foster collaboration, and drive innovation across key sectors including healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, engineering and finance. This will ultimately position NI as a global leader in AI innovation and implementation.

More details about the AICC can be found here.

All the very best, Shruthi!