At the outset of this year, the Institute of Smart Systems and Artificial Intelligence (ISSAI) submitted a series of scholarly papers to the distinguished 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2023). ISSAI had undertaken a number of research initiatives focused on leveraging AI and NLP to address challenges faced by the visually impaired community in the preceding year.
In 2023, an announcement was made confirming the acceptance of one of ISSAI’s works for presentation at EMBC 2023. The work, titled “Image Captioning for Individuals with Visual Impairments and Blindness: Strategies for Lower-Resourced Languages,” was selected. Furthermore, the conference’s organizing committee extended an invitation to ISSAI to showcase its endeavors during the event. Consequently, ISSAI’s research assistant, Batyr Arystanbekov, along with ISSAI’s Technical Project Coordinator, Absalyamov Yerbol, received formal invitations from EMBC 2023, designating them as integral participants.
For clarity, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) stands as the preeminent international association encompassing biomedical engineers. Its extensive membership base, surpassing 10 000 individuals, spans across 97 countries globally. EMBS serves as a vital conduit, affording its members access to cutting-edge developments, methodologies, information, ideation, and perspectives, thereby shaping the rapid evolution of this burgeoning scientific domain.
In the context of this year’s EMBC conference, an assembly of distinguished researchers, students, and keynote speakers from prestigious institutions worldwide converged. The keynote roster included Professor Peter Hunter of the University of Auckland, renowned for his contributions to Computational Systems, Modeling, and Simulation in Medicine, along with Multiscale Modeling and Synthetic Biology. Notably, Professor Chwee Teck Lim from the National University of Singapore, acclaimed for his work in Biomedical Sensors and Wearable Systems, and Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam from Duke University also graced the event. ISSAI takes immense pride in its inclusion in this esteemed gathering, providing a platform to disseminate its pursuits and accomplishments.
Throughout the duration of the conference, ISSAI’s exhibits garnered significant attention from a multitude of esteemed institutions and universities, including but not limited to Hyundai Mobis, KAIST, UCL, King’s College London, John Hopkins University, Fudan University, University of Waterloo, TRENDS, Trinity College Dublin, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Technology Sydney, Nagoya University, Hanyang University, NIH (National Institutes of Health), University of Melbourne, UNSW Sydney, and the University of Auckland. These esteemed visitors duly acknowledged the caliber of ISSAI’s research and computational resources. Furthermore, several of these entities offered invaluable insights to propel ISSAI’s projects forward, while others expressed keen interest in potential collaborations.
On the whole, this conference proved highly beneficial and efficacious for ISSAI, providing invaluable experiences, networking opportunities, a platform to showcase the notable progress and new ideas.