With the traditional miner's greeting, the conference presidents Prof. Dr Gudrun Stockmanns and Prof. Dr Karsten Seidl invited participants to the BMT 2023 in the Mercatorhalle in Duisburg from 26 to 28 September. The conference took place together with Artificial Vision under the direction of Prof Dr Peter Walter.
The day before the conference, the Young Forum met with 50 participants at the Fraunhofer inHaus Centre for a scientific exchange with each other and with "old hands". In the afternoon, the weather was perfect for a boat trip on the Rhine. The day ended with a cheerful get-together for the younger generation.
The good atmosphere continued throughout the following three days. 563 participants (including Artificial Vision) took part in 58 sessions with a total of 273 presentations. 125 posters were presented in the open foyer. The bright, open areas invited participants to exchange ideas during the breaks and at the get-together in the evening. Companies, project consortia and research institutes presented their products and latest findings in an industry exhibition.
Highlights ….
It is difficult to pick out the best from the many contributions and formats. However, the following certainly deserve special mention:
6 exciting keynotes - the Philharmonie provided a festive setting for the presentations by Prof Elsa Kirchner, Dr Sebastian Schmitter, Dr Stephan Schug, Prof Florian Solzbacher, Prof Sylvia Thun and Prof Roland Zengerle.
Your voice, your impact - a practical workshop from the new format "Career paths for female academics". There was great interest in the topic of "Women in medical technology" and the committed participants want to continue networking with each other.
Start-up pitch - three young companies presented their innovative ideas and answered the interested questions of the audience. In the vote for the best pitch, mobOx.health came out on top with its innovative blood analysis for the emergency services, just ahead of neuroTime (clock without numbers for people with temporal disorientation) and O11-Biomedical (RESPILIQ™ - "the liquid breath").
Neurotechnology in the mirror of society - a critical panel discussion took place under this motto: What possibilities do brain-computer interfaces offer? Where are the limits? What is ethically and humanly acceptable and justifiable? The special feature of this session was the dancer who had travelled from Vienna to present the interface between human and computer in her performance.
