Accepted Special Sessions
Special Session 1
Title: E-Noses and Chemical Sensing in Energy Applications
Call for Paper Flyer Download Link: https://www.isoen2026.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SS01.pdf
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2026
Session Organizer:
Saverio De Vito, ENEA – Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Italy
Abstract:
Artificial olfaction is becoming an operative tool in several application fields. Not surprisingly, recent results and developments highlights that chemicals and odour sensing could play a significant role in the energy sector which is in turn undergoing a fast transition towards smarter, climate friendly and greener solutions. Actually, starting from well established scenarios like odour nuisance and emission monitoring in fossil or bio fuels processing to novel and intriguing fields like field gas leakages detection and localization, transformers monitoring or battery monitoring, e-noses technologies is challenged by new strict sensitivity, integration, pervasivity, mobility and data fusion requirements.
This session is devoted to present outstanding proposals and operative results for E-noses applications to the chemical sensing needs of energy sector.
Special Session 2
Title: Heterogeneous Robotic Systems for Environmental Monitoring
Call for Paper Flyer Download Link: https://www.isoen2026.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SS02.pdf
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2026
Session Organizers:
Patrick P. Neumann, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Germany
Nicolas P. Winkler, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Germany
Abstract:
Mobile Robot Olfaction (MRO) has emerged as a key interdisciplinary field integrating robotics, environmental sensing, and artificial intelligence. As environmental monitoring demands increasingly sophisticated data collection in challenging, unstructured environments, robotic platforms with gas sensing capabilities offer unprecedented opportunities for autonomous, real-time chemical detection and analysis.
This special session addresses fundamental challenges and recent advances in deploying mobile robots for olfactory-based environmental monitoring. Despite significant progress in robotics and sensor technologies, real-world gas sensing applications face inherent challenges: turbulent gas dispersal, rapidly fluctuating concentration levels, limited environmental control, and the complexity of open sampling processes. These challenges require innovative approaches integrating signal processing, machine perception, autonomous navigation, and pattern recognition.
Scope and Topics：
The session welcomes contributions across ground-based and aerial platforms, single-robot systems, multi-agent coordination, and heterogeneous sensor networks. Topics include, but are not limited to: Systems & Sensing: Platform design, chemical sensor integration, electronic nose technologies, multi-sensor arrays, and sensor fusion approaches. Algorithms & AI: Gas distribution mapping, source localization, plume tracking, odor discrimination, concentration estimation, adaptive sampling, machine learning for odor analysis, and intelligent decision-making.
Validation & Applications: Performance evaluation in realistic conditions, human-robot interaction, and field deployment studies.
This session facilitates the exchange of ideas on overcoming the unique challenges of autonomous chemical sensing and advancing MRO capabilities for critical applications in environmental protection, disaster response, and ecological research.
Special Session 3
Title: Lightweight Deep Learning for Resource-Efficient Electronic Nose Signal Processing
Call for Paper Flyer Download Link: https://www.isoen2026.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SS03.pdf
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2026
Session Organizers:
Jia Yan, Southwest University, China
Yinsheng Chen, Harbin University of Science and Technology, China
Abstract:
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, particularly deep learning, has opened new frontiers in electronic nose (e-nose) technology. This special session focuses on fundamental advances in lightweight deep learning (DL) architectures and training strategies specifically designed to address the unique challenges of e-nose signal processing, such as high-dimensional sensor array data, spatio-temporal signal dependencies, and resource efficiency constraints. We emphasize innovations in model efficiency-accuracy co-design, including dynamic neural networks that adapt computational complexity to gas concentration dynamics, sparse transformer architectures for modeling long-sequence sensor responses, and sensor-adaptive knowledge distillation frameworks. Particular attention will be given to sensor-aware compression techniques—such as differential pruning of redundant sensors and quantization with robustness to drift—as well as label-efficient paradigms like self-supervised pre-training for cross-device generalization.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: neural architecture search (NAS) for automated design of sensor-adaptive micro-deep neural networks; model compression methods (pruning, quantization, knowledge distillation) tailored to multi-sensor systems; self-supervised learning for low-label drift compensation; temporal sparsity modeling in transient gas signals using sparse transformers; and interpretable lightweight models for explainable gas classification. The session aims to bridge the gap between theoretical AI methodologies and practical e-nose system development, establishing lightweight DL as a foundational component for scalable, adaptive, and energy-efficient olfactory sensing technologies and catalyzing theoretical and algorithmic breakthroughs in efficient DL for next-generation olfactory sensing systems. Researchers and practitioners from academia and industry are invited to submit original contributions, including novel algorithms, benchmarking studies, and reproducible frameworks.
Special Session 4
Title: Electrochemical Sensing of Neurotransmitters: From Molecular Detection to Neurological Diagnostics
Call for Paper Flyer Download Link: https://www.isoen2026.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SS04.pdf
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2026
Session Organizer:
Hadar Ben-Yoav, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Abstract:
Neurotransmitters are the brain’s chemical messengers, playing critical roles in cognition, mood, motor control, and overall neurological health. Dysregulation of neurotransmitters including dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and GABA underlies numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Real-time, selective detection of these molecules represents a frontier challenge in chemical sensing with profound clinical implications for early diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and personalized medicine.
This special session bridges ISOEN’s traditional focus on artificial olfaction with emerging biomedical applications in neurochemical monitoring. While electronic noses detect volatile organic compounds in breath and headspace, neurotransmitter sensors, such as electronic tongues, detect non-volatile signaling molecules in biological fluids and neural tissue. Both domains demand advanced pattern recognition, high selectivity within complex biological environments, and compact sensor architectures— key competencies of ISOEN expertise. Recent advances in electrochemical biosensors, nanomaterial-enhanced electrodes, implantable microelectrodes, and wearable devices now enable neurotransmitter detection with unprecedented sensitivity and temporal resolution.
The proposed session will explore electrochemical sensing technologies including voltammetric microelectrodes, enzyme-based biosensors, aptamer-functionalized sensors, and carbon nanomaterial platforms. Applications span invasive neural probes for basic neuroscience research, minimally invasive sampling of cerebrospinal fluid, and non-invasive monitoring via blood, saliva, sweat, and tear fluid. Clinical translation topics include biomarker validation for neurodegenerative diseases, continuous monitoring for medication optimization, and integration with digital health platforms. Critical challenges to be addressed include achieving selectivity among structurally similar neurotransmitters, maintaining sensor performance in biofouling environments, biocompatibility for chronic implantation, and regulatory pathways for medical device approval.
This session brings together researchers in electrochemical sensing, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, analytical chemistry, and clinical neurology to advance the next generation of neurochemical diagnostic tools—transforming our ability to monitor brain health at the molecular level.
Special Session 5
Title: Biomimetic Sensor Systems for Analysis of Taste
Call for Paper Flyer Download Link: https://www.isoen2026.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SS05.pdf
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2026
Session Organizers:
Dmitry Kirsanov, St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Hao Wan, Zhejiang University, China
Abstract:
Biomimetic sensor systems inspired by the human gustatory system have emerged as powerful analytical tools for characterizing complex liquid samples. By integrating chemical sensing materials, multisensor array designs, and advanced data-driven algorithms, these systems can capture multidimensional taste information that cannot be obtained by traditional single-parameter analytical techniques. Recent developments in electronic tongues, biosensors, and bio-inspired transduction strategies have significantly expanded their applications in food science, environmental monitoring and biomedical diagnostics. As multimodal and machine learning based sensing rapidly advances, biomimetic sensors are becoming essential for objective, rapid, and non-destructive characterization of chemical compositions for various applications.
This Special Session will focus on researches related to the design, modeling, and application of biomimetic sensors and systems, including but not limited to:
- Bio-inspired chemical sensing materials and transducers
- Electronic tongue systems and multi-sensor platforms
- Signal processing, pattern recognition, and machine learning methods for taste interpretation
- Novel biosensing approaches using optical, electrochemical, and mass-sensitive techniques
- Biomedical and clinical applications, including liquid biopsy, metabolic screening, and disease markers
- Novel microfluidic, flexible, or wearable biosensing technologies
Special Session 6
Title: Biomimetic Olfactory Perception and Intelligent Electronic Nose
Call for Paper Flyer Download Link: https://www.isoen2026.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SS06.pdf
Paper submission deadline: January 5, 2026
Session Organizers:
Ping Wang, Zhejiang University, China
Shirong Huang, TU Dresden, Germany
Liujing Zhuang, Zhejiang University, China
Abstract:
Olfactory and gustatory senses, fundamental to human experience, are crucial for interpreting environmental conditions. In 2004, American scientists Dr. Richard Axel and Dr. Linda B. Buck were awarded the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work on the principles of olfaction and odor recognition. The development of various artificial olfactory systems, or electronic noses, has been pursued because of their significant commercial potential.
Biomimetic olfactory perception and intelligent electronic noses emulate animal olfactory systems to detect odors and chemical components using sensitive materials, and have proven highly beneficial across fields such as the food industry, environmental protection, and biomedicine. For example, they have been used to identify disease-associated odors in breath, including markers indicative of diabetes and lung cancer.
Although some achievements have been made, this method still has limitations in sensitivity and specificity, compared with the biology binding of specific odorants to the olfactory receptor cells. Thus, the study of biomimetic olfaction perception and intelligent electronic nose is still at an early stage. Only a few kinds of olfactory systems are in commercial use. Therefore, the research on intelligent electronic noses is still very important for future development.
This Special Session will focus on research related to the design, modeling, and application of Biomimetic Olfactory Perception and Intelligent Electronic Noses, including but not limited to:
- Bio-inspired olfactory, odor sensing materials and transducers.
- Novel nanomaterials-based electronic nose systems and multi-gas sensor array platforms.
- Signal processing, pattern recognition, and machine learning methods for olfactory interpretation.
- Novel olfactory sensing approaches using optical, chemical, biological sensitive techniques, e.g., receptors, nanotechnology, cell and organoids etc.
- Biomedical and clinical applications, including metabolic screening, disease markers detection and olfactory repair, etc.
- Novel flexible or wearable biomimetic olfactory perception and intelligent electronic noses technologies.