AI-2026 46th SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, DECEMBER

THIRD CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS

The proceedings of the AI-20xx conference series are now published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI), a sub-series of the distinguished Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series of conference proceedings.

AI-2026: Cambridge, UK, December 15th-17th 2026

Organised by BCS SGAI: The British Computer Society Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence (a EurAi Member Society).

The leading series of UK-based international conferences on Artificial Intelligence and one of the longest running AI conference series in Europe.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

http://www.bcs-sgai.org/ai2026/

AI-2026 is the forty-sixth SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence.

The scope of the conference comprises the whole range of AI technologies and application areas. AI-2026 reviews recent technical advances in AI technologies and shows how these advances have been applied to solve business problems. Key features are:

• Papers will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) subseries of the popular Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series (www.springer.com/lncs).
• Papers are invited in two streams. The Technical Stream presents the best of recent developments in AI, covering a wide range of technical areas. The Application Stream is the largest annual showcase in Europe of real applications using AI technology.
• It is expected that the best papers will be reprinted in expanded form in a special issue of an international journal.
• A mixture of full papers (maximum 14 A4 pages) presented orally and short papers (maximum 6 A4 pages) presented as posters. Papers of both kinds will be included in the proceedings.
• Prizes for best paper and best student paper in each stream and best presented short/poster paper.
• Invited keynote lectures.
• The first day comprises tutorials and workshops to provide greater depth in selected topics. (Separate one-day registration for this day is also available.)
• A panel session on a topical subject.
• An 'AI Open Mic' session to allow delegates to have their say about any aspect of AI.
• In addition to the formal sessions, the conference programme includes a welcome reception and a Gala Dinner.

AI-2026 offers a valuable opportunity to keep up to date with developments in AI and to share experiences in the practical issues of developing AI systems.

FAIRS '26, the eighteenth annual forum for AI research students will immediately precede the AI-2026 conference at Peterhouse College on Monday December 14th, 2026. The aim of FAIRS is to support student members of the AI community providing advice and feedback on their research plans and work. This event is free of charge for research students except for a contribution towards the cost of refreshments and lunch in the College and no conference registration is required.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Paper/Poster Submission: Friday 26th June 2026

This deadline is considerably later than for previous conferences in this series and will not be extended.

• Notification of Acceptance: Tuesday September 1st 2026
• Camera Ready Paper: Monday 14th September 2026

CONTRIBUTIONS

Contributions presenting original work in AI are invited for both the technical and the application stream. Contributions may be submitted either as full papers of up to fourteen A4 pages for oral presentation or as short papers of up to six A4 pages for poster presentation.

• Technical Stream

Areas of interest include (but are not restricted to): knowledge engineering; semantic web; constraint satisfaction; intelligent agents; machine learning; model based reasoning; verification and validation of AI systems; natural language understanding; speech-enabled systems; case based reasoning; neural networks; genetic algorithms; data mining and knowledge discovery in databases; knowledge representation, inference and reasoning; robotics and pervasive computing; qualitative and temporal reasoning; knowledge management; AI languages and environments; robotics and pervasive computing; large language models.

• Application Stream

Case studies are welcomed describing the application of AI to real-world problems. Papers in recent years have covered all application domains, including commerce, manufacturing and government, and every major AI technique. In addition to case studies and specific applications of AI, we would welcome papers that discuss issues such as managing the transfer from research to production of AI-based products. Papers are selected to highlight critical areas of success (and failure) and to present the benefits and lessons of value to other developers. Submitted papers should make these points clear.

• Short Papers for Poster Presentation

Short papers are intended for the presentation of work which meets the high standards of the conference, but which is more topical and preliminary than the work presented in full papers. They provide an excellent forum for disseminating new developments and latest work in progress, especially suited to PhD students. Work submitted in the form of full-length papers that fall short of the standard for oral presentation will automatically be considered as candidates for reworking as short papers for poster presentation.

• Submission of Papers

Final versions of accepted papers must be prepared in either Microsoft Word or Latex together with a copy in PDF format. Initial versions of papers should be submitted in PDF format only and uploaded to the conference website by the deadline given above. Instructions for authors and templates for both Word and Latex are given at

http://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

In order for an accepted paper to be published at least one author must register for the conference and undertake to attend and present the paper in person. Presenting authors will be asked to register for the conference at the discounted speakers' rate when they return the final camera-ready versions of their papers.

• Tutorials & workshops

The Conference Committee invites proposals for tutorials and workshops to be presented on the first day of the conference. These should be directed in the first instance to the Tutorial/Workshop Organiser.

• Prizes

There are prizes for the best paper and best student paper submitted in each stream, chosen by the relevant program committee, and also a prize for the best presented short/poster paper, awarded on the basis of delegate voting.

All further information including details of the conference committee, program committees, paper format and uploading instructions is given on the conference website.

ALL CORRESPONDENCE SHOULD BE SENT BY EMAIL TO THE CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT:
sgai-conference AT bcs.org.uk

My source: BCS-SGAI

12TH ANNUAL TANZANIA HEALTH SUMMIT 2025 (reminder)

THEME: "Harnessing Data Utilization and Technologies to Accelerate Universal Health Coverage"

INTRODUCTION 

Healthcare systems are evolving worldwide through the integration of health data and technologies. This integration is crucial for advancing Universal Health Coverage (UHC), particularly in developing nations. Data forms the foundation, encompassing patient information, treatments, and outcomes. Technologies on the other hand serve as tools like cloud storage, IoT devices, and blockchain that enable efficient data collection and processing. AI, a subset of digital technologies, then transforms this data into actionable insights through machine learning and predictive analytics, improving healthcare delivery and decision-making. The healthcare AI market's projected growth of 36.8% CAGR from 2025 to 2030 (Matsukatov, 2024) reflects its potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery, from diagnosis to resource allocation. Tanzania exemplifies how this integration impacts developing healthcare systems - with its UHC service coverage index expected to exceed 48% by 2025, the country is working to bridge healthcare access and quality gaps (WHO, 2025). The upcoming 12th Tanzania Health Summit will address how these components work together in low-resource settings. The focus will be on practical applications: health technology platforms for data management, technology infrastructure for connectivity, and AI-driven analysis for disease prediction. This integrated approach shows how developing nations can leverage technologies to accelerate progress toward comprehensive healthcare coverage despite the current resource constraints. 

CONTEXT 

Tanzania's healthcare system exemplifies both the challenges and opportunities in leveraging digital technology to achieve Universal Health Coverage in sub-Saharan Africa. With a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1.3:10,000 (against WHO's recommended 1:1,000), the country has strategically embraced digital innovation to bridge critical healthcare gaps (WHO, 2025). The Tanzania Digital Health Strategy (2019-2024) serves as the blueprint for this digital transformation, focusing on three key areas: health information systems, electronic medical records (EMRs), and data-driven decision-making (Ministry of Health, Tanzania Digital Health Strategy; 2019-2024). This initiative has shown measurable progress, with EMR deployment reaching 66.57% of healthcare facilities nationwide (PORALG, 2025). The implementation of DHIS2 (District Health Information System 2) has enhanced national health data collection and analysis, notably improving disease outbreak response capabilities.

Conference details 
Text: Concept note

Alice ...

Individual
|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------ mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

Group

 

Women's Rights begin..?

 

My source: 

Critics' choice, Life&Arts, FTWeekend, 19-20 December 2015. regarding: https://www.bl.uk/alice-in-wonderland

Image: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/carroll-illustrations-for-alice-undergound

See also:

Butt up against the Boxes...?

 

A new citation of Hodges' model: "A multi-agent system approach to dynamic ridesharing for older people" 2020

Given the volume of new research published each year and even daily, I am always looking for validation of Hodges' model and my belief (and time ...) in the model's generic utility.

An email from ResearchGate this morning prompted a search, revealing the following conference paper by Iris Lohja, Yves Demazeau and Christine Verdier. 

This a very rewarding read for me as the paper states that Hodges' is situated, person-centred, socio-technical and combines the individual and group.

"Situation Theory is a theoretical approach, according to which a system is defined as the composition of situation-related concerns. To collect information about these concerns and to address the user preferences BP, we use the Hodges’ Health Career Model (H2CM) [15]. It is a model centred around the person, based on the situation,considering all contexts (or as many as possible), and allows for simple modelling. One of the main reasons why this model is adapted to our context is that it allows for individualism and holism at the same time. We use H2CM to structure knowledge or features of older people around two axes – the vertical axis of individual and group and the horizontal axis of humanistic and mechanistic – which create four knowledge domains – Interpersonal, Sciences, Sociology, and Political. The vertical axis indicates our primary focus on the older person as an individual and as a group. The horizontal axis separates features into humanistic – related to the social aspect of the older person/people – and mechanistic – related to the technical aspects concerning the older person/people. Figure 1 shows the H2CM model for the passenger population, where we can see some features identified and classified into the four knowledge domains.

Modelling the passenger population with H2CM in IMOPOP helps to identify and include in the system their preferences and constraints, thus addressing the user preferences BP. A UML representation of a passenger agent is shown in Figure 2.

Table 1 compares the approaches we have considered for the modelling of the agents, according to our main criteria." p.54

I will post again and if possible with Figure 1 and Table 1 from the paper. 

Figure 1 could be extended and Table 1 is a very useful approach by the authors, contrasting Hodges' model with other approaches.

"In this paper, we discussed about various MAS techniques for dealing with the first two blocking points. Viewing our multi-agent system as componential, we considered various models for modelling each of its components. We used the socio-technical Hodges’ Health Career Model, which originates from the social care domain but we still described as it is crucial for IMOPOP. It is used to model the older people as the agents in the system, addressing the user preferences blocking point. Given that we consider ridesharing as activity-based, we discussed about activities and proposed modelling the urgency and importance of these activities in the system. In the environment, we modelled agents’ points of interest and the main players in the ridesharing market." p.57.

MAS: multi-agent systems (the MAS described is called IMOPOP)

Iris Lohja, Yves Demazeau, Christine Verdier. A multi-agent system approach to dynamic ridesharing for older people: State-of-the-art work and preliminary design. 18èmes Rencontres des Jeunes Chercheurs en Intelligence Artificielle, RJCIA’20, Jun 2020, Angers, France. pp.52-59. ⟨hal-02897446⟩

 See also from Aug. 2020:

a Paper: Hodges' model and mental health nursing in bushfire-affected communities

 

Book: The Great Convergence ( ...within Hodges' model)

"His [Baldwin's] framework posits three "cascading constraints" that hold back the globalisation of markets, namely the cost of moving goods, ideas and people. Initially, all were bundled together: early societies stayed where they were, passed down information to the next generation and ate what they grew. The first wave of globalisation that created the Great Divergence expanded markets via the falling cost of transporting physical goods, thanks to the steamship and the railway. ..." p.10.

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

The cost of moving:  IDEAS	GOODS
PEOPLE	Book: The Great Divergence

Richard Baldwin (2016). The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization.  Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.


Beattie, A. (2016). Movement politics. FT Weekend, Life&Arts, Books. November 26-27. p.10.

Calling Dewey and the care domains

In Education for work: background to policy and curriculum Corson (1991) considers the workplace, workers, satisfaction and the constraints that operate there. From almost a century ago Dewey is cited and resonates with nursing and Hodges' model:

The result was a redesign of workplaces to lessen the constraints and to satisfy worker's desires from achievement, recognition and interest: to offer them meaningful work. For Dewey work of this kind plays a critical role in self-fulfillment and in continuing education: it becomes a vocation or a calling:

A calling is of necessity also an organizing principle for information and ideas; for knowledge and intellectual growth. It provides an axis which runs through an immense diversity of detail; it causes different experiences, facts, items of information to fall into order with another (Dewey, 1916, p.362). p.173.

Corson, D. (1991) Introduction: Studies in Work Across the Curriculum, In. CORSON, D. (ed.) Education for work: background to policy and curriculum.Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. p.173.

Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and Education. Macmillan: New York.

Problem Solving, Creativity and h2cm - or P.S. Sedbergh is a book-town ;-)

Yesterday in Sedbergh I visited a couple of bookshops. I came away with four (second-hand) titles, one was Corwin Bennett's Spaces for People: Human Factors In Design, 1977, Prentice-Hall. It's a small paperback that shows how long 'human factors' research has been around - the text mentions 'computers' but not 'PCs'.

In chapter 10 on Creativity and Problem Solving (p. 163) there is a very simplistic figure which I have copied at left. I think the next paper (if there is another in me) must really tackle what Hodges' model is beyond the 'conceptual framework'?

Problems have always figured in my nursing and informatics career. As a human being thank goodness for the ongoing marriage between creativity and our problem solving proclivity (we are going to need it) .

Scanning the book shelves (the architecture section in this case) at £4 this book was a bargain.

Bennett's translation from creativity to problem solving invites discussion of:

1. the overall complexity within (and without!) health and social care disciplines;
2. the complexity of care pathways in theory, practice and policy;
3. the need to re-appraise our information gathering and recording (pre & post ICT implementation);
4. and how Hodges' model (see below) might concurrently represent and possibly disseminate care states:
• statically as snapshots;
• or dynamically (anyone for a challenge?).

I will try to expand on the above as things (hopefully) fall into place and mention those other books...

It is the NW England Drupal meeting tomorrow night.