Connectionists: 23rd Int.l Summer School on Biometrics, Behavior and Vision - Alghero, Italy June 8-12 2026

[Massimo Tistarelli]

*We apologize if you are receiving this information multiple times*

*23rd EURASIP*/IAPR*/IEEE* Int.l Summer School for Advanced Studies on
Biometrics, Behavior and Vision*

HUMAN INTERACTIONS AND LARGE FOUNDATION MODELS

Alghero, Italy – June 8-12 2026
Contact: tista at uniss.it https://biometrics.uniss.it

For the past 22 years this international Summer School provided an
active and dynamic forum to closely follow the most recent
developments in science and technology to offer a cutting edge,
intensive training course, always up to date with the current
state-of-the-art. This year's main topic will be the impact of
generative AI and large foundation models on the development and
deployment of biometrics and human recognition in different
application domains to facilitate human interaction with artificial
agents.
Machine learning, Image understanding, Signal analysis, Neuroscience,
Robotics, Forensic science, Digital forensics and other disciplines,
converged in a truly multidisciplinary effort to devise and build
advanced systems to facilitate the interpretation of signals recorded
from individuals acting in a given environment. This is what we simply
call today "Biometrics".
Over the last decade the advent of Deep Learning and, more recently,
Generative AI, strongly impacted both research and application of
automatic biometric data analysis and recognition. However, other
issues and concerns, not directly related to the computational
performance, arise including the fairness, reliability and
trustfulness of current biometric systems.
This edition of the school will address these issues trying to answer
some compelling questions, such as:

- How to mitigate bias in recognition systems?
- How to design privacy-preserving and "ethical" AI models?
- What can we learn from human perception?
- How to better deploy current large foundation models?
- How to cope for adversarial attacks in biometric recognition?
- How human interactions can facilitate continual learning and adaptation?
- What is the potential impact of biometrics in forensic investigation
and crime prevention?

The course follows the successful track of the International Summer
Schools on Biometrics held since 2003 and it will provide a clear and
in-depth picture on the state-of-the-art in biometric
verification/identification technology, both under the theoretical and
scientific point of view as well as in diverse application domains.
The lectures will be given by 18 outstanding experts in the field,
from both academia and industry.
Open sessions will be organised with questions and answers moderated
by leading experts in the field.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 15th 2026
download application form: https://biometrics.uniss.it

* Sponsorship approval pending

Participant application
The school will be open to about 60 highly qualified, motivated and
pre-selected applicants. Phd students, post-docs, researchers,
forensic examiners, police officers and professionals are encouraged
to apply.
To attend the school classes, physical presence of the participants
will be required. In exceptional cases of travel limitations, remote
participation with videoconference facilities will be also allowed.
The expected school fees will be in the order of 1,900 € (400 € in
videoconference) for students and 2,500 € (900 € in videoconference)
for others.
The fees will include full board accommodation at the school premises,
all courses and handling material.
A limited number of scholarships, offered by the school sponsors,
partially covering the fees, will be awarded to students, selected on
the basis of their scientific background and on-going research work.
The scholarship request form can be downloaded from the school web
site https://biometrics.uniss.it .

Phd students, researchers and post-docs are also encouraged to submit
a short paper (6 pages maximum) for an oral presentation on their
recent research activity.
Poster boards will be also available for all participants to display
their current research or professional activities in the field.

Send a filled application form (download from
http://biometrics.uniss.it ) together with a short curriculum vitae
to:
Prof. Massimo Tistarelli – e-mail: biometricsummerschool at gmail.com

Advance application is strictly required by February 15th 2026
School location
The school will be hosted by Hotel Dei Pini
(https://www.hoteldeipini.com/ ) in the Capo Caccia bay, near Alghero,
Sardinia.
This is one of the most beautiful resorts in the Mediterranean Sea.
The structure is beautifully immersed into the Capo Caccia bay.
The hotel Dei Pini has a recently renovated conference centre, fully
equipped for scientific events.
The school venue, as well as the surroundings, proved to be a perfect
environment for the school activities.

School Committee

Massimo Tistarelli
Computer Vision Laboratory
University of Sassari, Italy

Josef Bigun
Department of Computer Science
Halmstad University, Sweden

Enrico Grosso
Computer Vision Laboratory
University of Sassari, Italy

Anil K. Jain
Biometrics laboratory
Michigan State University, US

Distinguished lecturers from past school editions

Josef Bigun - Halmstad University – Sweden
Thirimachos Bourlai - University of Georgia – USA
Kevin Bowyer - University of Notre Dame – USA
Vincent Bouatou - Idemia – France
Rama Chellappa - University of Maryland – USA
Roberto Cipolla - Cambridge University – UK
John Daugman - Cambridge University – UK
Farzin Deravi - University of Kent – UK
Andrzej Drygajlo - EPFL – Switzerland
Jean-Luc Dugelay - Eurecom – France
Ida Gobbini - Università di Bologna – Italy
James Haxby - Dartmouth University – USA
Anil K. Jain- Michigan State University – USA
Ioannis Kakadiaris - University of Houston – USA
Michael King - Florida Institute of Tech. – USA
Joseph Kittler - University of Surrey – UK
Chang-Tsun Li - Warwick University – UK
Davide Maltoni - Università di Bologna – Italy
Sebastien Marcel - IDIAP – Switzerland
John Mason - Swansea University – UK
Aldo Mattei - Arma dei Carabinieri – Italy
Didier Meuwly - Netherlands Forensic Institute – NL
Emilio Mordini MD - Responsible Technology – Italy
Mark Nixon - University of Southampton – UK
Alice O’Toole - University of Texas – USA
Maja Pantic - Imperial College – UK
Vishal Patel - Johns Hopkins University – USA
Jonhaton Phillips - NIST – USA
Tomaso Poggio - MIT – USA
Nalini Ratha - University at Buffalo – USA
Arun Ross - Michigan State University – USA
Tieniu Tan - CASIA-NLPR – China
Massimo Tistarelli - Università di Sassari – Italy
Alessandro Verri - Università di Genova – Italy
James Wayman - University of San Josè – USA
Harry Wechsler - George Mason University – USA
Lior Wolf - Mentee Robotics & Tel Aviv University – Israel
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