Doctoral SymposiumACSOS 2026
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Tue 8 SepDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
09:10 - 10:00 | Keynote: Valeria CardelliniMain Track at Aula Magna "Carmen Tura" Speaker: Valeria Cardellini (University of Rome Tor Vergata) Title : Adaptive Serverless Computing Across the Cloud-Edge Continuum This keynote explores the paradigm of adaptive serverless computing, where function scheduling, execution offloading, and resource management continuously adapt to changes in infrastructure, workload, and user requirements. We discuss how context-aware orchestration make decentralized runtime decisions that balance performance, cost, and sustainability across heterogeneous cloud and edge resources. As a case study, we present Serverledge, a decentralized, open-source FaaS platform for distributed continuum environments, showing how adaptive execution enables efficient, resilient, and low-latency serverless performance without centralized control. Finally, we highlight emerging research challenges and outline a vision for autonomous serverless platforms that leverage self-adaptation and self-organization to orchestrate next-generation workloads across future continuum systems.. | ||
13:00 - 14:00 | |||
14:00 - 15:00 | Doctoral Symposium Keynote: Being a researcher — in turbulent timesDoctoral Symposium at Aula Magna "Carmen Tura" Speaker: Carlo Ghezzi (Politecnico di Milano) | ||
15:00 - 15:30 | |||
18:00 - 21:00 | Wine Tasting & Dinner (Registration Required)Social Program at Off-site https://2026.acsos.org/attending/social-events#wine-views-and-dinner-on-romagnas-balcony | ||
Wed 9 SepDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
09:00 - 10:00 | Keynote: Bridging Centralized and Decentralized Control in Robot Swarms through Self-Organizing HierarchiesMain Track at Aula Magna "Carmen Tura" Speaker: Marco Dorigo (Université Libre de Bruxelles) In this talk, I present the Self-Organizing Nervous System for Robot Swarms (SoNS), a middleware framework that enables robots to dynamically form adaptive hierarchical structures. SoNS bridges centralized and decentralized paradigms by supporting functionally centralized coordination of sensing, actuation, and decision-making, while preserving the scalability, flexibility, and fault tolerance of self-organizing systems. | ||
13:00 - 14:00 | |||
16:30 - 17:30 | |||
16:30 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Towards Energy-Aware Self-Adaptation for Human Activity Recognition Using a Pareto-Front Doctoral Symposium | ||
16:45 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Towards Collective Robotic Operating Systems through Aggregate Computing Doctoral Symposium Angela Cortecchia Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna | ||
17:00 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Modular Graph Neural Cellular Automata for Spatiotemporal Forecasting Doctoral Symposium Lucas Astore Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) | ||
17:15 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Contrastive Explanations for Multi-objective Policies in Reinforcement Learning Doctoral Symposium Juan C. Rosero Trinity College Dublin, Ireland | ||
16:30 - 17:30 | |||
16:30 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Enabling Industrial Autonomy: Digital Transformation of Automation Systems into Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems Doctoral Symposium Inga Miadowicz Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) | ||
16:45 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Co-Simulating Regional Energy and EV ChargingFutures under Deep Uncertainty Doctoral Symposium Fabian Schober University of Klagenfurt, Austria | ||
17:00 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Enabling Flexible Assembly in Self-Organizing Manufacturing Systems Doctoral Symposium | ||
17:15 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Autonomic and Decentralized Infrastructure Management Framework for the Continuum Doctoral Symposium | ||
18:00 - 19:00 | |||
19:00 - 23:00 | |||
19:00 - 20:00 | |||
Thu 10 SepDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
09:00 - 10:00 | Keynote: Bridging Classical and Quantum Computing: Lessons, Challenges, and OpportunitiesMain Track at Aula Magna "Carmen Tura" Speaker: Ivona Brandic (TU Wien) In this talk, we critically examine the role of classical computing in conjunction with quantum systems. We revisit early misconceptions about quantum advantage, discuss key lessons learned from the first generation of hybrid quantum–classical systems, and highlight current research directions. Particular attention is given to state-of-the-art hybrid algorithms, including the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) and the Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQA), as well as emerging concepts for tighter integration between classical and quantum infrastructures. We conclude by exploring novel interaction paradigms, such as digital shadows and their practical implementations, which may shape the next generation of hybrid computing systems. | ||
13:00 - 14:00 | |||
16:30 - 17:30 | |||
16:30 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Extending Rule-Based Approaches Towards Unanticipated Failures for Self-Healing Robots Doctoral Symposium Andreas Wiedholz XITASO GmbH IT & Software Solutions | ||
16:45 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Engineering Trustworthiness into Self-Adaptive Robotic Systems Doctoral Symposium Sahar Nasimi Nezhad University of Antwerp | ||
17:00 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Self-Organizing Federated Learning in Collective Adaptive Systems Doctoral Symposium Davide Domini Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna | ||
17:15 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Self-Organizing Agricultural Robot Swarms under Human Supervision: An Observer/Controller Architecture for Decentralized Field Operations Doctoral Symposium | ||
16:30 - 17:30 | |||
16:30 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Self-Adaptive Coordination for Heterogeneous Multi- objective Multi-Agent Systems in an Uncertain Dynamic Environment Doctoral Symposium | ||
16:45 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Decentralized Propagation for Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems Situational Awareness Doctoral Symposium Martina Baiardi University of Bologna | ||
17:00 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Time-Limited Adaptation Loops for Electrical Flexibility in Data Centers Doctoral Symposium | ||
17:15 15mDoctoral symposium paper | Can LLM-Based Agents Have Self-Knowledge? A Dialogue Between Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence Doctoral Symposium | ||
18:00 - 21:00 | Kart Race & DinnerSocial Program at Off-site https://2026.acsos.org/attending/social-events#acsos-gp-on-the-riviera-racing-dinner | ||
Unscheduled Events
| Not scheduled Doctoral symposium paper | Toward Practical and Adaptive Machine Learning for Sustainable In-Situ Monitoring in LPBF Doctoral Symposium | ||
| Not scheduled Doctoral symposium paper | A Self-Adaptive Coordination Framework for Multi-Agent Transportation Systems in Sustainable Industrial Symbiosis Networks Doctoral Symposium |
Accepted Papers
Camera Ready Submission
STEP 1: Important Dates
At least one author per accepted Doctoral Symposium paper must complete author registration by July 20, 2026.
Final camera-ready manuscripts must be submitted by July 20, 2026 AoE.
STEP 2: Page Limits
| Paper Type | Proceedings Volume | Page Limit |
| Doctoral Symposium Papers | ACSOS-C | 2 pages plus 1 additional page for references |
STEP 3: Formatting Your Paper
- Submitted abstracts should not exceed 200 words.
- Final submissions must use US Letter page size, the two-column IEEE conference proceedings format, and PDF format.
- IEEE templates are available from the IEEE Author Center: https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html
- Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers.
- The camera-ready version must include author names, affiliations, and acknowledgments as appropriate.
STEP 4: Submitting Your Final Version
Once the format of your paper has been verified and validated, you may submit your final version.
All papers should be submitted using the submission system provided by the IEEE Author Submission Site. Please use the correct site for your proceedings volume:
- Doctoral Symposium Papers: ACSOS-C Author Submission Site: The IEEE Author Submission Site link will be provided directly to authors of accepted papers by the corresponding track chairs.
After you login to the IEEE Author Submission Site, please follow the instructions as you click the Next button on the top right corner of the site. Please enter the following information exactly as it appears on your paper:
- Paper ID (Paper ID from EasyChair, unless CPS assigns a different ID)
- Names of authors, affiliations, countries, and email addresses
- Title and abstract
Follow the instructions to submit your final manuscript.
STEP 5: Submitting a Signed Copyright Release Form
ACSOS 2026 requires authors to submit a fully digital version of the electronic IEEE Copyright-release Form (eCF). The eCF is provided at the IEEE Author Submission Site.
Follow the instructions in the IEEE Author Submission Site to properly fill out and submit the IEEE Copyright-release Form (eCF), including:
- Paper's full title
- All author names
-
Conference title:
2026 IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems Companion (ACSOS-C)
- Signature on the appropriate line
The signed IEEE Copyright-release Form (eCF) should be submitted together with your camera-ready manuscript by July 20, 2026 AoE.
If you have any questions about the above procedures, please contact the Proceedings Chair: Jialong Li ([lijialong@aoni.waseda.jp](mailto:lijialong@aoni.waseda.jp)).
Note: Extra pages are not allowed unless explicitly stated by the conference organizers. Please complete each of the above steps. The conference organizers will not be responsible if your paper is omitted from the proceedings, is not available online in IEEE Xplore, or is subject to additional processing costs if these steps are not performed.
Call for Papers
The Doctoral Symposium provides an opportunity for PhD students to present their research and ideas, and network with the ACSOS community, consisting of a diverse audience of both leading experts and early career researchers in the field. The Doctoral Symposium not only offers early career researchers a chance to gain experience in presenting to an international audience but also to receive invaluable feedback about their work from members of the ACSOS community. PhD students are invited to submit a two-page abstract, with another page for references, using the format in the submission section below. The abstract should describe the key motivation of their research, the major contribution (either actual or expected, depending on the research stage), the research methodology, and the current status of the work.
As in prior years, the Doctoral Symposium will employ a mentoring program in which every author of an accepted paper will be paired with an experienced mentor from the community. Mentors will help introduce the student to the community, offer extended discussion of their research objectives and career opportunities, and will host their student throughout the event to help them gain the best experience from an international conference.
Important Dates
| Abstract submission deadline: | 05/07/2026 |
| Submission deadline: | 05/07/2026 |
| Notification to author: | 13/07/2026 |
| Camera ready deadline: | 20/07/2026 |
| Conference dates | 07/09/2026 – 11/09/2026 |
Submissions
Submissions should use the standard IEEE Computer Society Press proceedings style guide and should be a maximum of 2 pages long, with an extra page permitted for references. Authors should submit their abstracts to EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acsos2026 selecting the “PhD Symposium track” track.
As in previous years, the Doctoral Symposium focuses on the work of a specific PhD student, therefore, please note that only single-author submissions are permitted, with the name of the PhD supervisor(s) included below that of the author. All submissions should have the following specific structure:
- Overall problem and motivation: Explain why this research is important, and identify the key research question(s) and challenges that have yet to be addressed by the community. Explain the relevance of the problem to autonomic computing, self-adaptation and/or self-organization.
- Objectives and contribution: Present the detailed goals of your research, highlighting why your work is novel in comparison to existing research, and then present the main contributions of the research.
- Methods and results: Present the scientific methods used to tackle the research problem, discussing their suitability to the problem and contribution. Present any preliminary or expected results, including a statement about the current status of your work and the open questions and challenges that you are facing.
- Future work and research plan: Summarise your intended future work and provide a schedule of milestones for the next steps, including a plan for evaluation of the PhD results.
The submitted paper will be evaluated by the Doctoral Symposium Program Committee according to the following criteria:
- its relevance to ACSOS;
- the quality of the submission, including clarity, precision, and adequacy of the problem statement and critical reflection of the work.
Authors of accepted submissions will prepare a final (camera-ready) version of their abstract, taking into account reviewers’ feedback. Doctoral Symposium papers will be submitted to IEEE Xplore as part of the ACSOS proceedings and will be made available in the IEEE Digital Library.