SNN-Unit

This year, together with htw Saar, we had the honour of serving as a hosting institution for the br41n.io hackathon 2025, which forms an integral part of the g.tec spring school. Over the course of 24 hours, four teams developed brain–computer-interface (BCI) projects. Altogether, 95 teams from 80 countries competed, underscoring the truly global scope of this event. We even had a small kids-team from the local Marienschule that took first place in the childrens Gaming section.

The projects ranged from generating music in response to EEG-derived emotional states, to controlling video games through ear-muscle signals, to enabling a collaborative robot to adjust its behaviour based on the user’s stress levels. Each concept demonstrated remarkable technical sophistication and a forward-looking spirit.

We are particularly proud that one of our teams secured second place in the “BCI Programming & Arts Projects” category—congratulations to the team for this outstanding achievement. A brief report on the Hackathon also aired on local television; you can view it here: https://www.sr.de/sr/mediathek/video/FS_AB_11446.html

Prof. Dr. Dr. Daniel J. Strauss was invited to participate as a speaker in a panel discussion on Automotive Health at the Health Tech Hub Styria in Graz last week. The conference was aimed at advancing medical research projects in vehicle, among other things, and further networking clinics and industry. We were also invited to present our research vehicle as well as research results on passenger monitoring.
Thank you for having us!

Engineering students and faculty at Universidad Anáhuac Mayab hosted a week-long event featuring over 60 activities, including keynotes, workshops, and company visits. The event brought together experts from academia and industry to explore the future of engineering. Keynote speakers addressed topics like Industry 5.0, Human-Machine Interaction, AI trends, and Cybersecurity. SNNU participated by presenting ongoing research in Industry 5.0 and Neuroergonomics in human-robot systems.

This week we presented some of our latest research on the 52. Erlangen Colloquium for audiological research and development, hosted by WSAudiology. Thank you for having us and see you next time!

Projekt ,Digital Scrubs’: The Saarland University Hospital in Homburg is testing an attention assistance system with AI support. In modern operating theatres, surgical teams are faced with the challenge of having to process a large amount of information and at the same time focus their full attention on the complex and often vital procedures. Stress and fatigue, i.e. both mental-neuroergonomic and physical-ergonomic factors, can impair concentration and increase the risk of errors. This topic and more can be found in the full article published in Krankenhaus Technik + Management (KTM) issue 10/24 (p. 49-51).

IPG Automotive GmbH is hosting an event to facilitate discussions on driving simulation technologies. We will be present to engage in dialogue on the latest advancements, share insights, and explore innovations. Our goal is to ensure that our driving simulators remain state-of-the-art and continuously evolve with the industry’s cutting-edge developments.

The joint project ‘DIGITAL SCRUBS’ is investigating multimodal attention assistance systems in the networked operating theater. It is testing how the attention of surgeons can be supported in a context-adaptive and neuroergonomic way. You can find a video about this project with interesting interviews with the various cooperation partners, Saarland University, Abat+, and Semvox in the MEDICA Erlebniswelten magazine.

Just follow the links to learn more:

• (English Version)
• (German Version)

The empathic incubator is a project of the Center for Digital Neurotechnologies Saarland (CDNS), a consortium of Saarland University, University of Applied Sciences Saarbrücken, the Center for Mechatronics and Automation technology (ZeMA gGmbH) and many international partners, which focuses on the emotions of premature infants in order to develop an incubator that recognizes unpleasant situations without contact and can thus reduce stress. A film team from MEDICA magazine accompanied our project for a day, you can now see the result online in the MEDICA Erlebniswelten magazine.

Follow the Links for the full video:

• (English Version)
• (German Version)

We recently attended the 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, in Orlando, Florida. At EMBC 2024, three of our researchers presented on our ongoing projects involving robotics, automation safety, and digital healthcare innovation. At the conference we collaborated with local organizations on how to tackle these research questions here in Germany, and we met with other international consortiums to share expertise on these topics and receive input on our current work, as well as to set up opportunities for further international and intersectional collaborations in the future. It was a wonderful experience connecting with other researchers and sharing our work with other leading experts in the field.

Toshiyo Tamura a leading expert in the field of wearable, remote photoplethysmography and blood pressure monitoring from Waseda University in Japan will be our guest from the 24th to 26th June. He will give a talk about video-based blood pressure monitoring at SNNU for the master class in neural engineering and for all who are interested in the topic.