Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi
20-21 January 2027, 9am-17pm GST (GMT + 4)
Goals
The two-day International Symposium “Marine AI and Robotics for Innovation and Sustainability: Advancing Intelligence to Preserve Marine Biodiversity” (MARIS-AI) is designed to bring together experts and stakeholders from academia, industry, and public institutions to explore the role of cutting-edge technologies in addressing key challenges in marine ecosystems.
Every day, the event will open with distinguished invited international and regional speakers, offering strategic perspectives on the integration of robotics, AI, and data science in marine monitoring and conservation. Throughout the symposium, contributed presentations (selected after abstract submission) will cover a wide range of topics, including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Bio-Inspired Robotics, Soft Robotics, Swarm Robotics, edge AI for real-time monitoring, energy-efficient solutions, and predictive modeling of marine biodiversity.
The symposium also aims to foster multidisciplinary dialogue, with a dedicated panel focused to sustainability issues and international regulations concerning data sharing, and inter-governmental cooperation to enhance the GCC and Middle East ecosystem of marine science and innovation.
A poster session and competition dedicated to students will be included to support knowledge sharing and training of the next generation of ocean technologists.
This Symposium is at the intersection of SCAI (Sorbonne Center for AI) and Ocean Institute, two leading Research Centers at Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi.
The role of AI and Marine Robotics
Marine Robotics and Autonomous Systems can give a strong acceleration in enhancing the knowledge of the underwater environment and allow operations in remote areas. While in the past, the monitoring of the Ocean was based on long-term ship surveys and operations were mainly based on divers missions, nowadays, surface and underwater autonomous systems with their own AI on the edge have made possible the development of new systems for sampling the oceans in a sustained way, with increased spatiotemporal resolution and at lower costs.
This will enhance real-time ocean monitoring, ecosystem preservation, early alarm systems to prevent environmental disasters and guarantee the development of human-marine activities in respect of Ocean health.
We welcome original contributions on (including but not limited to):
AI for marine sensing, perception, and decision-making
Computer vision, deep learning, and biodiversity assessment
Autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, multi-robot and swarm systems
Aerial drones for maritime monitoring
Marine Industrial applications
Marine Energies
Data-driven oceanography, digital twins, predictive modeling
BioInspired and Soft Robotics
Ethics, and standards in marine AI & robotics
Participation
The Symposium will be held in person. However, remote participation may be accommodated under exceptional circumstances.
Proceedings
The accepted papers will be published as Proceedings on IEEE Xplore, subject to meeting IEEE's scope and quality requirements.
Agenda
The panel will explore enabling AI and Robotics technologies to generate comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the ocean and to develop capacity to contribute to sustainable development solutions like autonomy, AI, bioinspired robotics.
The advancement of these technologies, new solutions and near-future challenges and implementations will be described and discussed by our renowned panelists, concerning different real-world applications.
Deadlines:
15 October 2026: Abstract Submission
15 November 2026: Paper Submission
10 December 2026: Paper Acceptance
31 December 2026: Camera Ready Paper submission
20-21 January 2027: 9am-17pm