05/11/2026
On the 29th & 30th of October 2026, the American University of Cyprus (AUCY) hosted the Mediterranean Conference on Emerging Technologies and Systems (MCETS 2026), bringing together an international community of researchers, academics and technology professionals for two days of scientific exchange, research presentations and collaboration. Organized by Dpoint Technologies Ltd., with AUCY serving as Co-Organizer and Host, the hybrid conference welcomed approximately 60 participants, with contributions representing 23 countries and 84 academic and research institutions. Out of 138 submissions, 59 papers were accepted, reflecting the conference's international reach and academic contribution.
The Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of the Republic of Cyprus, along with Dr. Marc-Antoine Zabbal, President of the American University of Cyprus, and Prof. Christopher Nugent, General Chair of MCETS 2026, honored the opening ceremony with their participation.
The scientific program featured two distinguished keynote addresses:
• Prof. Ramón Hervás Lucas, who presented “Beyond Assistance: Evolving Social Robots from Reactive Communication”, exploring developments in social robotics and human–robot interaction.
• Prof. Theocharis Theocharides, from the KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence, University of Cyprus, who delivered “Lazy by Design: Bioinspired Edge AI for Efficient, High-Performance Computing”, focusing on bioinspired approaches to efficient and high-performance edge artificial intelligence.
The program also included an invited talk by Dr. Ioannis Michos of the European University Cyprus (EUC), alongside technical sessions and research presentations covering Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Cybersecurity, Next-Generation Networks, Cloud Computing and Intelligent Systems.
Recognizing Research Excellence
MCETS 2026 recognized outstanding contributions through its conference awards:
Best Paper Award: Dr. Amjad Iqbal, ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence, Cyprus, for “GeoAI-Based Mediterranean Coastal Water Quality Assessment in Cyprus Utilizing Sentinel-2 Imagery.”
Best Presentation Award: Dr. Carla Abi Hanna, American University of Cyprus, in recognition of excellence in research communication and presentation.
Best Student Paper Award: Elena Chimonidi, Cyprus University of Technology, for “Multivariate Air Quality Forecasting: A Comparative Study of LSTM and Transformer Models.”
Beyond the scientific program, the conference provided valuable opportunities for networking, interdisciplinary dialogue and the development of future research partnerships, connecting established academics, emerging researchers and technology professionals through both on-site and online participation.
In his statement, Dr. Sheraz Aslam, Steering and Founding Chair of MCETS 2026, highlighted the conference's vision of establishing a meaningful international platform for researchers, academics and innovators to exchange knowledge and strengthen scientific collaboration. He also expressed his appreciation to the distinguished guests, speakers, authors, reviewers, organizing committees, sponsors, partners and volunteers whose contributions made the conference a success.
