COSUR 2026: Summer School on Control of Surgical Robots
To help training the next generation of researchers in robot-assisted surgery, we are delighted to announce the 2026 Summer School on Robot-Assisted Surgery (COSUR 2026), a doctoral summer school to be held from September 14th to 16th 2026, before the CRAS conference. COSUR 2026 is jointly organized by the ARISE and STORM labs at the University of Leeds, the Altair Robotics Lab at University of Verona, the Robot-Assisted Surgery research group of KU Leuven, as well as a plurality of European research projects on medical robotics.
COSUR 2026 aims to give a broad overview of the challenges of robot-assisted surgery. It will focus on the integration of control, sensing, and machine intelligence to introduce students to the main concepts of autonomous functions in robotic surgery. We aim at showing students how to leverage the increased accuracy of robots and medical imaging in the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools that can support advanced procedures.
The school will address many technical themes among which:
- General concepts of robot-assisted surgery: medical and engineering viewpoints
- Autonomous control in robotic surgery
- Teleoperation and haptics
- Image-guided surgery
- Machine learning and reasoning
The school will include medical lectures, to present specific case studies of robotic surgery and to define the medical context in which robotic surgery is being used. The main themes will be addressed with tutorial presentations given by leading experts in the field and by the coordinators of recently funded EU-projects.
Check below for more details on the technical program and list of speakers and their lectures/workshops! Also, please check here for general information.
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General Information
Registration Fees
The deadline for early bird registration is July 17, 2026, 23:59 WEST.
The deadline for regular registration is August 26, 2026, 23:59 WEST.
| Early Bird Before Friday July 17th, 2026 |
Regular |
|
| Master's and PhD Students | £250 | £350 |
| Post-Doctoral Researchers | £350 | £450 |
| Professionals and Others | £350 | £450 |
The registration fee includes:
- Access to all lectures/workshops
- Coffee breaks and lunches
- Social dinner
Certificate of Attendance
At the end of the school it will be possible to get a certification of attendance. The certification can be used by students to obtain the corresponding ECTS from their PhD courses, or to comply with any other requests by their home university.
Venue
School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
University of Leeds, UK
Technical Program & Social Events
Schedule includes technical workshops and lecture-style tutorials. This schedule is subject to change, final session titles and room details will be confirmed closer to the event.
| Time | Day 1 Monday, September 14 |
Day 2 Tuesday, September 15 |
Day 3 Wednesday, September 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Opening remarks | Workshop 2 Anatomy session, TBC |
Speaker 7 TBC |
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Keynote 1 Murilo Marinho |
||
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Coffee Break | ||
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Coffee Break | Journey to Lecture Hall | Attendee Flash Presentations |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Keynote 2 Chris Fryer |
Keynote 4 Ilana Nisky |
|
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Closing session | ||
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Lunch | Lunch | |
| 12:30 - 13:00 | |||
| 13:00 - 13:30 | Keynote 3 Yinoussa Adagolodjo |
Keynote 5 Peter Kazanzides |
|
| 13:30 - 14:00 | |||
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Coffee Break | Coffee Break | |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Workshop 1 NVIDIA Isaac for Healthcare |
Keynote 6 TBC |
|
| 15:00 - 15:30 | |||
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Workshop 3 Lab session, TBC |
||
| 16:00 - 16:30 | |||
| 16:30 - 17:00 |
List of Speakers & Lectures / Workshops
NVIDIA
Industry Workshop
NVIDIA Isaac for Healthcare Workshop
Murilo Marinho
University of Manchester
Control for Surgical Robotics
Chris Fryer
CMR Surgical
Commercial Surgical Robotics
Yinoussa Adagolodjo
University of Lille / DEFROST
Soft Robot Simulation / SOFA
Ilana Nisky
Ben-Gurion University
Learning, Haptics and Human Factors
Peter Kazanzides
Johns Hopkins University
da Vinci Research Kit
COSUR 2025 Organization and Partners
Dr. Dominic Jones
University of Leeds
Prof. Pietro Valdastri
University of Leeds
Prof. Emmanuel Vander Poorten
KU Leuven
Prof. Paolo Fiorini
University of Verona
Prof. Riccardo Muradore
University of Verona
Dr. Andrea Roberti
University of Verona
Dr. Nicola Piccinelli
University of Verona
