Rourkela: Artificial intelligence, robotics and emerging healthcare technologies took centre stage at a three-day international workshop hosted by the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, bringing together experts, researchers, faculty members and students from India and abroad to explore technology-driven solutions for healthcare challenges.
The SPARC-sponsored International Workshop on “Smart Healthcare and Robotics” (SHRO-2026), organised by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from September 2 to 4, focused on developments at the intersection of artificial intelligence, healthcare, biomechanics and robotics.
The workshop was organised under the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, as part of the academic and research collaboration between NIT Rourkela and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA.
The programme was coordinated by Dr Anup Nandy and Dr Ratnakar Dash, associate professors in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT Rourkela.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao, director, NIT Rourkela; Dr Anita Aggarwal, scientist-F and head, SEED, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, who was the chief guest; and Prof Rabibrata Mukherjee, national coordinator, SPARC, Ministry of Education, Government of India, and professor at IIT Kharagpur, who was the guest of honour.
Prof Mukul Mukherjee, foreign principal investigator, and Prof Philippe Malcolm, foreign co-principal investigator, from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, were also present at the inaugural programme.
Welcoming the participants, Prof Pankaj Kumar Sa, head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, NIT Rourkela, stressed the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing emerging healthcare challenges.
Dr Anup Nandy outlined the objectives of the workshop, while Dr Ratnakar Dash proposed the vote of thanks.
The technical sessions featured lectures by Dr Anita Aggarwal; Prof Mukul Mukherjee; Prof Philippe Malcolm; Dr Soumen Sen, scientist-G, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur; Prof Sridharan Devarajan of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; and Prof Shivashankar B Nair of IIT Guwahati.
The sessions covered a wide range of subjects, including medical technology, gait and balance, biomechanical analysis, gait rehabilitation, human-robot interaction, soft robotics, deep learning for healthcare and nature-inspired algorithms in robotics.
A key feature of the workshop was its hands-on laboratory sessions, where participants were introduced to biomedical signal processing and machine learning techniques for activity and health-state classification. The sessions also covered medical image classification and explainable artificial intelligence for clinical decision support.
The practical components provided participants with hands-on exposure to computational methods that can be applied to the development of intelligent healthcare systems.
The workshop concluded with a valedictory session and certificate distribution on September 4.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao highlighted the importance of bringing together expertise from diverse disciplines to develop technology-driven solutions to societal challenges.
He said initiatives such as SHRO-2026 help strengthen academic collaboration and promote research aimed at developing affordable, reliable and accessible healthcare technologies.
The organising team thanked the SPARC Programme, Ministry of Education, Government of India, the institute administration, invited experts, participants, faculty and staff members, and student volunteers for their support in the successful organisation of the workshop.
