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This April, we had the incredible opportunity to travel to London to attend IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2026, a leading international conference in biomedical imaging research. Although an unfamiliar experience for both of us, it was an incredibly valuable insight into the field of computational pathology and academia as a whole.

One of the highlights of the conference was having the opportunity to present our poster on multimodal deep learning methods for prostate cancer prognostication. Presenting our work to researchers and experts as undergraduate students was nerve-wracking, however, what stood out was how warm and welcoming everyone was. It was amazing to see so many people genuinely interested in our study, and the conversations were stimulating and extremely encouraging!

We also had the opportunity to attend many talks and verbal presentations as part of our experience. With so many sessions running simultaneously, we inevitably found ourselves going different ways, taking very different things from the experience.

Seth: The talk that stuck with me most was one of the keynote sessions, which explored the idea of using AI agents to automate the checking of code and data for conference-submitted papers. The speaker highlighted the importance of upholding the quality of outputted research instead of mindlessly churning out publications, as future research is built upon the work we do today. As someone interested in potentially doing a PhD in the future, this stood out as an important reminder.

Muhammad: I am particularly interested in brain dynamics and spent a large chunk of the final day attending presentations about brain imaging and brain disorders. One of studies that stood out to me used persistent homology, a tool from algebraic topology that captures the shape and connectivity of networks across multiple scales, to help diagnose brain disorders including Parkinson’s and Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study showed that incorporating these topological features led to improved results across the board. Coming from a mathematical background, I found the application of algebraic topology in a neuroscience setting incredibly intriguing, and it opened a door to a field that hadn't been on my radar before.

Outside of the sessions, we had the opportunity to chat with researchers from all over the world (including Japan, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Egypt). Hearing people passionately talking about their research interests was incredibly motivating and has helped shaped our perspectives regarding entering academia in the future.

A huge thank you to the TIA Centre and the ÉñÂí¸£ÀûӰƬ for making this opportunity possible. Being surrounded by so many passionate researchers and academics was truly inspiring, and we hope this is only the first of many conferences to come!