From August 15 to 21, 2026, Bremen successfully hosted IJCAI-ECAI 2026, one of the world’s leading conferences on artificial intelligence. It was the first time in 43 years that IJCAI had been held in Germany, and it brought more than 2,500 international researchers to the city.
The University of Bremen’s high-profile research area Minds, Media, Machines (MMM) played a central role in bringing the conference to Bremen. MMM spokesperson Prof. Tanja Schultz served as chair of the Local Arrangements Committee and as a member of the Conference Committee. She also helped shape Bremen’s “Summer of AI,” a program of events surrounding the conference that gave it a distinctive “Bremen Touch” based on a transdisciplinary, human-centered approach to AI.
From biosignals and data science to digital media and robotics, MMM researchers develop AI for people and in collaboration with them. IJCAI-ECAI 2026 put that vision—and Bremen—in the global AI spotlight.
