Oct. 11–15, 2026 · Shanghai, China

The 9th International Workshop on Embodied Intelligence of Things

Workshop at ACM UbiComp/ISWC 2026

Formerly the CPD (2018–2023) and PICASSO (2024–2025) workshop series

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

Ubiquitous computing is entering a new phase. The Internet of Things (IoT) has interconnected billions of devices; the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) has begun to embed learning and inference into them; and the emerging paradigm of Embodied Intelligence of Things (EIoT) envisions a further leap — where intelligence itself is physically grounded, dynamically composed, and continuously evolving across networks of embodied agents that sense, reason, act, and coordinate in the real world.

Realizing this vision requires progress across a broad set of interlocking research threads: physical-world understanding, data-efficient and physics-informed learning, on-device and edge foundation models, opportunistic multi-agent interaction, and continual adaptation under real-world constraints.

This workshop continues and expands the CPD (UbiComp 2018–2023) and PICASSO (MobiCom 2024, UbiComp 2025) workshop series, which has for eight editions established a vibrant ubiquitous-computing community around physical-knowledge-informed AI. Building on that foundation, EIoT 2026 broadens the scope to encompass embodied agents, multi-agent coordination, and self-evolving systems — topics the community is increasingly asked to engage with as EIoT takes shape. We invite submissions spanning this spectrum, from continued work on physics-informed sensing and limited-data inference, to new directions in situated agents, distributed coordination, and evolutionary learning. Preliminary and ongoing research contributions are welcome.

CALL FOR PAPERS

EIoT 2026 welcomes submissions across the full spectrum of research needed to realize physically grounded, distributed, and evolving intelligence in ubiquitous computing. Topics of interest span three broad, overlapping themes. Preliminary and on-going work is welcomed.

Topics of Interest

Physically grounded perception and reasoning

  • - Learning algorithms that integrate physical knowledge or analytical models for sensor perception and understanding
  • - Experiences, challenges, analysis, and comparisons of sensor data in terms of its physical properties
  • - Sensor data processing to improve learning accuracy under limited or noisy labels
  • - On-device and edge foundation models for multimodal physical-world understanding
  • - Physical-to-digital mapping under resource, energy, and latency constraints

Distributed sensing, communication, and coordination

  • - Heterogeneous collaborative sensing across mobile, wearable, and embedded platforms
  • - Opportunistic and context-aware interaction among embodied agents
  • - Backscatter, cross-technology, and collision-resilient communication for low-power agents
  • - Distributed sensing and actuation for cyber-physical systems

Continual adaptation, evolution, and trust

  • - Continual, federated, and on-device learning under real-world constraints
  • - Self-evolving and lifelong-learning embodied agents
  • - Safety, verifiability, and ethics of autonomous and decentralized systems
  • - Evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, and datasets for embodied IoT
Application areas include, but are not limited to:
  • - Human-centric sensing, health, wellness, and medical applications
  • - Environmental and structural monitoring
  • - Smart cities and urban health
  • - Smart energy systems and intelligent transportation
  • - Embodied robotics, drone and vehicle swarms, and industrial EIoT
  • - Human–agent collaboration and assistive systems

Authors must cite and relate their submissions to relevant prior publications of their own. If applicable, ethical approval for experiments with human subjects should be demonstrated as part of the submission.

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: July 5, 2026

Author Notifications: July 25, 2026

Camera-ready Deadline: August 5, 2026

Workshop Date: October 11 or 12, 2026 (Shanghai, China)

Submission Guidelines

Submissions are solicited in three forms — short papers (up to 6 pages), position papers (2–4 pages), and posters — so that both mature and early-stage work can drive discussion. Submissions must be original, unpublished work, and not currently under consideration elsewhere. Submissions must follow the official UbiComp/ISWC 2026 templates and formatting instructions, with all fonts embedded.

Each paper will be reviewed by at least three Program Committee members. Acceptance criteria are consistent with previous editions of the series and are expanded to reflect the broader EIoT scope:

  • - whether the paper addresses or reveals limitations of purely data-driven approaches in ubiquitous or embodied settings;
  • - whether physical knowledge, embodied interaction, or multi-agent coordination is used to enable better inference, decision-making, or evolution;
  • - whether the paper, solution, or observation is novel, provocative, or otherwise able to trigger discussion in depth regarding the EIoT research agenda.

Accepted papers will be included in the Adjunct Proceedings of UbiComp/ISWC 2026 and the ACM Digital Library. Authors of accepted papers are expected to present their work at the workshop.

Submission site: TBD — will be announced soon.

ORGANIZERS

General Co-Chairs

Edith C. H. Ngai

Edith C. H. Ngai The University of Hong Kong

Fan Dang

Fan Dang Beijing Jiaotong University

TPC Co-Chairs

Miloš Stojmenović

Miloš Stojmenović Singidunum University

Jingao Xu

Jingao Xu The University of Hong Kong

Steering Committee

Yunhao Liu

Yunhao Liu Tsinghua University · ACM Fellow

Pei Zhang

Pei Zhang University of Michigan

Technical Program Committee

TBD — to be announced soon.

PROGRAM

EIoT 2026 will be a half-day, in-person, open workshop. The program will open with a 30-minute invited keynote from a senior researcher, followed by two paper sessions of 15-minute talks (12 min talk + 3 min Q&A), separated by a 15-minute coffee break. The workshop will close with a 30-minute moderated panel in which speakers and attendees collectively surface the most urgent open problems for the EIoT community in the coming year.

Any UbiComp/ISWC 2026 attendee may participate in the sessions and discussions without a paper submission, in line with UbiComp's preference for open workshops.

The full program will be posted here after author notifications (July 25, 2026).

THE VENUE

EIoT 2026 is co-located with ACM UbiComp/ISWC 2026, held October 11–15, 2026 in Shanghai, China.

The specific workshop room and on-site logistics are TBD — details will be posted closer to the event.

WORKSHOP HISTORY

EIoT 2026 is the direct successor of the CPD workshops (UbiComp 2018–2023) and PICASSO workshops (MobiCom 2024, UbiComp 2025). Across eight editions, the series has received 100+ submissions from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, and built a durable community around physical-knowledge-informed AI. The most recent edition, PICASSO 2025 (UbiComp, Espoo), received 23 submissions, accepted 11 papers (48% acceptance rate), and drew 50+ in-person attendees.

Each edition has preserved its predecessors' research foundation and layered new scope and ambition outward — from cyber-physical systems and IoT (CPD), to mobile embedded AI and AIoT (PICASSO), to embodied, physically grounded, and self-evolving intelligence (EIoT).

Previous editions: