<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Colleague,<br>
I deeply apologize if you received multiple copies of this call. <br>
<p>We cordially invite you to participate in the SAND \u201cSpeech
Analysis for Neurodegenerative Diseases\u201d Challenge, which will be
held during the IEEE ICASSP 2026 international conference.</p>
We encourage you to tackle one or both critical tasks:<br>
- Classifying patients;<br>
- Predicting disease progression over time.<br>
<br>
Go to <b><a href="http://www.sand.icar.cnr.it" target="_blank">www.sand.icar.cnr.it</a></b> and register your team for the
challenge through the <i>Sign Up</i> section.<span><br>
Once logged in, you can access the <i>Dashboard</i> from the menu, where
the dataset will be available for download.<br>
</span><p>The five teams with the highest scores will be invited to present
their work at IEEE ICASSP 2026, which will take place in
Barcelona, Spain, from May 4 to 8, 2026.</p>
The contributions will be published in the official conference
proceedings, indexed in the most important academic databases, such
as IEEE Xplore Digital Library, Scopus, and Web of Science.<br>
<p>If you need any information or have any questions, please do not
hesitate to contact us.</p>
Best Regards
<p></p><div><div><div id="m_1280151119050220731m_-149645923071305990m_-6844353194748377864m_6599288911992182898m_-5750675899655981563m_3811429797054025656m_912880191539494856gmail-q_326" aria-label="Nascondi contenuti espansi" aria-expanded="true"><div><div><div>=======================================================<br>
SAND - Speech Analysis for Neurodegenerative Diseases challenge<br>
@IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal
Processing<br>
<br>
4-8 May 2026, Barcelona, Spain<br>
<a href="https://www.sand.icar.cnr.it/" target="_blank">https://www.sand.icar.cnr.it/</a><br>
=======================================================<br>
<br>
<br>
MISSION:<br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
This challenge deals with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Starting from a data set of vocal signals gathered by the organizers from both ill and healthy subjects, the challenge
proposes two different tasks: (i) classify the subjects, and (ii)
predict how the disease worsens over time.<br>
<br>
<br>
INTRODUCTION:<br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
SAND stems from the need to analyze noninvasive, objective, and
scalable biomarkers for early diagnosis and longitudinal
monitoring. This is because diseases such as ALS, present complex
diagnostic challenges due to heterogeneous symptom profiles and
overlapping clinical features. Current diagnostic tools are
largely based on subjective clinical scales and often fail to
detect early changes, resulting in delayed intervention and
suboptimal care for patients. This underscores the urgent need to
use noninvasive biomarkers.<br>
<br>
With this challenge, we would like to redefine neurodegenerative
disease assessment by positioning speech as a central, AI-powered
biomarker for diagnosis and monitoring.<br>
Speech captures the interaction between motor and cognitive
systems and is often subtly impaired in the prodromal phases of
neurodegeneration. Unlike traditional biomarkers (e.g.,
neuroimaging, CSF analysis), voice data can be collected easily,
repeatedly, and inexpensively, offering a transformative
opportunity for global, equitable healthcare solutions.<br>
<br>
GOALS:<br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
We have designed two tasks to address the major challenges faced
in the monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases.<br>
<br>
We warmly welcome researchers from academia and industry to
participate and jointly explore reliable solutions<br>
for these challenging scenarios. Participants can contribute to
one or both tasks proposed here:<br>
\u2022 TASK 1: multi-class classification at time 0 (first assessment);<br>
\u2022 TASK 2: multi-class prediction (latest assessment).<br>
<br>
Detailed information and all guidelines are available on the
challenge's official website, <a href="http://www.sand.icar.cnr.it" target="_blank">www.sand.icar.cnr.it</a><br>
<br>
The five highest-ranked teams will be invited to showcase their
work at the IEEE ICASSP 2026 Conference.<br>
<br>
Accepted contributions will be published in the official ICASSP
proceedings (IEEE-indexed).<br>
The challenge-dedicated session will highlight presentations from
the top-performing participants and conclude<br>
with a panel discussion.<br>
<br>
Don\u2019t miss this engaging event!<br>
<br>
<br>
IMPORTANT DATES:<br>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
\u2022 September 01, 2025: Challenge Registration opens and Release of
the datasets (training)<br>
\u2022 October 01, 2025: Release of the datasets (testing) - first day
for submitting results and code<br></div></div>
\u2022 November 20, 2025: Challenge submission closes \u2013 last day for
registration, submitting results, and code<span><br>
\u2022 December 02, 2025: Results announcement<br>
\u2022 December 07, 2025: 2-page Papers Due (by invitation only)<br>
\u2022 January 11, 2026: 2-page Paper Acceptance Notification<br>
\u2022 January 18, 2026: Camera-ready 2-page Papers Due</span></div></div></div></div><br clear="all"></div><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><font color="#666666">Nadia Brancati
</font><br><font color="#666666">Researcher @ <a href="https://www.icar.cnr.it/en/gruppi-di-ricerca/artificial-intelligence-in-image-and-signal-analysis/" target="_blank">AI-ISA Lab</a></font><br><font color="#666666">Institute for High Performance Computing and Networking - National Research Council of Italy (CNR - ICAR)</font><br><font color="#666666">Via P. Castellino, 111 - 80131 Napoli
</font><br><font color="#666666">Tel. 081.6139228
</font><br><a href="mailto:nadia.brancati@icar.cnr.it" style="color:rgb(102,102,102)" target="_blank">nadia.brancati@icar.cnr.it</a><font color="#666666"> </font><br></div></div></div>