BioMedEng25 will have two invited plenary speakers who will bookend the scientific programme and additional invited keynote speakers dotted throughout the programme.

Plenary Speakers

We are pleased to announce the two plenary speakers for BioMedEng25 as being Professor Praminda Caleb-Solly, University off Nottingham, and Professor Keith Mathieson, University of Strathclyde. Please see below for more details.

Prof. Praminda Caleb-Solly

Professor Praminda Caleb-Solly specialises in assistive robotics and intelligent sensing. She is currently Professor of Embodied Intelligence at the University of Nottingham, where she leads the Cyber-physical Health and Assistive Robotics Technologies (CHART) research group.

She holds a BEng in Electronic Systems Engineering, an MSc in Biomedical Instrumentation Engineering, and a PhD in Interactive Evolutionary Computation. Prior to joining the University of Nottingham in September 2021, Professor Caleb-Solly was a Professor of Assistive Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England (UWE), where she led the Robotics Engineering and Computing for Health Research Group and served as Associate Head of Department for Research and Scholarship.

From 2014 to 2018, she was Head of Electronics and Computer Systems at Designability, a not-for-profit organisation specialising in assistive technology design. Her research portfolio includes projects funded by Innovate UK, EPSRC, NIHR, AHRC, and the European Commission, focusing on the design and evaluation of socially and physically assistive robotics, and Internet of Things (IoT) sensor-based intelligent technology. Her work aims to assist people with disabilities and long-term conditions, as well as their caregivers, by supporting activities of daily living.

Professor Caleb-Solly is also the Academic Lead for the University of Nottingham at the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), contributing her expertise to advance rehabilitation research and innovation. Additionally, she co-founder and director of Robotics for Good, a Community Interest Company dedicated to deploying intelligent robotics and smart technology solutions that empower individuals in their daily lives.

Her academic contributions encompass machine learning and human-robot interaction, and she has co-authored the UK-Robotics and Autonomous Systems White Paper on Robotics in Social Care. She has also provided evidence to the UK House of Lords’ Science and Technology Committee inquiry into Ageing: Science, Technology, and Healthy Living. Furthermore, Professor Caleb-Solly serves as a member of the British Standards Institute’s Technical Committees on Robotics and Ethics for Robots and Autonomous Systems, and co-chairs the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee for Robot Ethics.

Prof. Keith Mathieson

Professor Keith Mathieson is a distinguished physicist specialising in neural interfaces and neurophotonics. Earning his BSc and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Glasgow in 1997 and 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2024.

He holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Strathclyde, a prestigious 10-year appointment extending until 2029. His research centres on developing advanced brain-interfacing technologies, working with neuroscientists to further our understanding of neural circuits and their alterations due to neurological disorders. This has led to systems that can help restore function. In particular, he has been working on retinal implant technologies to restore vision to patients with degenerative retinal conditions. His publication record includes pioneering work on photovoltaic retinal prostheses and optogenetic control using high-density neural probes.

Professor Mathieson recently formed the Strathclyde Neurotechnology Centre, a pioneering centre drawing together engineers, physicists, neuroscientists and AI specialists focussed on developing advanced neural interface technology. This has been supported by funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Wolfson Foundation and alumni donors.

4th – 5th September 2025