The European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics
15 – 18 September 2026 Siena, Italy
Keynotes
The European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics is pleased to announce the keynote speakers for the conference.
At ECCE 2026, leading voices from across the field come together to share their vision for the future. Our keynote speakers will take the stage in Siena to present bold ideas, pioneering research, and powerful insights that spark innovation and collaboration.
Meet the Keynote Speakers of ECCE 2026
Patrizia Marti
Patrizia Marti is Professor of Experience Design at the University of Siena. She is Rector’s delegate of Santa Chiara Fab Lab where she manages participatory innovation projects. She is a member of the Board of Directors of SID – Società Italiana di Design. From 2013 until 2019 she was appointed Professor at the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology. She is responsible for a Kitchen Lab, a kitchen-laboratory which aims to bring innovation in the field of food processing, integrating the potential of a traditional kitchen with the use of innovative technologies. She has been expert advisor to many EU and international bodies, including EU Commission, EU Future & Emerging Technologies Programme, EU Intelligent Information Interfaces, Eurocontrol, EU Disappearing Computer, UX group at University of Warsaw (Poland), Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems. She has been an invited keynote speaker at various international conferences. She has also been the editor for special issues of international journals. She has an interdisciplinary background in design, philosophy and computing. Her research focuses on designing technological systems in sectors such as health, accessibility, cultural heritage, and food. She studies the impact of digital technologies on humans, society and the environment.
Harry Witchel
Professor Harry J. Witchel is Discipline Leader of Physiology on the University of Sussex campus of Brighton and Sussex Medical School (UK). His team researches the interplay between cognitive engagement and human movement for mitigating the effects of boredom and mind wandering in order to improve work performance and study. In 2016 his team published biomechanical evidence that human engagement leads to inhibition of non-instrumental activity, which was covered by the international news media.
In 2019 his research team won the International Prize for best conference paper from EACE, and he has won 2 national and 11 university awards for teaching, as well as being senior editor for the book “Technologies in Biomedical and Life Sciences Education” (2022, American Physiological Society). His Ph.D. is from the University of California at Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree in Biophysics included the Core Curriculum at Columbia College in New York City.
Agnieszka Wykowska
Professor Agnieszka Wykowska leads the unit “Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction” (S4HRI) at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT, Genoa, Italy), where she is also the coordinator of the Center for Human Technologies (CHT). She is also coordinator of IIT’s Brain and Machines Flagship Program. In addition, she is a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technical University in Munich. She graduated in neuro-cognitive psychology (2006, LMU Munich), obtained PhD in psychology (2008) and the German “Habilitation” (2013) from LMU Munich. In 2016 she was awarded the ERC Starting grant “InStance”: “Intentional Stance for Social Attunement”. In 2024, she was awarded the ERC Proof-of-Concept grant “RONIN“: Robot Training Independence. She is Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Social Robotics (IJSR). Between 2022 and 2024 she served as President of European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ESCAN). She is a Member of Board of Directors, and a Founding Member of Association of ERC Grantees (AERG). In 2025 she has been awarded the André Mischke award for outstanding scientists involved in science policy by the Young Academy Europe. In her research, she combines cognitive neuroscience methods with human-robot interaction in order to understand the human brain mechanisms in interaction with natural and artificial agents.