inIT at the IEEE ETFA 2025 conference

Strong participation by inIT at ETFA 2025

inIT at ETFA 2025 in Porto, Portugal

inIT employee Maxim Friesen from the Computer Networks working group

inIT employee Philip Sehr from the Interconnected Automation Systems working group

(From left) Organized and chaired Special Session 3 on ETFA 2025: Prof. Dr. Rui Pinto, Dr. Christoph-Alexander Holst, Prof. Dr. Pedro Torres, Prof. Dr. Volker Lohweg (not shown: Prof. Dr. Simona Salicone).

The renowned IEEE conference ETFA – Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation took place for the 30th time, this time in Porto, Portugal, from 9 to 12 September 2025. ETFA is one of the most important international platforms to present new technologies in the field of factory automation. inIT was strongly represented with three working groups.

Diverse research results

Research associates from these working groups presented the latest results of their transfer-oriented work to the research community:

Computer Networks Working Group led by Prof. Jürgen Jasperneite
Image Processing and Pattern Recognition and Sensor and Information Fusion Working Group led by Prof. Volker Lohweg
Interconnected Automation Systems working group led by Prof. Henning Trsek

Organisation of a special session

Prof. Lohweg and Dr. Christoph-Alexander Holst also organised, together with others, the special session "Addressing Data Scarcity: Machine Learning, Information Fusion, and Sustainable AI", which focused on extracting as much information as possible from scarce data. Methods such as data-efficient algorithms, data augmentation, transfer learning and information fusion are applied here.

International exchange on a personal level

In addition to professional exchanges, there was also plenty of opportunity for personal encounters. Participants exchanged ideas for the first time at the welcome reception. However, the highlight of the annual ETFA is the festive conference dinner, which this time was held in the elegant location of the Porto Cruising Terminal.

Prof. Jasperneite succinctly sums up why it is so important to participate in international conferences such as ETFA: " It's about combining academic excellence with the ability to connect, share ideas, and explore new opportunities."

Partner institutes inIT and Fraunhofer IOSB-INA

Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, with which inIT has close ties at the Innovation Campus Lemgo, also actively participated in ETFA 2025. Both institutes contribute significantly to the further development of automation technologies.

Outlook for 2026

We are already setting course for the next ETFA: ETFA 2026 will be held from 8 to 11 September 2026 in Västerås, Sweden, at Mälardalen University under the direction of Prof. Moris Behnam. inIT will be there!

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