This Winter School, organised by the Medical University of Innsbruck in collaboration with three other NeurotechEU partners (Radboud University, University of Reykjavik and Karolinska Institutet), explores how novel sleep technologies shape everyday life and clinical practice through at-home monitoring with wearables, nearables, and self-applied systems. Through lectures, hands-on labs, and team challenges, participants examine the technical, clinical, and translational dimensions of sleep technology, supported by expertise from four partner universities and industry.
Dates: One online kick-off meeting in January 2027 + In -person Winter School 15 – 18 February 2027
Location: On-site at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Lecturers: Priv.-Doz. Matteo Cesari (Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck), Prof. Anna Sigríður Islind, PhD (Department of Computer Science, Reykjavik University), Assoc. Prof. Martin Dresler (Donders Institute, Radboud University), Assoc. Prof. John Axelsson (Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet), and guest lecturer from Nox Medical.
About the Winter School
Each day combines foundational lectures on sleep physiology/pathophysiology, sensing principles, data quality and validation, with challenge-based projects. We bring together clinicians, neuroscientists, engineers, data scientists, and industry partners to discuss device architectures and signal acquisition, study design and validation frameworks, integration of subjective app-based measures with sensor data, translation and regulation, usability and compliance, and clinical decision support. An industry guest lecture from Nox Medical will address pathways from research to regulated products, including a case study in self-applied somnography. The course leverages NeurotechEU partners to provide a multi-perspective view, building competence for technology selection, end-to-end workflow design, and responsible, real-world implementation of at-home sleep monitoring.
Learning objectives
- Acquire core foundations in sleep physiology/pathophysiology and measurement modalities, and select/justify at-home technologies (wearables, nearables, self-applied) for specific clinical or research questions.
- Understand biomedical signal processing and AI methods to acquire, quality-check, analyze, and integrate multimodal sleep data.
- Evaluate translation to practice by using sleep-society recommendations and regulatory principles to plan validation, usability/compliance, and clinical integration.
- Design and justify an evidence-based solution to a selected challenge (e.g., decision support for specific sleep disorder, designing approaches for sleep/dream modulation), addressing workflow, analyses pipelines and translation.
Students will be evaluated based on a final presentation of their challenge solution. The course awards 2.5 ECTS.
Admission requirements
The course is open to participants at the following levels: Advanced Bachelor, Master, and PhD. Applicants should have a background (supported by transcript and CV) in neuroscience, psychology, biomedical engineering, computer science/data science, medicine, or related fields.
Application
To apply, please send the following documents:
- Background supported by CV and transcript of records
- Short motivation letter (≤400 words) describing interest in novel sleep technologies and goals for the course
- Endorsement letter from your supervisor (PhD students)
- Confirmation letter of your home university’s NeurotechEU office that you are eligible for the program
Applications should be sent to neurotecheu@i-med.ac.at (deadline: 15 September 2026, 23:59). Selected participants commit to the online kickoff in early January 2027 and to attending the on-site winter school in Innsbruck, 15–18 February 2027. Students will be notified about admission by 30 September 2026. A maximum of 20 students will be allowed to participate in this Winter School.