CAN Quarterly Newsletter – Summer Edition

Newsroom Computational Audiology, August 18, 2026

We’re excited to share that all VCCA2026 recordings are now accessible in our new Media Gallery. Relive the keynotes, workshops, and presentations—or catch up on what you missed! Read our VCCA 2026 Conference Report and please fill out our short Post-Conference Survey to share your input for VCCA2027!

VCCA2026 – Recordings available now!

Missed a session at VCCA 2026—or want to revisit a talk? All conference recordings are now freely available through the new VCCA 2026 Media Gallery. The Media Gallery brings together the complete scientific content of VCCA 2026, including keynote lectures, invited talks, featured talks, podium presentations, posters, and the three pre-conference workshops. The contributions are organised by conference session and include links to the abstract, presentation materials, and the recorded video submitted by the authors and speakers. Rather than simply hosting the videos, we wanted to create a permanent scientific resource where each contribution can be explored together with its abstract and corresponding-author contact details, making it easier to learn more about the work and continue the conversation with the authors.

All recordings are available free of ads and other distractions. We decided to move away from YouTube and build our own Media Gallery to provide a cleaner and more focused experience for the community.

Have a look, explore the talks you missed, and let us know how we can make the Media Gallery even more useful in future editions! Please share comments and suggestions for future editions of our media gallery so we can shape it better to your needs (you can email info@computationalaudiology.com for all your suggestions).

VCCA2026 – Tell us what you think

VCCA continues to evolve from one edition to the next, and your feedback plays an important role in shaping what comes next. Together with the future VCCA organising teams, we have prepared a short Post-Conference Survey to learn more about your experience at VCCA 2026—from the scientific quality and multidisciplinary programme to conference logistics, communication, session structure, and our new digital poster format.

We are particularly interested in hearing what worked well, what did not, and what you would change. Your suggestions will directly help the VCCA 2027 and future organising teams improve the conference.

The survey only takes a few minutes:

https://forms.gle/trPZyuiaAiUN5VhdA

Your experience matters—help us make the next VCCA even better!

VCCA2026 – Looking back at an exceptional edition

VCCA 2026 brought together 1,367 registered participants from 75 countries, creating a truly global meeting point for the hearing sciences community.

The scientific programme featured 117 contributions—an increase of 78.1% compared with VCCA 2025—together with eight Keynote & Invited Speakers and three Pre-Conference Workshops. Across the programme, researchers, clinicians, engineers, students, and industry professionals explored topics spanning auditory neuroscience, computational modelling, AI and machine learning, hearing technologies, clinical audiology, cognition, and precision hearing healthcare.

One of our favourite images from the conference is the world map of VCCA 2026 participants, which beautifully illustrates the geographical reach that a free and fully virtual scientific meeting can achieve.

This edition also introduced a new digital poster format, combining an online Poster Gallery, short Poster Blitz presentations, and live Poster Meet & Connect sessions.

During the Closing Ceremony, we were delighted to recognise three outstanding contributions through the Best Podium Award, Best Poster Award, and Emerging Scientist Award. Congratulations once again to all three recipients—and to everyone who contributed to the scientific quality of this year’s programme.

Visit the VCCA 2026 Post-conference Report page Or access its PDF version.

VCCA2026 – Testimonial by Joanna Luberadzka

Joanna is a long term VCCA participant and winner of the VCCA2026 Podium Award.

I must admit I am a bit biased when it comes to in-person meetings. I believe that shared experiences are necessary to create connections between people, and no amount of good wifi compensates for their absence. Even badly organized in-person meetings usually offer something useful in the end: a coffee afterward, a small moment shared together, a memory that two people can point to later and say “this and that happened”. In contrast, remote meetings ask you to be fully present inside a rectangle on a screen, and this turns out to be harder than it sounds. No wonder they are dry and demotivating — nobody seems to care. I am not innocent here. Many times, I have caught myself mid-meeting thinking: “I’ll just hang these two t-shirts while I listen”, and five minutes later my mind is somewhere entirely different, and I have no idea what is happening or why people are nodding.

But VCCA is an exception to this rule and that’s what makes it so unique and why it continues to surprise me! The obvious benefits are there (accessible, free, family-friendly) and excellent planning helps too. But there’s something else I can’t quite name. Maybe it’s a mix of the inertia of Jan-Willem’s initiative, collaborative spirit, the welcoming atmosphere, or simply a community that genuinely cares. Whatever it is, chairs, speakers, and audience all seem present. And somehow, despite being virtual, it manages to create real bonds. It’s quite interesting and I wonder if we as scientists could pin down this “secret ingredient” to ensure VCCA stays as it is. Because the effects are real: VCCA raises the bar for auditory science each year, influencing the clarity of research questions, transparency of scientific practices, openness of results, and dissemination quality. I think we can benefit a lot from this conference and I’m curious where it will be next year!

VCCA 2026 – Thank you to our sponsors

VCCA 2026 would not have been possible without the trust and generous support of our sponsors.

Their contribution was fundamental in enabling us to provide technical support throughout the live conference, develop and maintain the online scientific resources, support the dissemination of conference content, and fund the VCCA 2026 Awards, recognising outstanding researchers at different stages of their careers.

Most importantly, their support helped us keep VCCA free, virtual, and accessible to an international community without registration or travel barriers.

On behalf of the VCCA 2026 Organising Committee and the Computational Audiology Network, thank you for believing in the conference and in our vision of open and accessible hearing science.

Meet the VCCA 2026 sponsors:

About CAN

The Computational Audiology Network (CAN) is a global community dedicated to advancing hearing science through collaboration, innovation, and technology. Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to engage with CAN! Together we stand stronger! Join CAN-SIG