The 9th International Conference “Design, Simulation, Manufacturing: The Innovation Exchange (DSMIE-2026)” took place in Almaty (Kazakhstan). It was co-organized by SumDU.

The event brought together scientists, industry representatives, and educators to discuss current trends in modern engineering, manufacturing technologies, material science, and industrial management.

The founder and chair of the DSMIE conference is Vitalii IVANOV (SumDU professor). According to feedback from participants and members of the organizing committee, this year’s conference was the most successful in the forum history. The first four events were hosted by Ukraine, after which the conference was held in turn in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, and Kazakhstan. Thus, over the course of nine years, DSMIE has spanned six countries and gained recognition as an authoritative international platform for exchange of scientific knowledge, development of partnerships, and formation of new research consortia.

The conference highlight was presentations by six invited speakers – representatives of the world’s leading universities:

• Raul CAMPILHO (Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal) – presented the paper “Next-Generation Product Development: Integrating Human-Centered Design, Circularity, and Simulation for Sustainable Manufacturing”.
• Khamis ESSA (University of Birmingham, the United Kingdom) – presented the paper “Shaping Future: Advanced Netshape Technologies for High-Value Manufacturing”.
• Abhinav DHALL (Monash University, Australia) – presented the paper “Deepfakes and Misinformation in the Age of Industry 4.0”.
• Filip GÓRSKI (Poznan University of Technology, Poland) – presented the paper “Bridging Engineering and Medicine: Design Automation of 3D-Printable Anatomical Devices for Point-of-Care Healthcare”.
• Le LIU (Northwestern Polytechnical University, China) presented the paper “From Perceiving Uncertainty to AI Reasoning: Why Decisions Still Drift”.
• Torbjørn NETLAND (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) presented the paper “Navigating Augmentation and Automation in the New Industrial Revolution”.

A key element of the program was the special session “Business to Science”, during which Dr. Yurii HAIDAIENKO (Yalong Intelligent Equipment Group Co. Ltd) emphasized importance of collaboration between universities and industry. It is precisely this format that allows for transformation of scientific research results into practical solutions for industry and development of new cooperation avenues between academic and industrial sectors.

To enhance competence of participants, two practical workshops were organized. They were dedicated to current trends in development of engineering education, research activities, and international cooperation. The DSMIE-2026 program included technical sessions, video presentations, panel discussions, networking events, and training sessions. All of them facilitated establishment of new scientific contacts and development of international cooperation.

DSMIE-2026 brought together representatives from the world’s leading universities according to the QS World University Rankings: ETH Zurich (8th place); Monash University (31st place); University of Birmingham (68th place); Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (166th place); Northwestern Polytechnical University (251–300 range); Aalborg University (306th place); University of Kent (397th place); University of Kentucky, Riga Technical University, Yıldız Technical University (top 800); Poznań University of Technology (top 250 engineering schools); Polytechnic Institute of Porto. These institutions are renowned for high quality of engineering education and active international engagement.

Participation of these institutions confirms the conference’s high international standing and creates new opportunities for development of academic mobility, international research projects, and strategic partnerships.

SumDU expresses sincere gratitude for fruitful cooperation to DSMIE’s partners: the International Association for Technological Development and Innovations, the NNEF Public Foundation, and the International Information Technology University. Besides, SumDU acknowledges the conference co-chair and professor Kateryna KOLESNIKOVA for high level of event organization in Almaty.

The DSMIE-2026 holding confirmed that modern science develops through international cooperation, interdisciplinary dialogue, and effective interaction between universities and industry. The conference served not only as a platform for presenting the latest scientific findings but also as a powerful tool for internationalization, development of partnerships, and formation of new international initiatives.