Registration and Light Breakfast (provided and included with registration)

Opening Remarks

SPEAKERS SESSION 1

Remote Biosignal Monitoring for Human Performance in Extreme Environments

Chair: Dr. Emily Coffey

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Advances in portable sensors are enabling remote monitoring of physiological and neural signals related to cognitive state, sleep, and readiness for high performance. These technologies are increasingly being explored to support training, decision-making, and operational performance in space and other extreme environments. Chaired by Dr. Emily Coffey (Concordia University, Montreal), this session invites abstract submissions presenting empirical findings from studies using biosignal monitoring technologies to assess or enhance human performance, cognition, and health in operational or experimental settings.

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POSTER SESSION 1

Lunch Break (provided and included with registration)

SPEAKERS SESSION 2

Advances in Brain Health and Repair

Chair: Dr. Alexandra Kindrat 

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Spaceflight exposes the brain to unique stressors that may affect cognition, mental health, and neurological function. Understanding these effects is essential for protecting astronaut health and performance during long-duration missions and can also provide insights into brain health on Earth. Chaired by Dr. Alexandra Kindrat (McGill University Health Centre Research Institute, Montreal), this session invites abstract submissions presenting empirical findings on mechanisms and strategies to protect or repair brain health under spaceflight-relevant conditions such as microgravity, radiation, circadian disruption, trauma, inflammation, and aging. Studies involving astronauts or spaceflight analogs, using experimental, digital, and/or AI-assisted approaches are welcome.

Coffee Break & Networking

POSTER SESSION 2

SPECIAL EVENT

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Italian Space Day - Giornata Italiana dello Spazio

in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Ottawa

The Italian Space Day is an annual event celebrating Italy's significant contributions to space science, technology, and innovation. This year, the Embassy is proud to host the event in conjunction with the 2026 Canadian Space Health Research Symposium, reflecting the deep and growing collaboration between Italy and Canada at the frontier of space exploration and human health.

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PANEL DISCUSSION

ADVANCING HUMAN HEALTH FOR SPACE, MARS AND LUNAR MISSIONS: ITALIAN EXCELLENCE ACROSS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

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Moderated by Dr. Robert (Bob) Thirsk - Former Canadian Space Agency Astronaut

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As space missions extend beyond low Earth orbit toward long-duration exploration of the Moon and Mars, ensuring human health, safety, and performance in extreme environments has become a central scientific and technological challenge. Addressing this challenge requires an integrated approach that spans biological systems, advanced sensing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous technologies.

This special Italian Space Day event, held within the 2026 Canadian Space Health Research Symposium, brings together leading Italian researchers and innovators based in Canada whose work spans the science and technology underpinning future human space missions.

Together, these experts represent the breadth of Italian excellence contributing to the global space ecosystem. Their work highlights how interdisciplinary innovation, across academia and industry, supports both the understanding of human adaptation to space and the development of technologies that enable safer, more resilient, and more autonomous space missions.​

Panelists

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Dr. Ciriaco Piccirillo

McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, QC, Canada

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Dr. Piccirillo is one of the world’s leading authorities on regulatory T cells — the immune gatekeepers that control the body’s inflammatory and antiviral responses. His research, recognised by a Canada Research Chair and more than 23,000 citations, has established how these cells maintain immune balance in disease and infection. In the context of space health, the behaviour of regulatory T cells in microgravity is now identified as a central and unresolved challenge: long-duration spaceflight suppresses the immune system’s ability to control latent viruses while simultaneously enhancing the very immunosuppressive mechanisms Dr. Piccirillo studies. His expertise opens a critical new avenue for understanding and countering immune dysregulation in astronauts on future lunar and Mars missions.

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Dr. Cristina Conati

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Dr. Conati is an internationally recognised leader in artificial intelligence, with foundational contributions to the design of intelligent systems that model, interpret, and adapt to human cognitive and emotional states in real time. Her work has broad applications wherever humans must perform reliably under complex conditions, making it directly relevant to space health as missions extend in duration and distance from Earth. Monitoring astronaut cognitive performance, detecting early signs of fatigue or stress, and enabling adaptive human-machine interfaces in isolated environments are among the challenges where her expertise in AI-driven human modelling offers compelling new possibilities. Dr. Conati brings to this panel the perspective of a scientist whose work is reshaping how intelligent systems can support human wellbeing beyond our planet.

Dr. Giovanni Beltrame

Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

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Dr. Beltrame leads the Making Innovative Space Technology (MIST) Laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal, where his research in swarm robotics and distributed artificial intelligence is directly shaping the future of planetary exploration. His systems, teams of autonomous robots designed to coordinate and adapt without centralised control or human intervention, are developed in active collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA, and ESA for surface operations on the Moon and Mars. In environments where communication delays make real-time human oversight impossible, resilient autonomous systems are not a convenience but a mission-critical requirement. By offloading complex surface tasks from crew, his work reduces operational risk and extends what astronauts can achieve on long-duration exploration missions.

Dr. Gemma Venturino 

Co-Founder & CEO at Pulshn, Ottawa, ON, Canada

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Dr. Venturino is Co-Founder and CEO of PULSHN, a Canadian aerospace company developing next-generation uncrewed aircraft systems built for range, reliability, and payload in remote and time-critical environments. PULSHN’s platforms, including a vertical take-off fixed-wing aircraft for medical and logistics supply and a hydrogen-powered heavy-lift system, tackle the same fundamental constraints that define space operations: autonomy at distance, resilience without ground support, and mission adaptability under extreme conditions. Her presence at this panel brings the industry perspective, translating aerospace innovation into systems that demonstrate, at operational scale, what it means to perform reliably when infrastructure runs out.

SOCIAL RECEPTION (offered by the Embassy of Italy in Ottawa)