Best Paper Awards
Best Paper • Pepe Eulzer and Kai Lawonn • Uniform parametric mapping of saccular intracranial aneurysms for statistical analysis of morphological variation.
This paper introduces an exciting new data-driven approach to analyze the shapes of intracranial aneurysms, stepping away from the usual handcrafted descriptors that have long dominated the field. What stands out here is a clever parametric mapping technique that ensures consistent, automated matching across different aneurysm shapes (i.e., ultimately paving the way for large-scale, repeatable statistical studies – much needed for further validation and application. While the focus is on aneurysm risk assessment, the underlying method has the potential to reshape how we approach shape analysis across a range of biomedical challenges and could be applied to other organs or medical fields, making this paper well-rounded for this award.
Best Paper Honorable Mention • Mahmood Alzubaidi, Uzair Shah, Marco Agus, Corrado Cali, Pierre J. Magistretti, and Mowafa Househ • Deep learning for brain electron microscopy segmentation: Advances, challenges, and future directions in connectomics and ultrastructure analysis. 
This paper presents a systematic review of deep learning approaches to brain electron microscopy segmentation. The authors collected and quantitatively analyzed 27 existing studies and ultimately presented the first unified benchmark comparison in this specific domain. The paper not only summarizes the evolution of approaches and current status in individual phases, called findings, but it also provides the readers with a very interesting and deep discussion and insight that the authors gained within the exploration of the approaches.
Committee • Maxime Chamberland, TU Eindhoven and Barbora Kozlíková, Masaryk University
Best Short Paper Awards
Best Short Paper • Lena Cibulski, Fiete Haack, Adelinde Uhrmacher, Stefan Bruckner • Visual Analysis of Time-Dependent Observables in Cell Signaling Simulations.
The authors propose a novel design to extend Parallel Coordinate Plots with temporal data to analyze cell signaling simulations. The problem is well motivated, with the solution clearly explained and demonstrated through a concrete usage scenario with previously unknown transient signal activation behaviours.
Best Short Paper Honorable Mention • Sophie Mlitzke, Sarah Mittenentzwei, Bernhard Preim, Monique Meuschke • Interaction in Narrative Medical Visualization: Insights from a Case Study on Tumor Diseases.
In the paper, the authors propose to adapt domain expert interaction techniques, such as clipping planes and transparency, to help telling medical stories for non-experts. The authors have also successfully conducted an experiment that indicates that the developed techniques can benefit medical communication in cases of lung or liver cancer. This paper addresses an important problem in medical communication for lay audience. The initial findings that participants preferred guided animation can provides valuable insights for future medical storytelling applications.
Committee • Qianwen Wang, University of Minnesota and Pere-Pau Vasquez, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña
Best Poster Award
Best Poster • Mohit Sharma, Emma Nilsson, Martin Falk, Talha Bin Masood, Lee Jollans, Anders Persson, Tino Ebbers, and Ingrid Hotz • Topology-Guided Volume Fusion for Multi-Energy Spectral Computed Tomography.
Committee • Helwig Hauser, University of Bergen and Tobias Isenberg, INRIA