SUMO Conference 2026

June 01-04   •   Berlin-Adlershof, Germany

Conference image

Save the Date!

June 01-04, 2026, in Berlin.

The SUMO Conference, held every year in Berlin since 2013, is a must-attend event for anyone involved with SUMO. It gathers international participants from the industry, research and public institutions - to present (among others) projects, studies and advancements all around traffic, simulation and SUMO.

The conference offers opportunities to learn about new features, connect with other users, engage with the developers, exchange ideas, and even start new collaborations.

Call for Papers

The conference focuses on presenting new and unique results in the field of mobility simulation and modelling using openly available tools and data. We expect a large variety of research topics and usage approaches. Possible areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

  • AI-based traffic modelling / AI-assisted simulation
  • Data-driven calibration and validation
  • Intermodal transport and shared mobility
  • Simulation for traffic safety and risk assessment
  • Real-time traffic prediction and control
  • Large-scale simulation and high-performance computing
  • Mobility and demand modelling
  • Open tools and open data
  • Traffic management solutions
  • Sustainable urban traffic planning
  • Autonomous driving
  • Goods traffic and logistics simulation
  • Digital twins in Intelligent transportation systems
  • E-Mobility
  • Vehicular communication

Submissions

This year, there are three types of submission:

1. Scientific Papers

  • All accepted scientific papers must be presented at the conference.
  • Papers will be reviewed by at least two reviewers.
  • All accepted papers will be published in the SUMO Conference Proceedings (SCP).
  • Papers should be 5-20 pages long.
  • Recommended: Submit the title and a short abstract (up to 300 words) in advance to receive initial feedback. Do this by Sunday, January 11, 2026 - 23:59 UTC.
  • The paper must be submitted in LaTeX or Word before Sunday, February 22, 2026 March 01, 2026 - 23:59 UTC.

2. Posters

  • The SUMO conference offers the opportunity to present your work during the poster session.
  • A scientific paper is not required.
  • Posters may present:
    • Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis results
    • Live Demos
    • SUMO use cases
    • Project presentations
    • Work in progress that would benefit from community feedback
  • Posters must be formatted in A0 size (841 x 1189 mm / 33.1 x 46.8 in). No specific template is required.
  • We will print your poster and provide a display panel, chair, and table.
  • Changes are allowed after the submission deadline, but we cannot reprint revised posters; you will need to bring the updated version yourself.
  • You may bring a laptop or device for demos or supplementary material (please bring your own equipment).
  • Submit the title and a short abstract (up to 300 words) by Sunday, February 22, 2026 March 01, 2026 - 23:59 UTC.

3. SUMO Moments

To celebrate 25 years of SUMO, we invite the community to share “SUMO Moments” - short reflections, anecdotes, or milestones from your work with the software and the people around it. These stories can highlight technical breakthroughs, memorable challenges, or personal experiences that shaped your connection to SUMO.

  • You are welcome to share:
    • Your first encounter with the SUMO community - for example your first ticket, bug report, or mailing list message
    • A key moment in a research project or application where SUMO played an important role
    • A surprising result, a lesson learned, or a simulation mishap that taught you something
    • Encounters with users, developers, or collaborators who influenced your work
    • Any memory that shows what SUMO has meant to you, your project, or your career
  • Contributors will be able to register under the Authors & Project Partners special rate.
  • Submit a description (up to 300 words) until Sunday, February 22, 2026 March 01, 2026 - 23:59 UTC.

Selected submissions will be featured as brief presentations during the conference as part of the 25-year anniversary program. The goal is to capture the human side of the SUMO journey - the challenges, discoveries, and community interactions that have shaped the project over the past decades.

Ethics and Malpractice Statement

You can read our Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement, where we list the responsibilities of editors, reviewers, and authors.

Important Dates

For papers:

  • Recommended title and abstract submission deadline: Sunday, January 11, 2026.
  • New Paper submission deadline: Sunday, February 22, 2026. Sunday, March 01, 2026.
  • Notification of acceptance/rejection: First week of April 2026.
  • Camera-ready paper deadline: Sunday, May 10, 2026.

For posters:

  • New Mandatory title and abstract submission deadline: Sunday, February 22, 2026. Sunday, March 01, 2026.
  • New Notification of acceptance/rejection: Thursday, February 26, 2026. Thursday, March 04, 2026.
  • Final poster upload deadline: Sunday, May 03, 2026.

For SUMO moments:

  • New Description submission deadline: Sunday, February 22, 2026. Sunday, March 01, 2026.
  • New Notification of acceptance/rejection: Thursday, February 26, 2026. Thursday, March 04, 2026.

Prices

  • Regular Ticket: 575 EUR
  • One-Day Ticket: 350 EUR
  • Authors and Project Partners: 375 EUR
  • Students & Invited Guests: 125 EUR (limited) *

All prices excluding VAT.

*Please contact us via email at sumo-conference@dlr.de to request a discount code for student registration. The availability is limited.

Registration

Registration is now open: https://sumo2026.welcome-manager.de/
Please keep in mind that the registration will close on May 15, 2026 (at 23:59 CEST).

Accommodation is not included within the registration fee and must be pre-booked separately.

Keynotes

Traffic simulation modeling: combining generative modeling with transportation science to achieve scalability

picture of Carolina Osorio
© Carolina Osorio
Prof. Dr. Carolina Osorio
Staff Research Scientist, Google Research
Full Professor, HEC Montreal
Website

This talk presents physics-informed machine learning methods to search high-dimensional continuous spaces in a sample efficient way, with a focus on urban mobility applications. We discuss how the design of variance reduction methods for gradient estimation of generative models can accelerate convergence and robustify model training. We present how standard transportation science metrics can be used to perform physics-informed dimensionality reduction, enabling a more efficient search of high-dimensional spaces. We discuss recent advances in the use of macroscopic traffic models as metamodels for the design of digital urban mobility twins. Methods will be illustrated with case studies of various metropolitan areas. Finally, we identify research opportunities and challenges in the fields of simulation-based optimization and machine learning as applied to urban mobility problems.

About the SpeakerOsorio is a Full Professor at HEC Montreal, where Osorio holds the SCALE AI Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence for Urban Mobility and Logistics. Osorio is also a Staff Research Scientist at Google Research, where Osorio is research lead of Mobility AI. Prior to joining HEC Montreal, Osorio was a faculty at MIT for 9 years. Osorio has consulted for Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs, and has collaborated with top private and public sector, transportation and supply chain stakeholders, including Zipcar, Ford Motor Company, New York City Department of Transportation, and the San Diego planning agency SANDAG. Her research focuses on the design of ML and simulation-based optimization algorithms to tackle high-dimensional transportation problems. Osorio was recognized as an outstanding early-career engineer in the US by the National Academy of Engineering's EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, is the recipient of an MIT Technology Review EmTech Colombia TR35 Award and was on the GOOD 100 list of innovators in the category of "Minds That Are Hacking Our Surroundings for the Better". Since 2022, Osorio has been ranked yearly in the top 2% of the most cited scientists in the field of Operations Research, Transportation and Logistics.

SUMO and I – 25 years later...

picture of Prof. Dr. Peter Wagner
© DLR
Prof. Dr. Peter Wagner
Institute of Transportation Systems
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Website

This contribution begins with a brief and biased account of the origins of SUMO. Given perceived current challenges in microscopic modelling, particularly with regard to the author‘s current favorite topic of traffic safety, it outlines potential future developments centered on modelling rather than usage.

About the SpeakerBeing a physicists by training, I have worked in transport for over 30 years, focusing strongly on modelling and simulation. I started out working with cellular automata as traffic simulation tools, but I have also touched most of the pillars of the 4-step algorithm, i.e. on travel demand, traffic assignment, traffic signal control, and assessment (mostly emissions). Recently, I have developed a strong focus on traffic safety, which strongly resonates with modelling and a bit of simulation, but even more so with data analysis. While I have written some papers myself, I have done more work reviewing and improving the work of others, including the students of my classes at TU Berlin and elsewhere.

Social Event

⛴️ Boat Tour ⛴️

*Limited capacity

More info soon!

Language

The conference language is English.

Venue

WISTA Event Center - “Bunsen-Saal” Website
Volmerstraße 2
12489 Berlin
Germany

Images: © WISTA Management GmbH
View in: OSM - Google Maps - Apple Maps

Contact

For questions or comments, please contact the conference team at sumo-conference@dlr.de.

This page was last edited on: February 23, 2026 at 5:24 PM
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