Ester Bergantin wins the 2026 Computing in Cardiology Karlsruhe Simulation Award

Simone Pezzuto, 15th July 2026

Our PhD student Ester Bergantin and her co-authors Federica Caforio, Francisco Sahli Costabal, Christoph Augustin and Simone Pezzuto have been selected as winners of the 2026 Computing in Cardiology Karlsruhe Simulation Award for their paper, “Uncertainty Quantification in a Cardiovascular Digital Twin for Personalized Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Planning.”

The Karlsruhe Simulation Award recognises the best annual contribution to the Computing in Cardiology conference in the field of cardiovascular simulation. Submissions are evaluated for their originality, impact and scientific quality, as well as their innovative methodology, value to the community, reproducibility and use of open-source code.

The awarded work presents a patient-specific digital-twin framework designed to support cardiac resynchronisation therapy planning. It combines a three-dimensional model of cardiac electrical activation with a closed-loop cardiovascular model and uses Bayesian methods to quantify uncertainty in its personalised predictions. Applied to patients with heart failure and left bundle branch block, the framework enables different pacing strategies to be assessed non-invasively and highlights the importance of patient-specific treatment planning.

The award will be formally presented at the 53rd Computing in Cardiology conference, taking place in Madrid, Spain, from 20 to 23 September 2026.

This is an outstanding achievement for Ester and the entire research team.

Congratulations, Ester!

Further information is available on the Karlsruhe Simulation Award and paper abstract webpages. Details about the conference can be found on the Computing in Cardiology 2026 website.