Dear Colleague,

We are organizing a Special Session for the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN 2026) entitled *“Advances in Machine Learning and Deep Learning for Hyperspectral Image Classification,”* which is part of the IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI) 2026, to be held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, June 21–26, 2026.

The objective of this special session is to bring together researchers and practitioners in machine learning, deep learning, and remote sensing to share novel computational approaches for hyperspectral image classification.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

· Remote Sensing Applications of Hyperspectral Imaging

· Hyperspectral Imaging for Advanced Remote Sensing Techniques

· Deep Learning Architectures for Hyperspectral Image Classification

· Transfer Learning for Hyperspectral Image Classification

· Unsupervised and Semi-Supervised Learning Methods

· Data Augmentation and Synthetic Data Generation for Hyperspectral Data

· Multisource and Multimodal Data Fusion

· Explainability and Interpretability in Hyperspectral Image Classification

· Advanced Feature Extraction Techniques

· Adversarial Attacks and Robustness in Hyperspectral Image Classification

· Real-Time Hyperspectral Image Classification

· Applications of Hyperspectral Image Classification

· Benchmarking and Evaluation of Deep Learning Models

· Hybrid and Ensemble Models for Hyperspectral Classification

· Hyperparameter Tuning and Optimization Techniques

· Challenges and Future Directions in Hyperspectral Image Classification

Details about the session can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/wcci2026/home

Information on papers submission can be found here: https://attend.ieee.org/wcci-2026/information-for-authors/ https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fattend.ieee.org%2Fwcci-2026%2Finformation-for-authors%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cnzhang%40udc.edu%7C5b42e5db0518450966a308de22a454a3%7Ca31211ef14214193bf151d613b2546f2%7C0%7C0%7C638986286376136351%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EXW4tqEXisR6OpkMpS1ytSeZp%2FDTYO4K3EvZBJmm4dk%3D&reserved=0

All accepted papers will be included in the WCCI 2026 proceedings, published on the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.

The deadline for the submission of papers is approaching: January 31, 2026, 23:59 AoE time (no extension will be given, see Important Dates https://attend.ieee.org/wcci-2026/important-dates-deadlines/)

For any additional inquiries, please feel free to contact us.

Best regards,

Nian Ashlee Zhang, University of the District of Columbia, USA Man-Fai Leung, Anglia Ruskin University, U.K. Feng Xia, RMIT University, Australia Donald C. Wunsch II, Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA