March 22 - 26, 2026
Porto, Portugal
About This Conference
Engineering solutions and new technologies are key to meeting the evolving challenges of the global grape growing and winemaking industries. From automation and robotics in the vineyard through AI, novel sensors, and sustainable processing in the winery, these solutions can enable improvement in product quality and diversity, while reducing the labor, energy, water, and chemicals necessary for production from vine to bottle. The ENG2WINE Conference is designed for both academics and industry practitioners to work out how to incorporate the latest technology to meet the most important challenges facing a rapidly changing wine industry.
Conference Format
The format of the conference will be the “retreat-style Banff-format”. There will be no parallel sessions in order to allow all participants to be exposed and contribute to all presentations. Each day will begin with a keynote talk (30 minutes) to start the morning session, short (15 minute) presentations in the morning, lunch, networking time in the early afternoon, refreshment mid-afternoon, short (15 minute) presentations in the late afternoon, dinner, and end with the poster session/networking and social period.
Technical Sessions
VIT2Eng: Viticulture & Farm engineering/ Technology/innovation
- Automation for labor intensive tasks
- Winegrowing: Vineyard operation, Irrigation, Advance vineyard sensing and monitoring, Robotics in viticulture
- Automation & higher spatial resolution
- Pest management; Fire & smoke management; Frost management
- AI & ML in winegrowing
WINE2Eng: Engineering / Technology /I nnovation in grape processing, winemaking
- Engineering, technology and advancement in grape processing technologies
- Fermentation, Winemaking, Post fermentation processing
- Wine Maturation and Aging
- AI & ML in winemaking
PKG2Eng: Engineering/Technology/Innovation in bottling, packaging, logistics and distribution, retailing
- Engineering, technology and advancement in liquid bottling and packaging
- Packaging & closures
- AI & ML in finished product management
Innovation2Eng: Engineering / Technologies / Innovation for alcohol removal and preserving aromatics and mouthfeel
- Engineering, technology and advancement in No/Lo alcohol beverage making, sparkling, distillation spirits, RTD’s, Seltzers
- AI & ML
ValAdd2Eng: Engineering/Technologies/Innovation in value-add processing across entire value chain
- Transversal session focused on Engineering, technology and advancement in grape and wine by-product creation, Resource recycling and reuse
- Advances in optimizing winery utilities, energy generation and use
- Advances in cleaning and sanitization, CIP
- Sustainability, CO2 management, Life Cycle Analysis
- AI & ML in value add engineering
Conference Organization
Co-Chairs
David E. Block, University of California Davis, USA
deblock@ucdavis.edu
Dominik Durner, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Germany
dominik.durner@hs-kl.de
Dimple K Kundiyana, Gallo, CA, USA
Dimple.Kundiyana@ejgallo.com
ECI Liaisons
Franco Berruti, Western University, Canada
Anthony Dufour, CNRS, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
Scientific Committee
Dr. Maria Paz Diago Santamaria, Universidad de La Rioja, Spain
maria-paz.diago@unirioja.es
Dr. Belinda Kemp, NIAB, UK
Belinda.kemp@niab.com
Dr. Mason Earles, University of California Davis, USA
jmearles@ucdavis.edu
Dr. Maurizio Ugliano, University of Verona, Italy
maurizio.ugliano@univr.it
Dr. Regis Gougeon, University of Burgundy Dijon, France
regis.gougeon@u-bourgogne.fr
Dr. Kleopatra Chira, Université de Bordeaux Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin, France
kleopatra.chira@u-bordeaux.fr
Dr. António Silva Ferreira, Catholic University of Porto, Portugal
asferreira@porto.ucp.pt
Mr. Marc Alton, Alton Farms Estate Winery, Canada
marc.alton@hotmail.com
Dr. Linn Hobbs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
hobbs@mit.edu
Mr. Boris Suprina Petrovic, Felice D. Errico Srl. Italy
bsp.derrico@gmail.com
General Information About ECI
Engineering Conferences International (ECI) is a not-for-profit, global engineering conferences program, originally established in 1962 that provides opportunities for the exploration of problems and issues of concern to engineers and scientists from many disciplines.
The format of the conference provides morning and late afternoon or evening sessions in which major presentations are made. Poster sessions will be scheduled for evening discussion as well. Available time is included during the afternoons for ad hoc meetings, informal discussions, and/or recreation. This format is designed to enhance rapport among participants and promote dialogue on the development of the meeting. We believe the conferences have been instrumental in generating ideas and disseminating information to a greater extent than is possible through more conventional forums.
All participants are expected both to attend the entire conference and to contribute actively to the discussions. The recording/photographing of lectures and presentations is forbidden. As ECI conferences take place in an informal atmosphere - casual clothing is the usual attire.
Smoking is prohibited at ECI conferences and conference functions.