School of Computing Science

Events

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Explore upcoming seminars, guest lectures, workshops, and other events hosted by the School of Computing Science.

Our events bring together students, researchers, industry partners, and the wider community to share ideas, showcase research, and foster collaboration.

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This Week’s Events

SICSA Seminar - Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati presents Teaching Product Judgement

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 19 May, 2026
Time: 11:00 - 11:00
Location:Jack Cole Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews

Teaching Product Judgement: Rethinking the Student Experience in Software Product and Project Management with Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati Abstract: Software engineering students are often well prepared to think about implementation and delivery, but less often asked to reason about value, prioritisation, uncertainty, and strategic trade-offs. In this talk, I will present the pedagogical design of CS5034, a Master’s-level module in Software Product and Project Management at the University of St Andrews, and reflect on how it was used to reshape the student experience around product judgement rather than delivery alone. The module combines a standards-based foundation in software product management through ISPMA with discovery-led teaching, a shared fictional startup case, studio-style tutorials, and coursework built around revision and feedback. I will discuss how this design makes assumptions, trade-offs, and strategic reasoning more visible to students, and what this experience suggests for educators seeking stronger connections between software engineering education and contemporary product practice. Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews where his work spans human computer interaction, software engineering, and digital inclusion, with a focus on participatory design and socio-technical systems that connect universities, industry, and communities. This seminar will be hybrid from University of St Andrews. Register to receive meeting link.

Automated Digital Twin Generation for Network Testing: A Multi-Topology Validation

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Shenjia Ding, University of Glasgow
Date: 19 May, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

With the exponential growth of data traffic, ensuring reliable and efficient network testing has become critical throughout design, implementation, and management operations. 
As testing is essential to ensure that changes in configuration or traffic conditions do not degrade user experience, current testing practices rely heavily on manual configuration and simulators. This reliance leads to time-consuming, difficult-to-scale, and expert-dependent processes. To address these limitations, our work explores the role of Automated Machine Learning (AutoML)–based automatically generated Digital Twin (DT) in network testing to enable rapid and scalable testing across diverse network conditions. By integrating this approach with a network service controller for configuration optimization,  our results evidence an improvement that DT- enabled testing achieves high accuracy while being approximately 25,000 times faster than simulator-based testing. The implications of these findings, suggest that automated DT generation through AutoML can reduce dependence on manual modeling, allow DTs to adapt to diverse test scenarios, and enhance scalability for complex network.

[FATA Seminar] Constraint Solving During a RAM Crisis - CP in 300 Kilobytes

Group: Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms (FATA)
Speaker: Guido Tack, Monash University
Date: 19 May, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Constraint solving is a way of describing decision problems using variables and rules, and then automatically finding solutions that satisfy those rules. It is widely used in applications such as scheduling, assignment, configuration, routing, and rostering. The systems used for solving these problems are usually designed for desktop and server machines with abundant memory. This talk explores whether constraint programming can be reengineered for microcontroller-class hardware instead, where processors are increasingly capable, but RAM is often limited to only a few hundred kilobytes. I will present Thornbill-CP, a constraint programming solver architecture designed for that environment, and discuss what changes are necessary when constraint solving is pushed into such a tight memory budget. The talk will explain briefly how traditional constraint solvers work, and then cover the main architectural ideas behind Thornbill-CP, early results from running it on ESP32 and RP-series devices, and the kinds of embedded applications that could benefit from on-device constraint solving.

"Abuse Risks are Often Inherent to Product Features": Exploring AI Vendors' Bug Bounty and Responsible Disclosure Policies

Group: Networked Systems Research Laboratory (NETLAB)
Speaker: Yangheran Piao, University of Edinburgh
Date: 21 May, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 423 Seminar Room

Abstract:

As vendors adopt AI technologies, security researchers are working to uncover and fix related vulnerabilities, which is important given AI systems handle sensitive data and critical functions. This process relies on vendors receiving and rewarding AI vulnerability reports. To assess current practices, we analyzed the vulnerability disclosure policies of 264 AI vendors. We employed a mixed-methods approach, combining snapshot and longitudinal qualitative analysis, as well as comparing alignment with 320 AI incidents and 260 academic articles. Our analysis reveals that 36% of AI vendors have no established policy, and only 18% mention AI risks. Data access, authorization, and model extraction vulnerabilities are most consistently declared in-scope. Jailbreaking and hallucination are most commonly declared out-of-scope. We identify three profiles that reflect vendors' different positions toward AI vulnerabilities: proactive clarification (n = 46), silent (n = 115), and restrictive (n = 103). Our alignment results suggest that vendors may address AI vulnerability disclosure later than academic research and real-world incidents.

Bio:

Yangheran (Lawrence) Piao is a third-year PhD student at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. His research explores usable security, security economics, and cybercrime, with a specific focus on the vulnerability disclosure ecosystem, bug bounties, and AI vulnerability reporting. Yangheran’s work has been published and presented at premier security venues, including USENIX Security, IEEE S&P (Oakland), and WEIS.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Native Open Radio Access Networks

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Nima Afraz, University College Dublin
Date: 21 May, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely recognized as a cornerstone technology for 6G. In the OpenRAN (O-RAN) paradigm, AI is not an optional add-on but an essential enabler to realize adaptive, efficient, and resilient networks. The O-RAN RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) provides the programmable foundation for embedding intelligence, paving the way toward AI-native networks where optimization, prediction, and automation are built into the system from the outset. This talk offers an overview of the principles and architectural vision of AI-native O- RAN, drawing on recent industry and standardization efforts. We will discuss how native AI shifts the focus from isolated applications to distributed, cooperative intelligence across RAN, core, and edge domains. At the same time, the openness and multi-vendor nature of O-RAN introduces new challenges: when different vendors deploy their own xApps and rApps, AI-driven control loops can interact in unexpected ways, sometimes leading to conflicts and degraded performance. As part of this perspective, we will highlight our own research on conflict mitigation in multivendor RIC environments, where AI-based decision- making by competing applications can clash over parameters such as mobility management, load balancing, or interference control. By exploring strategies for conflict detection and resolution, we aim to shed light on the need for governance, coordination mechanisms, and future-proof architectures. The session will conclude with a forward-looking reflection on how AI-native O-RAN can evolve into a trusted, interoperable, and innovation-ready foundation for 6G,balancing openness with stability, and intelligence with accountability.
 
Bio: Nima Afraz is a Tenured Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin and leads the UCD Network Intelligence and Automation Lab (NIA). His research focuses on Open RAN, blockchain applications in telecommunications, network automation, network economics, and infrastructure virtualisation. He is a funded investigator at the Research Ireland CONNECT Centre and has secured nearly €2 million in research funding through major national and European grants, including the National Space Subsystems and Payloads Initiative, the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the EU-funded HORIZON MSCA Staff Exchange project RE-ROUTE. Dr. Afraz completed his PhD in Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin in 2020, where his work on multi-tenant optical access networks contributed to standardisation and policy research. His research has influenced industry and public-policy outcomes, including Broadband Forum TR-402, ETSI specifications, and World Bank work on affordable broadband deployment. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Telecom Special Interest Group, supporting industry-academic collaboration in open-source telecommunications innovation.

Computing for Whom? Capital and Participation in Computing Higher Education

Group: Computing Science Education Research and Practice
Speaker: Thom Kunkeler, Uppsala University
Date: 21 May, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: F121 Lilybank Gardens and Online

Computing education in Western countries has traditionally been characterised by low levels of participation and diversity amongst its student population. In order to broaden participation in the field, it is fundamental to understand why students engage with computing, and what they aspire to get out of their education. In my PhD research, I apply Bourdieu’s framework on social, cultural, and economic capital to address the issue. During this informal research discussion, I present findings from a nationwide population study examining transitions into computing education in Sweden. Using administrative register data covering all 1,014,519 upper secondary graduates between 2014 and 2024, the analysis identifies 8,916 individuals who completed a computing-related higher education degree as their first qualification. The study examines how upper secondary programme choice, academic performance, family education, income, parental occupation, and geography shape transitions into computing. The results show that computing graduates are disproportionately drawn from technical and science programmes and from families with higher levels of educational and socioeconomic capital. These findings highlight how early educational pathways and social background structure access to computing education, with implications for broadening participation in the field.

Upcoming events

SICSA Seminar - Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati presents Teaching Product Judgement

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 19 May, 2026
Time: 11:00 - 11:00
Location: Jack Cole Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews

Teaching Product Judgement: Rethinking the Student Experience in Software Product and Project Management with Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati Abstract: Software engineering students are often well prepared to think about implementation and delivery, but less often asked to reason about value, prioritisation, uncertainty, and strategic trade-offs. In this talk, I will present the pedagogical design of CS5034, a Master’s-level module in Software Product and Project Management at the University of St Andrews, and reflect on how it was used to reshape the student experience around product judgement rather than delivery alone. The module combines a standards-based foundation in software product management through ISPMA with discovery-led teaching, a shared fictional startup case, studio-style tutorials, and coursework built around revision and feedback. I will discuss how this design makes assumptions, trade-offs, and strategic reasoning more visible to students, and what this experience suggests for educators seeking stronger connections between software engineering education and contemporary product practice. Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews where his work spans human computer interaction, software engineering, and digital inclusion, with a focus on participatory design and socio-technical systems that connect universities, industry, and communities. This seminar will be hybrid from University of St Andrews. Register to receive meeting link.

Automated Digital Twin Generation for Network Testing: A Multi-Topology Validation

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Shenjia Ding, University of Glasgow
Date: 19 May, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

With the exponential growth of data traffic, ensuring reliable and efficient network testing has become critical throughout design, implementation, and management operations. 
As testing is essential to ensure that changes in configuration or traffic conditions do not degrade user experience, current testing practices rely heavily on manual configuration and simulators. This reliance leads to time-consuming, difficult-to-scale, and expert-dependent processes. To address these limitations, our work explores the role of Automated Machine Learning (AutoML)–based automatically generated Digital Twin (DT) in network testing to enable rapid and scalable testing across diverse network conditions. By integrating this approach with a network service controller for configuration optimization,  our results evidence an improvement that DT- enabled testing achieves high accuracy while being approximately 25,000 times faster than simulator-based testing. The implications of these findings, suggest that automated DT generation through AutoML can reduce dependence on manual modeling, allow DTs to adapt to diverse test scenarios, and enhance scalability for complex network.

[FATA Seminar] Constraint Solving During a RAM Crisis - CP in 300 Kilobytes

Group: Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms (FATA)
Speaker: Guido Tack, Monash University
Date: 19 May, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Constraint solving is a way of describing decision problems using variables and rules, and then automatically finding solutions that satisfy those rules. It is widely used in applications such as scheduling, assignment, configuration, routing, and rostering. The systems used for solving these problems are usually designed for desktop and server machines with abundant memory. This talk explores whether constraint programming can be reengineered for microcontroller-class hardware instead, where processors are increasingly capable, but RAM is often limited to only a few hundred kilobytes. I will present Thornbill-CP, a constraint programming solver architecture designed for that environment, and discuss what changes are necessary when constraint solving is pushed into such a tight memory budget. The talk will explain briefly how traditional constraint solvers work, and then cover the main architectural ideas behind Thornbill-CP, early results from running it on ESP32 and RP-series devices, and the kinds of embedded applications that could benefit from on-device constraint solving.

"Abuse Risks are Often Inherent to Product Features": Exploring AI Vendors' Bug Bounty and Responsible Disclosure Policies

Group: Networked Systems Research Laboratory (NETLAB)
Speaker: Yangheran Piao, University of Edinburgh
Date: 21 May, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 423 Seminar Room

Abstract:

As vendors adopt AI technologies, security researchers are working to uncover and fix related vulnerabilities, which is important given AI systems handle sensitive data and critical functions. This process relies on vendors receiving and rewarding AI vulnerability reports. To assess current practices, we analyzed the vulnerability disclosure policies of 264 AI vendors. We employed a mixed-methods approach, combining snapshot and longitudinal qualitative analysis, as well as comparing alignment with 320 AI incidents and 260 academic articles. Our analysis reveals that 36% of AI vendors have no established policy, and only 18% mention AI risks. Data access, authorization, and model extraction vulnerabilities are most consistently declared in-scope. Jailbreaking and hallucination are most commonly declared out-of-scope. We identify three profiles that reflect vendors' different positions toward AI vulnerabilities: proactive clarification (n = 46), silent (n = 115), and restrictive (n = 103). Our alignment results suggest that vendors may address AI vulnerability disclosure later than academic research and real-world incidents.

Bio:

Yangheran (Lawrence) Piao is a third-year PhD student at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. His research explores usable security, security economics, and cybercrime, with a specific focus on the vulnerability disclosure ecosystem, bug bounties, and AI vulnerability reporting. Yangheran’s work has been published and presented at premier security venues, including USENIX Security, IEEE S&P (Oakland), and WEIS.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Native Open Radio Access Networks

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Nima Afraz, University College Dublin
Date: 21 May, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely recognized as a cornerstone technology for 6G. In the OpenRAN (O-RAN) paradigm, AI is not an optional add-on but an essential enabler to realize adaptive, efficient, and resilient networks. The O-RAN RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) provides the programmable foundation for embedding intelligence, paving the way toward AI-native networks where optimization, prediction, and automation are built into the system from the outset. This talk offers an overview of the principles and architectural vision of AI-native O- RAN, drawing on recent industry and standardization efforts. We will discuss how native AI shifts the focus from isolated applications to distributed, cooperative intelligence across RAN, core, and edge domains. At the same time, the openness and multi-vendor nature of O-RAN introduces new challenges: when different vendors deploy their own xApps and rApps, AI-driven control loops can interact in unexpected ways, sometimes leading to conflicts and degraded performance. As part of this perspective, we will highlight our own research on conflict mitigation in multivendor RIC environments, where AI-based decision- making by competing applications can clash over parameters such as mobility management, load balancing, or interference control. By exploring strategies for conflict detection and resolution, we aim to shed light on the need for governance, coordination mechanisms, and future-proof architectures. The session will conclude with a forward-looking reflection on how AI-native O-RAN can evolve into a trusted, interoperable, and innovation-ready foundation for 6G,balancing openness with stability, and intelligence with accountability.
 
Bio: Nima Afraz is a Tenured Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin and leads the UCD Network Intelligence and Automation Lab (NIA). His research focuses on Open RAN, blockchain applications in telecommunications, network automation, network economics, and infrastructure virtualisation. He is a funded investigator at the Research Ireland CONNECT Centre and has secured nearly €2 million in research funding through major national and European grants, including the National Space Subsystems and Payloads Initiative, the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the EU-funded HORIZON MSCA Staff Exchange project RE-ROUTE. Dr. Afraz completed his PhD in Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin in 2020, where his work on multi-tenant optical access networks contributed to standardisation and policy research. His research has influenced industry and public-policy outcomes, including Broadband Forum TR-402, ETSI specifications, and World Bank work on affordable broadband deployment. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Telecom Special Interest Group, supporting industry-academic collaboration in open-source telecommunications innovation.

Computing for Whom? Capital and Participation in Computing Higher Education

Group: Computing Science Education Research and Practice
Speaker: Thom Kunkeler, Uppsala University
Date: 21 May, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: F121 Lilybank Gardens and Online

Computing education in Western countries has traditionally been characterised by low levels of participation and diversity amongst its student population. In order to broaden participation in the field, it is fundamental to understand why students engage with computing, and what they aspire to get out of their education. In my PhD research, I apply Bourdieu’s framework on social, cultural, and economic capital to address the issue. During this informal research discussion, I present findings from a nationwide population study examining transitions into computing education in Sweden. Using administrative register data covering all 1,014,519 upper secondary graduates between 2014 and 2024, the analysis identifies 8,916 individuals who completed a computing-related higher education degree as their first qualification. The study examines how upper secondary programme choice, academic performance, family education, income, parental occupation, and geography shape transitions into computing. The results show that computing graduates are disproportionately drawn from technical and science programmes and from families with higher levels of educational and socioeconomic capital. These findings highlight how early educational pathways and social background structure access to computing education, with implications for broadening participation in the field.

Synergistic Hardware-Software Co-Design for Approximate Real-Time Systems

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Shounak Chakraborty, Durham University
Date: 26 May, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

Abstract: Modern data centers in hubs consume hundreds of megawatts to support global services. To address this energy crisis, we must optimize the performance-per-watt across the entire stack—from application layers down to the device level. This seminar introduces PRECIOUS, a framework designed to maximize Quality of Service (QoS) for dependent real-time tasks on heterogeneous Chip Multi-Processors (CMPs). The core of PRECIOUS is a hybrid offline-online strategy. Offline, we utilise an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) scheduling approach to optimally assign task versions and cores while satisfying power and timing constraints. Online, the framework leverages the density of Multi-Level Cell (MLC) MRAM-based Last-Level Caches (LLC). By employing novel cell-splitting and intelligent write-steering, we reduce cache miss rates by 19% and improve throughput by 5.7%. Validated on 64-core systems, PRECIOUS achieves up to 76% normalised QoS, outperforming traditional heuristic methods. Furthermore, the framework converts architectural efficiency into dynamic runtime slacks, enabling a 9.0% QoS boost and cluster power-gating without additional energy overhead. 

Speaker's Bio: Dr. Shounak Chakraborty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University and a member of the Scientific Computing Research Group. He also serves as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Essex and was previously a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow as well as an ERCIM Postdoctoral Fellow at NTNU, Norway. Beyond his academic background, he brings two years of industry experience as a Computer System Architect at ZeroPoint Technologies AB in Sweden, where he researched memory compression mechanisms to enhance energy efficiency. His research is situated at the intersection of computer architecture and compilers, with a focus on improving the energy and thermal efficiency of modern Chip Multi-Processors. Dr. Chakraborty's recent work, which includes a project supported by APRIL AI Hub, investigates the use of emerging non-volatile memory technologies and 3D-FETs to optimize Quality of Service in time-critical systems. His research has been published in several journals such as IEEE TC, IEEE TCAD, IEEE TPDS, ACM TECS, ACM TACO, etc. some conferences including the DAC, IPDPS, CF, DATE, ASAP, etc. 

[FATA Seminar] TBA

Group: Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms (FATA)
Speaker: Ricardo Almeida, FATA
Date: 26 May, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

TBA

Mathematical Foundations for Symmetric Programming

Group: Programming Languages at University of Glasgow (PLUG)
Speaker: Ohad Kammar, University of Edinburgh
Date: 27 May, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: F121 Lilybank Gardens and Online

Joint work with Matija Pretnar.

We propose abstractions for exploiting symmetries in programming and
reasoning based on the mathematical proof principle
"without-loss-of-generality" (wlog). We decompose such arguments into
three components. The first component makes the symmetry explicit by
defining appropriate groups and their action on the input/assumptions
and output/conclusions. The second component explicates how to
canonise the input, by choosing appropriate symmetries for each
input. The third component is a core function/proof that transforms
canonical inputs into outputs. The proposed wlog construct combines
these components: given an input, calculate its canonising symmetry,
use the symmetry to canonise the input, apply the core function to the
canonical input, and apply the inverse symmetry to the output.
Here we develop the mathematical foundations for these abstractions.

We illustrate the approach on running examples: sliding-tile merges in
2048, binary-tree insertion, and Schur's inequality as a mathematical
instance of WLOG. We extend the framework to algebraic datatypes using
initial algebra semantics, showing how a G-symmetry strength on a
functor lifts group actions to inductive types and that the unique
fold into an equivariant algebra is itself equivariant, allowing us to
avoid using general recursion to define a symmetric version of tree
insertion. Finally, we develop the theory of equivariant canonisers
and explore the cases when the WLOG construction is guaranteed to
produce an equivariant function.

SICSA Seminar - Theory and Practice of Efficient Evaluation

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 27 May, 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Location: https://sicsa.ac.uk/event/sicsa-seminar-theory-and-practice-of-efficient-evaluation/

Register to attend Join us on Wednesday 27 May for an AI & Data Science Seminar. Vilém Zouhar of EHT Zurich presents Theory and Practice of Efficient Evaluation Science without evaluation is limited to blind exploration, though good evaluation comes at a cost. In this session, we first cover basics of annotation protocols. We then build a formalism (based on coresets and multi-armed bandits) for choosing which models to evaluate and on which items, in order to make evaluation more efficient. Vilém Zouhar is last-year PhD at ETH Zurich and Google PhD Fellow. He works on both the practical and theoretical aspects of evaluation (human annotations, automated metrics, methods), especially in the context of multilingual NLP.

Scottish Argumentation Day 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 29 May, 2026
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: University of Dundee

Scotland has a particularly high concentration of research groups working in the AI subfield of computational argumentation. Scottish Argumentation Day has previously been attended by researchers based both in Scotland and further afield, and has enabled the Scottish argumentation community to present their work in an informal setting, share feedback, and strengthen professional links. SAD began with Aberdeen 2011, and most recently took place in Edinburgh 2024. In continuing this series, our aim is threefold: (i) enable Scottish argumentation researchers, and especially PhD students, to mutually present their work; (ii) affirm Scottish argumentation research as a recognisable presence; (iii) provide a concrete opportunity for Scottish researchers to network. At SAD 2026 we aim to improve visibility for Scotland-based researchers, especially PhD students and early-career researchers, to encourage knowledge- and skill-exchange at all levels, and to foster cross-institution relations and collaborations. Participation is free but registration is required. ————————————————– We invite abstracts of up to 250 words to be presented as a short talk or poster. Participants at all levels are encouraged to present work, so that everyone can come away with a view of the current Scottish argumentation landscape. We invite abstracts at a range of levels, including: Overview of a specific research project or a lab’s area of work Recent work Work in progress, recent findings or initial results PhD projects and project plans PhD students are especially encouraged to present their projects and project plans to benefit from wider feedback in a supportive atmosphere. Abstract submission form: https://forms.gle/qCVGqi1sahCKATJv6 ————————————————– The day will be scaffolded by three keynote talks by John Lawrence of the University of Dundee, Elena Musi of the University of Liverpool and Henning Wachsmuth of Leibniz University Hannover. ————————————————–

RetroEVAL2026: Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 01 June, 2026
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: University of Aberdeen

Evaluation in the field of Natural Language Generation (NLG) has changed considerably over the past several decades. This special symposium in honour of Prof. Ehud Reiter’s retirement provides a forum for academic and industry researchers to look back on the topic of how evaluations in the field of NLG have changed and to explore unaddressed challenges. The two day symposium will be held in-person at the Sir Duncan Rice Library in the historic University of Aberdeen, June 1-2, 2026. For this symposium, we welcome submissions of long papers, short papers, and extended abstracts. Event site – https://retroeval.github.io/ Registration – https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sicsa/2203784

TBC

Group: Networked Systems Research Laboratory (NETLAB)
Speaker: Jinming Yang
Date: 04 June, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 423 Seminar Room

EASE 2026: International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 09 June, 2026
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: James McCune Smith Learning Hub, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QW

EASE is an internationally leading venue for academics and practitioners to present and discuss their research on evidence-based software engineering, and its implications for software practice. EASE is ranked as A conference in CORE. The 30th edition of EASE will take place in Glasgow, Scotland. EASE 2026 welcomes high-quality submissions, describing original and unpublished research for the following tracks: full research papers, short papers & emerging results, industry, posters & vision, journal-first, and a doctoral symposium. There will also be co-located events, including workshops and tutorials, and a track planned for journal-first presentations. See conference website for submission tracks and deadlines. EASE 2026

SICSA Pre-EC Day 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 12 June, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 15:30
Location: Robert Gordon University, United Kingdom

View programme or Register — The SICSA Pre-EC Day allows colleagues in the field of evolutionary computation the opportunity to showcase their most recent work. The conference’s primary focus is on researchers who have papers/posters accepted at upcoming 2026 conferences, giving them the chance to present their work to an expert, supportive community of EC researchers from across Scottish institutions. The event also allows colleagues who cannot attend conferences such as GECCO, CEC, PPSN, Evo* and others the opportunity to hear about the latest research being developed in Scotland. We will welcome speakers who have accepted papers across the summer 2026 conferences, as well as speakers who have field-specific or field-adjacent research that would be of interest to the EC research community that has or is targeting publication. Attendance is free for students and academics based in Scotland.

S3CIX 2026 - Symposium and Summer School on Computational Interaction

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 16 June, 2026
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, University of Glasgow, 18 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8QN, United Kingdom

Registration for the 10th Symposium and Summer School on Computational Interaction will open 1 February and close 14 March 2026. View programme, event details and registration process at S³CIX 2026. This year S³CIX is expanding from a Summer School format to also include a 4 day long academic Symposium. We anticipate about 30 students and 40 academics and invited speakers to attend. There will also be two workshops. Computational interaction often involves elements from machine learning, signal processing, information theory, optimisation, inference, control theory and formal modelling. Computational interaction would typically involve at least one of: an explicit mathematical model of user-system behaviour; a way of updating that model with observed data from users; an algorithmic element that, using this model, can directly synthesise or adapt the design; a way of automating and instrumenting the modelling and design process; the ability to simulate or synthesise elements of the expected user-system behaviour.”

TBC

Group: Networked Systems Research Laboratory (NETLAB)
Speaker: Muhammad Arif
Date: 18 June, 2026
Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Location: Lilybank Gardens, F121 Conference Room

10th Summer School and Symposium on Computational Interaction (S³CIX)

Group: Inference, Dynamics and Interaction (IDI)
Speaker: multiple
Date: 20 June, 2026
Time: 09:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Welcome to the Symposium and Summer School on Computational Interaction! This year we are expanding from a Summer School format to also include a 4 day long academic Symposium. We anticipate about 30 students and 40 academics and invited speakers to attend. There will also be two workshops.

SPLV’26: Scottish Programming Languages and Verification Summer School 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 03 August, 2026
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: TBA

The 2026 edition of SPLV will be held at the University of Glasgow, with the main courses running from within the Gilbert Scott Building. The school is aimed at PhD students in programming languages, verification and related areas. Researchers and practitioners are welcome, as are strong undergraduate and masters students with the support of a supervisor. Participants should have a background in computer science, mathematics or a related discipline. Prospective students may contact the organisers if they have any concerns about background knowledge. Registration will open March 2026. View full programme at SPLV 2026 | SPLV

Past events

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