Events

Students sitting in a lecture theatre

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

SCONE Meeting

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 19 January, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Location:Sir Alwyn Williams Building, University of Glasgow, 18 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8QN, United Kingdom

The next SCONE meeting will be hosted at University of Glasgow from 12-1pm on Monday, 19 January 2026. Register SCONE is the SCOttish Networking Event – an informal gathering of networking and systems researchers in and around Scotland. The goal of these meetings is to foster interaction between researchers from our various institutions. Each meeting will take place over the course of an afternoon, and feature: talks from PhD students talks from faculty, postdocs and industrial researchers discussions of possible funding opportunities food and drink

Critical Thinking and Biases in Information Seeking with LLMs

Group: Information Retrieval (IR)
Speaker: Liana Ermakova, University of Brest
Date: 19 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Title
Critical Thinking and Biases in Information Seeking with LLMs

Abstract
LLMs are increasingly used as interactive systems for information seeking and access, yet their fluent and authoritative responses can obscure factual errors, fabricated references, and systematic biases. This talk aims to highlight the importance of critical thinking in user–LLM interaction from an information access perspective. First, we examine how effectively users identify factual inaccuracies and unreliable or fabricated sources in chatbot responses, and how their critical engagement can be assessed. Second, we analyze how LLMs reinforce premises embedded in user queries (confirmation bias), are influenced by the position of elements within a prompt (position bias), and vary their conclusions depending on positive or negative framing (framing bias), thereby shaping the content and presentation of their responses.

Bio
Liana Ermakova is an associate professor at the University of Brest, France, since 2017. She has worked in information retrieval, natural language processing, AI, including evaluation metrics, multi-document summarization, and has been a PI of projects on text simplification, AI for education, and automatic humor analysis. She has participated in the organisation of various conferences, workshops, and evaluation campaigns. This year, she leads 2 CLEF tracks: SimpleText on scientific text simplification and JOKER on humour detection, translation and generation in English, French, Spanish, and Hinglish.

 

Measuring and understanding Distributed Denial of Service attacks

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Daniel R. Thomas, University of Strathclyde
Date: 20 January, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

 

This talk will cover how we measure and understand Distributed Denial of Service attacks, particularly UDP reflection amplification attacks using data from honeypots and through comparison of data from a variety of vantage points. We evaluate the impact of law enforcement interventions on crime volume and the difficulty of getting a consistent picture when using multiple sources of data about the same kinds of attacks. This talk will principally cover the work from the following two papers, but we can also discuss a wide range of related work including why committing cybercrime is boring and how to suppress crime using messaging. 

Collier, Ben, Daniel R. Thomas, Richard Clayton, and Alice Hutchings. “Booting the Booters: Evaluating the Effects of Police Interventions in the Market for Denial-of-Service Attacks.” Internet Measurement Conference (Amsterdam, Netherlands), IMC, October 21, 2019, 50–64. https://doi.org/10.1145/3355369.3355592.
Hiesgen, Raphael, Marcin Nawrocki, Marinho Barcellos, et al. “The Age of DDoScovery: Internet Measurement Conference.” Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC ’24) (Madrid, Spain), November 4, 2024, 259–79. https://doi.org/10.1145/3646547.3688451.

 

Speaker Bio:

Dr Daniel R. Thomas is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde where he is Director of the NCSC certified Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). His research interests are in measuring security and cybercrime so that we can monitor improvement, evaluate interventions and inform regulators. This reveals which techniques work and provides the missing economic incentives to improve security and reduce cybercrime. He co-organises the Strathclyde International Perspectives on Cybercrime Summer School [link](https://www.strath.ac.uk/science/computerinformationsciences/strathcyber/cybercrimesummerschool) , which next runs 24th-28th August 2026.

Education Champions Meeting

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 21 January, 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Location:Online

Monthly meeting of SICSA Education Champions. Please contact the Education Director if you’re a CS academic based in Scotland and are interested in becoming an Education Champion for your institution.

LOCOS Seminar - Lieven Eeckhout: Sustainable Processor Design

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 22 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location:Online

Low Carbon Computing Seminar Lieven Eeckhout is a Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, and will deliver a LOCOS Seminar on Sustainable Processor Design. Sustainability and climate change is a major challenge for our generation. In this talk I will argue that sustainable development requires a holistic approach and involves multi-perspective thinking. Applied to computing, sustainable development means that we need to consider the entire environmental impact of computing, including raw material extraction, component manufacturing, product assembly, transportation, use, repair/maintenance, and end-of-life processing (disassembly and recycling/ reuse). Analyzing current trends reveals that the embodied footprint is, or will soon be, more significant compared to the operational footprint. I will present a simple, yet insightful, first-order model to assess and reason about the sustainability of processors in light of the inherent data uncertainty. Applying the model to a variety of case studies illustrates what computer architects and engineers can and should do to better understand the sustainability impact of computing, and to design sustainable processors. See past and future LOCOS Seminars at https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/research/researchthemes/lowcarbon/

Sustainable Processor Design

Group: Low Carbon and Sustainable Computing
Speaker: Lieven Eeckhout , Universiteit Gent
Date: 22 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/86043466544?pwd=au43NrofRZYwZegxBXIgmx3oayyMYB.1

Abstract:

Sustainability and climate change is a major challenge for our generation. In this talk I will argue that sustainable development requires a holistic approach and involves multi-perspective thinking. Applied to computing, sustainable development means that we need to consider the entire environmental impact of computing, including raw material extraction, component manufacturing, product assembly, transportation, use, repair/maintenance, and end-of-life processing (disassembly and recycling/ reuse). Analyzing current trends reveals that the embodied footprint is, or will soon be, more significant compared to the operational footprint. I will present a simple, yet insightful, first-order model to assess and reason about the sustainability of processors in light of the inherent data uncertainty. Applying the model to a variety of case studies illustrates what computer architects and engineers can and should do to better understand the sustainability impact of computing, and to design sustainable processors.

Short bio: 
Lieven Eeckhout is a Professor at Ghent University, Belgium. His research interests include computer architecture and the hardware/software interface, with specific emphasis on performance evaluation and modeling, dynamic resource management, CPU/GPU microarchitecture, and sustainability. He is the recipient of the 2017 ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award and the 2017 OOPSLA Most Influential Paper Award, and he was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2018 and ACM Fellow in 2021. Other awards include seven IEEE Micro Top Picks selections, three Best of CAL selections, and the MICRO 2023 and ISPASS 2013 Best Paper Awards. He served as the Program Chair for ISCA 2020, HPCA 2015, CGO 2013 and ISPASS 2009, and as General Chair for ASPLOS 2025, IISWC 2023 and ISPASS 2010. 

Winter School: 2nd IEEE Subsea Innovation Technologies Workshop

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 23 January, 2026
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location:University of Aberdeen

The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society is inviting to the 2nd IEEE Subsea Innovation Technologies Workshop to be held at the University of Aberdeen on 23rd and 24th January 2026. Alongside industry and academic presentations on the latest ocean and subsea technologies and innovations, students, young professionals and women in engineering are particularly encouraged to attend dedicated sessions and participate in the poster competition. The poster abstract submission deadline is 22nd December. Workshop website, registration (it is a free event) and abstract submission: https://ieeeukiyp.org/SITW2026/ Day 1: Knowledge Building & Skill Development – 23rd January 2026 Opening Keynote: Delivered by the IEEE OES UK & Ireland Executive Committee and Head of School, University of Aberdeen Tutorials & Expert Presentations on key topics: underwater communication and data networking Subsea imaging, monitoring and sensing Robotics & Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) Ocean Sensors & Environmental Challenges AI Applications in Marine Science & Technology Evening Networking Reception: Connect with peers, researchers and industry leaders Day 2: Industry Insights, Posters & Young Professionals 24th January 2026 Industry Showcase: Live demonstrations and short talks from participating companies Research Poster Competition: Open to PhD, MSc and undergraduate students Young Professionals Panel: “Careers in Ocean Engineering – Academia & Industry” Women in Engineering (WIE) Session Closing Remarks & Awards Ceremony

Languages, Utopia and the Construction of Knowledge: A draft course for the Curriculum for Life

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: Elisa Segnini, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, UoG
Date: 23 January, 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Location: 422 Sir Alwyn Williams (SAWB), University of Glasgow

In this talk, I will introduce the idea for a C4L course on ‘constructed languages’ and seek feedback on how a collaboration between modern languages and computer science might look like in the context of this course. The course understands ‘constructed languages’ in a broad sense - from nineteenth century languages designed to reduce inequalities and promote universal peace (such as Volapük and Esperanto) to the languages of fantasy fiction (e.g. Tolkien’s Elvish and  the languages featuring in TV productions such as Star Trek, Games of Throne, Avatar ) to constructed languages in philosophy and programming languages (especially those in which programming is not the main function). Students will learn about the connections between languages, power, and the production of knowledge, question the ill-defined boundaries between constructed languages and revitalised languages (e.g. Cornish or Nynorsk), reflect critically on the ethical implication raised by the recent status of English as a hypercentral language. The course is co-taught by staff in sociolinguistics, literary studies, fantasy, philosophy and computer science, and the learning is applicable to all these disciplines. Central to the course is a workshop in which students will begin to invent their own language.



Upcoming events

SCONE Meeting

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 19 January, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, University of Glasgow, 18 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8QN, United Kingdom

The next SCONE meeting will be hosted at University of Glasgow from 12-1pm on Monday, 19 January 2026. Register SCONE is the SCOttish Networking Event – an informal gathering of networking and systems researchers in and around Scotland. The goal of these meetings is to foster interaction between researchers from our various institutions. Each meeting will take place over the course of an afternoon, and feature: talks from PhD students talks from faculty, postdocs and industrial researchers discussions of possible funding opportunities food and drink

Critical Thinking and Biases in Information Seeking with LLMs

Group: Information Retrieval (IR)
Speaker: Liana Ermakova, University of Brest
Date: 19 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Title
Critical Thinking and Biases in Information Seeking with LLMs

Abstract
LLMs are increasingly used as interactive systems for information seeking and access, yet their fluent and authoritative responses can obscure factual errors, fabricated references, and systematic biases. This talk aims to highlight the importance of critical thinking in user–LLM interaction from an information access perspective. First, we examine how effectively users identify factual inaccuracies and unreliable or fabricated sources in chatbot responses, and how their critical engagement can be assessed. Second, we analyze how LLMs reinforce premises embedded in user queries (confirmation bias), are influenced by the position of elements within a prompt (position bias), and vary their conclusions depending on positive or negative framing (framing bias), thereby shaping the content and presentation of their responses.

Bio
Liana Ermakova is an associate professor at the University of Brest, France, since 2017. She has worked in information retrieval, natural language processing, AI, including evaluation metrics, multi-document summarization, and has been a PI of projects on text simplification, AI for education, and automatic humor analysis. She has participated in the organisation of various conferences, workshops, and evaluation campaigns. This year, she leads 2 CLEF tracks: SimpleText on scientific text simplification and JOKER on humour detection, translation and generation in English, French, Spanish, and Hinglish.

 

Measuring and understanding Distributed Denial of Service attacks

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Daniel R. Thomas, University of Strathclyde
Date: 20 January, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

 

This talk will cover how we measure and understand Distributed Denial of Service attacks, particularly UDP reflection amplification attacks using data from honeypots and through comparison of data from a variety of vantage points. We evaluate the impact of law enforcement interventions on crime volume and the difficulty of getting a consistent picture when using multiple sources of data about the same kinds of attacks. This talk will principally cover the work from the following two papers, but we can also discuss a wide range of related work including why committing cybercrime is boring and how to suppress crime using messaging. 

Collier, Ben, Daniel R. Thomas, Richard Clayton, and Alice Hutchings. “Booting the Booters: Evaluating the Effects of Police Interventions in the Market for Denial-of-Service Attacks.” Internet Measurement Conference (Amsterdam, Netherlands), IMC, October 21, 2019, 50–64. https://doi.org/10.1145/3355369.3355592.
Hiesgen, Raphael, Marcin Nawrocki, Marinho Barcellos, et al. “The Age of DDoScovery: Internet Measurement Conference.” Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC ’24) (Madrid, Spain), November 4, 2024, 259–79. https://doi.org/10.1145/3646547.3688451.

 

Speaker Bio:

Dr Daniel R. Thomas is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde where he is Director of the NCSC certified Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). His research interests are in measuring security and cybercrime so that we can monitor improvement, evaluate interventions and inform regulators. This reveals which techniques work and provides the missing economic incentives to improve security and reduce cybercrime. He co-organises the Strathclyde International Perspectives on Cybercrime Summer School [link](https://www.strath.ac.uk/science/computerinformationsciences/strathcyber/cybercrimesummerschool) , which next runs 24th-28th August 2026.

Education Champions Meeting

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 21 January, 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Location: Online

Monthly meeting of SICSA Education Champions. Please contact the Education Director if you’re a CS academic based in Scotland and are interested in becoming an Education Champion for your institution.

LOCOS Seminar - Lieven Eeckhout: Sustainable Processor Design

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 22 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Online

Low Carbon Computing Seminar Lieven Eeckhout is a Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, and will deliver a LOCOS Seminar on Sustainable Processor Design. Sustainability and climate change is a major challenge for our generation. In this talk I will argue that sustainable development requires a holistic approach and involves multi-perspective thinking. Applied to computing, sustainable development means that we need to consider the entire environmental impact of computing, including raw material extraction, component manufacturing, product assembly, transportation, use, repair/maintenance, and end-of-life processing (disassembly and recycling/ reuse). Analyzing current trends reveals that the embodied footprint is, or will soon be, more significant compared to the operational footprint. I will present a simple, yet insightful, first-order model to assess and reason about the sustainability of processors in light of the inherent data uncertainty. Applying the model to a variety of case studies illustrates what computer architects and engineers can and should do to better understand the sustainability impact of computing, and to design sustainable processors. See past and future LOCOS Seminars at https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/research/researchthemes/lowcarbon/

Sustainable Processor Design

Group: Low Carbon and Sustainable Computing
Speaker: Lieven Eeckhout , Universiteit Gent
Date: 22 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/86043466544?pwd=au43NrofRZYwZegxBXIgmx3oayyMYB.1

Abstract:

Sustainability and climate change is a major challenge for our generation. In this talk I will argue that sustainable development requires a holistic approach and involves multi-perspective thinking. Applied to computing, sustainable development means that we need to consider the entire environmental impact of computing, including raw material extraction, component manufacturing, product assembly, transportation, use, repair/maintenance, and end-of-life processing (disassembly and recycling/ reuse). Analyzing current trends reveals that the embodied footprint is, or will soon be, more significant compared to the operational footprint. I will present a simple, yet insightful, first-order model to assess and reason about the sustainability of processors in light of the inherent data uncertainty. Applying the model to a variety of case studies illustrates what computer architects and engineers can and should do to better understand the sustainability impact of computing, and to design sustainable processors.

Short bio: 
Lieven Eeckhout is a Professor at Ghent University, Belgium. His research interests include computer architecture and the hardware/software interface, with specific emphasis on performance evaluation and modeling, dynamic resource management, CPU/GPU microarchitecture, and sustainability. He is the recipient of the 2017 ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award and the 2017 OOPSLA Most Influential Paper Award, and he was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2018 and ACM Fellow in 2021. Other awards include seven IEEE Micro Top Picks selections, three Best of CAL selections, and the MICRO 2023 and ISPASS 2013 Best Paper Awards. He served as the Program Chair for ISCA 2020, HPCA 2015, CGO 2013 and ISPASS 2009, and as General Chair for ASPLOS 2025, IISWC 2023 and ISPASS 2010. 

Winter School: 2nd IEEE Subsea Innovation Technologies Workshop

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 23 January, 2026
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: University of Aberdeen

The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society is inviting to the 2nd IEEE Subsea Innovation Technologies Workshop to be held at the University of Aberdeen on 23rd and 24th January 2026. Alongside industry and academic presentations on the latest ocean and subsea technologies and innovations, students, young professionals and women in engineering are particularly encouraged to attend dedicated sessions and participate in the poster competition. The poster abstract submission deadline is 22nd December. Workshop website, registration (it is a free event) and abstract submission: https://ieeeukiyp.org/SITW2026/ Day 1: Knowledge Building & Skill Development – 23rd January 2026 Opening Keynote: Delivered by the IEEE OES UK & Ireland Executive Committee and Head of School, University of Aberdeen Tutorials & Expert Presentations on key topics: underwater communication and data networking Subsea imaging, monitoring and sensing Robotics & Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) Ocean Sensors & Environmental Challenges AI Applications in Marine Science & Technology Evening Networking Reception: Connect with peers, researchers and industry leaders Day 2: Industry Insights, Posters & Young Professionals 24th January 2026 Industry Showcase: Live demonstrations and short talks from participating companies Research Poster Competition: Open to PhD, MSc and undergraduate students Young Professionals Panel: “Careers in Ocean Engineering – Academia & Industry” Women in Engineering (WIE) Session Closing Remarks & Awards Ceremony

Languages, Utopia and the Construction of Knowledge: A draft course for the Curriculum for Life

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: Elisa Segnini, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, UoG
Date: 23 January, 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Location: 422 Sir Alwyn Williams (SAWB), University of Glasgow

In this talk, I will introduce the idea for a C4L course on ‘constructed languages’ and seek feedback on how a collaboration between modern languages and computer science might look like in the context of this course. The course understands ‘constructed languages’ in a broad sense - from nineteenth century languages designed to reduce inequalities and promote universal peace (such as Volapük and Esperanto) to the languages of fantasy fiction (e.g. Tolkien’s Elvish and  the languages featuring in TV productions such as Star Trek, Games of Throne, Avatar ) to constructed languages in philosophy and programming languages (especially those in which programming is not the main function). Students will learn about the connections between languages, power, and the production of knowledge, question the ill-defined boundaries between constructed languages and revitalised languages (e.g. Cornish or Nynorsk), reflect critically on the ethical implication raised by the recent status of English as a hypercentral language. The course is co-taught by staff in sociolinguistics, literary studies, fantasy, philosophy and computer science, and the learning is applicable to all these disciplines. Central to the course is a workshop in which students will begin to invent their own language.



Aberdeen GameJam 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 28 January, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 17:00
Location: Meston Building, University of Aberdeen, Meston Walk, Aberdeen, AB24 3UE

View full event details here. After the success of last year, University of Aberdeen’s School of Natural and Computing Sciences will be running Aberdeen GameJam 2026, this time in partnership with the History department! The event is open to students at University of Aberdeen and any other Scottish University. Each participant will receive an Aberdeen GameJam 2026 t-shirt and Amazon vouchers will be awarded to winners in each prize category. Additionally, ABVentures and Common Profyt Games have sponsored prizes, one for the Best Pitch, and one for a category yet to be announced! This year’s general theme is Games & History (so it might be a good idea to grab somebody who knows their history!) Participants will have a week to develop from scratch a game on a more specific theme that will be announced on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, followed by an in-person event starting at 9am on Wednesday, 28 January 2025 where teams will get feedback from judges. Teams will make a short presentation of their game starting at Noon and then judges will choose a winner for our prizes to be announced that afternoon.

Upwards Seminar: "IAA funding applications and projects"

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: Drs Javier Sanz-Cruzado Puig and Edmond Ho, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow
Date: 28 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Topic: IAA funding applications and projects

Speakers:

- Dr Javier Sanz-Cruzado Puig (SoCS, IDA, Postdoc)

- Dr Edmond Ho (SoCS, IDA, Senior Lecturer)

Location: In room SAWB 422 and on Zoom (https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/ j/82777296923?pwd=k5qqyTXrnqm2iF1MfUzY5tDpcs6a24.1).

 


What will this session be about?
 
It is up to the speakers to set the agenda for their Upwards talks, but the idea of this seminar instance is to hear lessons learned from applying for and driving Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) projects to make an impact with UofG research results, both from an academic and a postdoc researcher perspective: When does it make sense to apply for IAA funding? What is the funding useful for? What kind of impact are we talking about? How do you win the funding? How do successful IAA projects look? How can you sustain impact beyond an IAA project?

What is Upwards?
 
Upwards is the School of Computing Science’s research culture seminar, covering all facets of developing, conducting, and disseminating research and related topics (e.g. managing a research team, time management to do research, connections between research and teaching). It is open to everyone in the School, but a specific aim is to support ECR development and some sessions are aimed mainly at PGRs and/or PDRAs.

How are the seminars held?

Upwards seminars are held in person in the School to bring people together. In addition, the sessions are streamed on Zoom to allow to join remotely, if attending in person is not an option. To preserve the off-the- record atmosphere of the seminars, which allows speakers to speak more freely about their personal experiences, the seminars are not recorded and the slides are not shared. For the same reason, AI tools (such as those that automatically take meeting notes) will not be permitted. 

TBC

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Yuvraj Patel, University of Edinburgh
Date: 03 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

TBC

Esoteric Programming Languages

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Daniel Temkin, Esoteric Codes
Date: 10 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

Temkin challenges conventional definitions of

language, code, and computer, showing

the potential of esolangs—or esoteric

programming languages—as pure idea

art. The languages ask

programmers to write code in the form

of prayer to the Greek gods, or as a

pattern of empty folders, or to type code

in tandem with another programmer,

each with one hand on the keyboard,

their rhythm and synchrony signifying

computer action. 

 

 

Daniel Temkin makes photographic and computational art exploring logic and human irrationality. In his blog esoteric.codes, Temkin has interviewed esolangers and code artists since 2011, emphasizing the works' open-ended nature and its reliance on collaboration and community-building. Esoteric.codes is funded by Creative Capital and the Warhol Foundation and was written in residence at the New Museum's NEW INC incubator. ZKM exhibited the blog and commissioned videos of Temkin explaining esolang history for their Open Codes show in 2018-19. Temkin has also written about esolangs for Hyperallergic, Leonardo, ICP, and many others; his aesthetic theory of the form was published by Digital Humanities Quarterly. Recent exhibitions include Temkin's solo installation filling the lobby of the Museum of the Moving Image. His work was acquired by the Buffalo AKG Museum for their groundbreaking Electric Op show. He shows with Higher Pictures gallery in Brooklyn.

TBC

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Tao Chen, University of Birmingham
Date: 19 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

TBC

TBC

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Tom Spink, University of St. Andrews
Date: 24 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

TBC

TBC

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Youssef Moawad, University of Glasgow
Date: 03 March, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 13:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

TBC

HRI 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 16 March, 2026
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: TBA

The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is the premier venue for innovations on human-robot interaction. Sponsored by the ACM special interest groups on computer-human interaction (SIGCHI) and artificial intelligence (SIGAI) as well as the IEEE robotics and automation society (RAS), HRI brings together researchers spanning robotics, human-computer interaction, human factors, artificial intelligence, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences. The theme of the 21st edition of HRI is HRI Empowering Society. Our field has the potential to bring about positive change in many areas of our societies such as healthcare, transport, remote working, agriculture and industry. However, this change cannot happen if we do not engage properly with the end users who will potentially utilize robots in their jobs and daily lives. For this reason, HRI 2026 will focus on: 1) how we can ethically integrate robots in everyday processes without creating disruptions or inequalities, carefully thinking at the future of work and services; 2) how we can make them accessible to the general public (in terms of design, technical literacy and cost) with the final aim to make robots more willingly adopted as technological helpers. More information is available on the HRI 2026 website

SICSA Writing Retreat 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 27 April, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 14:00
Location: Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE), G63 0JS

The 2026 SICSA Writing Retreat will bring together researchers from across Scotland for a two-day intensive writing event. The programme will consist of networking and skill sharing activities, in addition to individual and group writing blocks. Postdoctoral researchers from any SICSA institution are invited to apply to attend the writing retreat by completing the online form by 1 February 2026. Spaces are very limited and the SICSA Directorate will be judging applications based on clear and achievable writing plans, quality outputs and benefits to both individual researchers and wider groups. Proposals that involve and benefit multiple SICSA institutions are particularly encouraged. Apply Date Start: 15:00 Monday 27 April 2026 Finish: 14:00 Wednesday 29 April 2026 Location Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE)

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

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.”

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

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