Timetable
Event schedule
EnhanceR Symposium 2026 will take place at PSI Villigen on Monday, November 30th, 2026.
| Overview schedule | |
|---|---|
| 9:30–10:00 | Registration / Coffee |
| 10:00–10:15 | Plenary: Welcome |
| 10:15–11:00 | Keynote: Coding Agents and Software Variability: Threats and Opportunities for Replicability in Science (Mathieu Acher) |
| 11:00–11:15 | Plenary: Community Announcements |
| 11:15–11:45 | Coffee Break |
| 11:45–12:20 | Show-and-tell parallel sessions |
| 12:20–13:00 | Keynote: From Junior to Senior in the Age of AI (April Yi Wang) |
| 13:00–14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00–15:10 | Show-and-tell parallel sessions |
| 15:10–15:40 | Coffee Break |
| 15:40–16:25 | Keynote: Quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence - where we stand and who benefits whom (Cornelius Hempel) |
| 16:25–17:00 | Show-and-tell parallel sessions |
| 17:00–17:15 | Plenary: Final Remarks & Farewell |
Additionally, there is a 90-minute pre-event tour of the PSI research facilities the day before the Symposium, on Sunday, November 29th, 2026. The number of available spots is limited, so please register early if you're interested in attending.
Keynote talks
Coding Agents and Software Variability: Threats and Opportunities for Replicability in Science (Mathieu Acher)
From Junior to Senior in the Age of AI (April Yi Wang)
AI coding tools are rapidly changing what it means to learn programming and grow as a software engineer. They can generate code, create tests, suggest fixes, explain errors, and answer questions on demand. These capabilities make programming more accessible and productive, but they also raise a deeper educational concern: many of the activities now being automated are precisely the activities through which novices develop expertise. Testing, debugging, decomposing problems, reading others’ code, asking questions, and learning from communities are not merely inefficient steps on the way to an answer; they are practices through which programmers build expertise. In this talk, I'll present a line of research focused on building programming tools that prioritize expertise growth over sheer output. I'll share systems that transform software testing into a peer-learning exercise and frameworks that guide learners and LLMs to break down problems together, rather than jumping straight to auto-generated code. We'll also look at how AI agents shift the balance of control for junior developers, and how chatbots can actually connect people to online coding communities instead of replacing them.
Quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence - where we stand and who benefits whom (Cornelius Hempel)
Talks and workshops
See the contributions page for more information about the selected talks.
| Full schedule | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Track A (WHGA/001) | Track B (WHGA/121) | Track C (WHGA/021) | Track D (WBBC/111) | Track E (WHGA/U129) | |
| 9:30–10:00 | Registration / Coffee | ||||
| 10:00–10:15 | Welcome | ||||
| 10:15–11:00 | Keynote: Coding Agents and Software Variability: Threats and Opportunities for Replicability in Science (Mathieu Acher) | ||||
| 11:00–11:15 | Community Announcements | ||||
| 11:00–11:45 | Coffee Break | ||||
| Show & Tell session 1 11:45–12:20 |
Teaching Git, GitHub, and AI coding agents to researchers who do not come from IT Lars Schöbitz (ETHZ) |
Using AI to map complex physical state machines and improve failure recovery Alvin Acerbo (PSI) |
NTSuisse: how AI is used in the development of a web platform for Swiss surface water data Kai Kammer (Eawag) |
Where was the Soviet Ambassador to India this day, 60 years ago? Piotr Jacobsson (UniFr) |
|
| 12:20–13:00 | Keynote: From Junior to Senior in the Age of AI (April Yi Wang) | ||||
| 13:00–14:00 | Lunch | ||||
| Show & Tell session 2 14:00–14:35 |
Agent capabilities for SQL access via the Model Context Protocol Audrius Meskauskas (ETHZ) |
Local vs. Frontier Foundation Models: Secure, Automated Data Pre-Labeling for Complex Engineering Workflows Danuta Paraficz (Fernfachhochschule) |
Beyond the Chatbot: LLM-Powered Learning for Process Engineering Aris Marcolongo (FFHS) |
AI usage patterns among researchers and RSE's, a sociological study Michal Okoniewski (ETHZ) |
LLM in analytics of small molecules Sasa Bjelic (PSI) |
| Show & Tell session 3 14:35–15:10 |
An MCP server for agent-driven symbolic computation Sudeepan Datta (PSI) |
Teaching Git, GitHub, and AI coding agents to researchers who do not come from IT Lars Schöbitz (ETHZ) |
LLM in analytics of small molecules Sasa Bjelic (PSI) |
To vibe or not to vibe, that is the question Linus Gasser (EPFL) |
From Satellite Archives to Training Data: An Automated Pipeline for Multimodal Earth Observation Data Cubes Bryant Weber-Hansen (FHNW) |
| 15:10–15:40 | Coffee Break & Networking | ||||
| 15:40–16:25 | Keynote: Quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence - where we stand and who benefits whom (Cornelius Hempel) | ||||
| Show & Tell session 4 16:25–17:00 |
To vibe or not to vibe, that is the question Linus Gasser (EPFL) |
Wô les moteurs - Slow down, in the time of speeding up Dawn Duan (PSI) |
From Satellite Archives to Training Data: An Automated Pipeline for Multimodal Earth Observation Data Cubes Bryant Weber-Hansen (FHNW) |
Towards Collaborative Agentic Data Science Johannes Kirschner / Rok Roškar (ETHZ/SDSC) |
Agent capabilities for SQL access via the Model Context Protocol Audrius Meskauskas (ETHZ) |
| 17:00–17:15 | Final Remarks & Farewell | ||||
| Sessions picker | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic and host | Session 1 | Session 2 | Want to see |
| Teaching Git, GitHub, and AI coding agents to researchers who do not come from IT Lars Schöbitz (ETHZ) |
A1 WHGA/001 11:45–12:20 |
B3 WHGA/121 14:35–15:10 |
|
| Using AI to map complex physical state machines and improve failure recovery Alvin Acerbo (PSI) |
B1 WHGA/121 11:45–12:20 |
N/A | |
| NTSuisse: how AI is used in the development of a web platform for Swiss surface water data Kai Kammer (Eawag) |
C1 WHGA/021 11:45–12:20 |
N/A | |
| Where was the Soviet Ambassador to India this day, 60 years ago? Piotr Jacobsson (UniFr) |
D1 WBBC/111 11:45–12:20 |
N/A | |
| Agent capabilities for SQL access via the Model Context Protocol Audrius Meskauskas (ETHZ) |
A2 WHGA/001 14:00–14:35 |
E4 WHGA/U129 16:25–17:00 |
|
| Local vs. Frontier Foundation Models: Secure, Automated Data Pre-Labeling for Complex Engineering Workflows Danuta Paraficz (Fernfachhochschule) |
B2 WHGA/121 14:00–14:35 |
N/A | |
| Beyond the Chatbot: LLM-Powered Learning for Process Engineering Aris Marcolongo (FFHS) |
C2 WHGA/021 14:00–14:35 |
N/A | |
| AI usage patterns among researchers and RSE's, a sociological study Michal Okoniewski (ETHZ) |
D2 WBBC/111 14:00–14:35 |
N/A | |
| LLM in analytics of small molecules Sasa Bjelic (PSI) |
E2 WHGA/U129 14:00–14:35 |
C3 WHGA/021 14:35–15:10 |
|
| An MCP server for agent-driven symbolic computation Sudeepan Datta (PSI) |
A3 WHGA/001 14:35–15:10 |
N/A | |
| To vibe or not to vibe, that is the question Linus Gasser (EPFL) |
D3 WBBC/111 14:35–15:10 |
A4 WHGA/001 16:25–17:00 |
|
| From Satellite Archives to Training Data: An Automated Pipeline for Multimodal Earth Observation Data Cubes Bryant Weber-Hansen (FHNW) |
E3 WHGA/U129 14:35–15:10 |
C4 WHGA/021 16:25–17:00 |
|
| Wô les moteurs - Slow down, in the time of speeding up Dawn Duan (PSI) |
B4 WHGA/121 16:25–17:00 |
N/A | |
| Towards Collaborative Agentic Data Science Johannes Kirschner / Rok Roškar (ETHZ/SDSC) |
D4 WBBC/111 16:25–17:00 |
N/A | |