# USRSE'26 — Program

> The complete program for USRSE'26 (US-RSE Conference 2026), the annual
> conference of the US Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE), held
> October 19–21, 2026 in San Jose, California, USA. Theme: "Advancing Science
> in the Age of AI". 3 days, 46 sessions, 83 talks (81 with published
> abstracts). All times are US Pacific (UTC-07:00).

This file is generated from the conference schedule and changes only when the
schedule does. The program is not final and is subject to change — check the
program page for the authoritative current version.

## How to use this file

- Every session carries both a wall-clock time and an ISO 8601 range. Prefer
  the ISO range for anything you compute.
- Sessions are listed in chronological order within each day, and each one
  lists the sessions it runs against under "Concurrent with" — that is the
  choice to resolve when picking between parallel tracks.
- Breaks, meals and registration are listed too. They are not filler: they are
  the gaps an attendee schedule is built around.
- Talk titles link to that talk's entry on its abstract page.
- Abstract text is not in this file. For the same schedule with every
  published abstract inlined, fetch:
  https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/llms-full.txt

Human-readable program page: https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/

## Conference pages

- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/ — USRSE'26 home
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/ — Full program (this schedule, as a web page)
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/bofs/ — Birds of a Feather — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/keynotes/ — Keynotes — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/notebooks/ — Notebooks — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/ — Papers — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/posters/ — Posters — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/ — Talks — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/workshops/ — Workshops — abstracts
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/attend/ — Attending: overview
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/attend/registration/ — Registration
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/attend/travel/ — Travel and venue
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/attend/local-info/ — Things to do in San Jose
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/attend/financial-support/ — Financial support
- https://us-rse.org/usrse26/about/code-of-conduct/ — Code of conduct

## Monday, October 19, 2026

### 7:30–8:30am — Registration

- Time: 2026-10-19T07:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T08:30:00-07:00 (60 min)
- Room: Prefunction
- Type: Registration
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 8:30–10am — Welcome and Plenary Session

- Time: 2026-10-19T08:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T10:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Plenary
- Plenary: yes
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)
- Talks (1):
  - "Fernando Pérez" (Keynote)
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/keynotes/#fernando-p-rez

### 10–10:30am — Morning Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-19T10:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T10:30:00-07:00 (30 min)
- Type: Break
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 10:30–11:30am — Student Program Activity

- Time: 2026-10-19T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T11:30:00-07:00 (60 min)
- Room: Market Street
- Type: Student
- Concurrent with: RAG Assistants (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part I (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); AI Assisted Code Development (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "Student Program Activity" (Other)
    Presenters: Scott Michael, Stephanie Brink

### 10:30am–12pm — RAG Assistants

- Time: 2026-10-19T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (10:30–11:30am, Market Street); Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part I (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); AI Assisted Code Development (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "AquiLLM: Evaluating Faithfulness in Open-Weight RAG-LLM Systems for Scientific Research" (Paper)
    Presenters: Bernie Boscoe, Tuan Do, Jack Stark, Srinath Saikrishnan, Vikram Seenivasan, PJ Allen, Morgan Himes, Jonathan Soriano, Andrew Lizarraga
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#aquillm-evaluating-faithfulness-in-open-weight-rag-llm-systems-for-scientific-research
  - "LZ Oracle: an AI-assisted knowledge retrieval platform for the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment" (Talk)
    Presenters: Maris Arthurs, Jeonghwa Kim, Ibles Olcina
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#lz-oracle-an-ai-assisted-knowledge-retrieval-platform-for-the-lux-zeplin-dark-matter-experiment
  - "Data Sherpa: An AI-Powered Assistant for Scientific Collaboration Knowledge Management" (Talk)
    Presenters: Fabián Araneda-Baltierra and Felipe Menanteau
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#data-sherpa-an-ai-powered-assistant-for-scientific-collaboration-knowledge-management
  - "AskALCF: A RAG Assistant for HPC User Support" (Talk)
    Presenters: Jingyan Jiang, Huihuo Zheng, Akhilesh Bondapalli, Krishna Rauniyar, Murat Keceli, Yasaman Ghadar, Venkatram Vishwanath, Rong Ge and Haritha Siddabathuni Som
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#askalcf-a-rag-assistant-for-hpc-user-support

### 10:30am–12pm — Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part I

- Time: 2026-10-19T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: Talks
- Chair: Primus Chimdia Kabuo
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (10:30–11:30am, Market Street); RAG Assistants (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); AI Assisted Code Development (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Automating Data-Driven Alternative Text in Quarto-based NOAA Fisheries Reports" (Talk)
    Presenters: Sophie Breitbart
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#automating-data-driven-alternative-text-in-quarto-based-noaa-fisheries-reports
  - "A Modular Threaded Software Application for Axion Detection with DMRadio" (Talk)
    Presenters: Pamela Stark
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#a-modular-threaded-software-application-for-axion-detection-with-dmradio
  - "Poisonous Books: Rule Based Physics Pipeline and Agentic LLMs for Detecting and Analyzing Toxic Pigments in Victorian Bookbindings" (Talk)
    Presenters: Kevin Bhimani, Asritha Polu, Melissa Tedone, Rosie Grayburn, Amelia Oakes and Sunita Chandrasekaran
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#poisonous-books-rule-based-physics-pipeline-and-agentic-llms-for-detecting-and-analyzing-toxic-pigments-in-victorian-bookbindings
  - "Building Modern Tools for Computational Science in Flutter to Track the American Chestnut" (Talk)
    Presenters: Jay Billings
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#building-modern-tools-for-computational-science-in-flutter-to-track-the-american-chestnut

### 10:30am–12pm — AI Assisted Code Development

- Time: 2026-10-19T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Talks
- Chair: Adam Rubens
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (10:30–11:30am, Market Street); RAG Assistants (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part I (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (4):
  - "Reuse, Compose, Extend, Standardize, Automate: Two Decades of RSEing Open (Neuro)Science at CON" (Talk)
    Presenters: Yaroslav Halchenko, Cody Baker, Austin Macdonald, Isaac To and Vadim Melnik
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#reuse-compose-extend-standardize-automate-two-decades-of-rseing-open-neuro-science-at-con
  - "Drinking from the Firehose: Practical Strategies for Research Software Engineers to Stay Current on AI Tools and Agents" (Talk)
    Presenters: Nick Ross and Tim Hannifan
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#drinking-from-the-firehose-practical-strategies-for-research-software-engineers-to-stay-current-on-ai-tools-and-agents
  - "Research Software Engineering at SNS and HFIR: Advancing Neutron Science Software in the Age of AI-Assisted Development" (Talk)
    Presenters: Addi Malviya Thakur, John Hetrick, Peter Peterson and Mathieu Doucet
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#research-software-engineering-at-sns-and-hfir-advancing-neutron-science-software-in-the-age-of-ai-assisted-development
  - "Designing for Trust in AI-Assisted Scientific Computing" (Talk)
    Presenters: Rajshree Deshmukh, Sarah Poon, Johanna Cohoon, Dan Gunter and Sheng Pang
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#designing-for-trust-in-ai-assisted-scientific-computing

### 12–1:30pm — Lunch Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-19T12:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T13:30:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Meal
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)
- About: Early Career Mentor/Mentee Lunch

### 1:30–2:30pm — Student Program Activity

- Time: 2026-10-19T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T14:30:00-07:00 (60 min)
- Room: Market Street
- Type: Student
- Concurrent with: RSE Team Operations (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); Institutional RSE Community (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Better Scientific Software Fellowship (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Threat Modeling for Research Software Systems (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "Student Program Activity" (Other)
    Presenters: Scott Michael, Stephanie Brink

### 1:30–3pm — RSE Team Operations

- Time: 2026-10-19T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: BoF
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (1:30–2:30pm, Market Street); Institutional RSE Community (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Better Scientific Software Fellowship (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Threat Modeling for Research Software Systems (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "Navigating RSE Team Operations: Leadership, Sustainability, and Emerging Challenges" (Bird of a Feather)
    Presenters: Daniel Madren, Geoffrey Lentner, Laura Theademan, Chris Bentley, Christina Maimone, Ian Cosden, Sandra Gesing, Adam Rubens, David Pettifor, Elizabeth Leake, William Cowen, Abbey Roelofs and Daniel Shown
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/bofs/#navigating-rse-team-operations-leadership-sustainability-and-emerging-challenges

### 1:30–3pm — Institutional RSE Community

- Time: 2026-10-19T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: BoF
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (1:30–2:30pm, Market Street); RSE Team Operations (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); Better Scientific Software Fellowship (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Threat Modeling for Research Software Systems (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "Building an Institutional RSE Community" (Bird of a Feather)
    Presenters: Julia Damerow, J.C. Subida, Alex Koufos, Daniel Woulfin and Trevor Spreadbury
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/bofs/#building-an-institutional-rse-community

### 1:30–3pm — Better Scientific Software Fellowship

- Time: 2026-10-19T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: BoF
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (1:30–2:30pm, Market Street); RSE Team Operations (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); Institutional RSE Community (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Threat Modeling for Research Software Systems (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "Better Scientific Software Fellowship Community" (Bird of a Feather)
    Presenters: Adam Lavely, Elsa Gonsiorowski and Mary Ann Leung
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/bofs/#better-scientific-software-fellowship-community

### 1:30–3pm — Threat Modeling for Research Software Systems

- Time: 2026-10-19T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Workshop
- Concurrent with: Student Program Activity (1:30–2:30pm, Market Street); RSE Team Operations (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); Institutional RSE Community (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Better Scientific Software Fellowship (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (1):
  - "A Group Attempt at Threat Modeling for Research Software Systems" (Workshop)
    Presenters: James Davis, George K. Thiruvathukal, Jeffrey Carver, Kelechi G Kalu and Alexandra Harris-Watson
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/workshops/#a-group-attempt-at-threat-modeling-for-research-software-systems

### 3–3:30pm — Afternoon Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-19T15:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T15:30:00-07:00 (30 min)
- Type: Break
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 3:30–5pm — Interactive Computing and Reproducible Workflows

- Time: 2026-10-19T15:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T17:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Talks
- Chair: Shailaja Sampat
- Concurrent with: Lessons from Training Users & RSEs (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); AI + Software Quality (3:30–5pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Effective Tutorial Notebooks for Cloud Computing Workflows using Remote Sensing Datasets" (Notebook)
    Presenters: Zachary Katz and Tasha Snow
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/notebooks/#effective-tutorial-notebooks-for-cloud-computing-workflows-using-remote-sensing-datasets
  - "Marimo: an open-source reactive notebook for Python" (Talk)
    Presenters: Akshay Agrawal
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#marimo-an-open-source-reactive-notebook-for-python
  - "Beyond human readers: designing domain-specific language notebooks for AI-assisted code generation" (Notebook)
    Presenters: Pariksheet Nanda, Rocco Caprara and Jason Shoemaker
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/notebooks/#beyond-human-readers-designing-domain-specific-language-notebooks-for-ai-assisted-code-generation
  - "From Notebook to Control Room: Reproducible MLOps for Accelerator Digital Twins" (Talk)
    Presenters: Sara Miskovich, Gopika Bhardwaj, Ryan Roussel and Auralee Edelen
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#from-notebook-to-control-room-reproducible-mlops-for-accelerator-digital-twins

### 3:30–5pm — Lessons from Training Users & RSEs

- Time: 2026-10-19T15:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T17:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: Talks
- Chair: T. Andrew Manning
- Concurrent with: Interactive Computing and Reproducible Workflows (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); AI + Software Quality (3:30–5pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "INTERSECT After Three Years: Lessons Learned from Delivering Advanced Research Software Engineering Bootcamps" (Talk)
    Presenters: Ian Cosden and Jeffrey Carver
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#intersect-after-three-years-lessons-learned-from-delivering-advanced-research-software-engineering-bootcamps
  - "Beyond Workshops: RSE-Led Hackathons as Experiential Learning for Software Practice in the AI Era" (Talk)
    Presenters: Simon Stone, William Cowen and Christian Darabos
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#beyond-workshops-rse-led-hackathons-as-experiential-learning-for-software-practice-in-the-ai-era
  - "Building Open Source Communities Through Effective Tutorials" (Talk)
    Presenters: Alec Scott and Gregory Becker
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#building-open-source-communities-through-effective-tutorials
  - "Evolving HPC User Support: Just-in-Time Learning with Instructional Videos" (Talk)
    Presenters: Lipi Gupta, Afton Geil, Lisa Claus and Adam Lavely
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#evolving-hpc-user-support-just-in-time-learning-with-instructional-videos

### 3:30–5pm — AI + Software Quality

- Time: 2026-10-19T15:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T17:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Interactive Computing and Reproducible Workflows (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Lessons from Training Users & RSEs (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (4):
  - "Software Gardening Almanack: Measuring and Growing Sustainable Research Software Ecosystems" (Talk)
    Presenters: Aditi Gopalan, Dave Bunten, Adam Taylor, Susheel Varma, Gregory P. Way, and Jineta Banerjee
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#software-gardening-almanack-measuring-and-growing-sustainable-research-software-ecosystems
  - "Measuring What Matters in the Age of AI: The Research Software Metrics Landscape" (Paper)
    Presenters: Addi Malviya Thakur, Reed Milewicz, Gregory Watson and Audris Mockus
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#measuring-what-matters-in-the-age-of-ai-the-research-software-metrics-landscape
  - "Back to Basics: Design-First Development in the Age of AI Coding Assistants" (Talk)
    Presenters: Chris Pond, Rob Kooper, Marcos Frenkel and Chris Stephens
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#back-to-basics-design-first-development-in-the-age-of-ai-coding-assistants
  - "Scientific Open-Source Software Is Less Likely to Become Abandoned Than One Might Think: Lessons from Curating a Catalog of Maintained Scientific Software" (Talk)
    Presenters: Addi Malviya Thakur, Reed Milewicz, Mahmoud Jahanshahi, Lavínia Paganini, Bogdan Vasilescu and Audris Mockus
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#scientific-open-source-software-is-less-likely-to-become-abandoned-than-one-might-think-lessons-from-curating-a-catalog-of-maintained-scientific-software

### 5:30–7:30pm — Poster Reception

- Time: 2026-10-19T17:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-19T19:30:00-07:00 (120 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Registration
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

## Tuesday, October 20, 2026

### 7:30–8:30am — Registration

- Time: 2026-10-20T07:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T08:30:00-07:00 (60 min)
- Room: Prefunction
- Type: Registration
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 8:30–10am — Plenary II, Sponsor Talks

- Time: 2026-10-20T08:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T10:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Plenary
- Plenary: yes
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 10–10:30am — Morning Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-20T10:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T10:30:00-07:00 (30 min)
- Type: Break
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 10:30am–12pm — RSE Practices in the Age of AI Part I

- Time: 2026-10-20T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: The Human Factor (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); HPC + AI (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Research Software Engineering in the Age of Generative AI" (Talk)
    Presenters: Christina Maimone, Sandra Gesing, Ian Cosden, Daniel S. Katz and Stephan Druskat
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#research-software-engineering-in-the-age-of-generative-ai
  - "Beyond Editing Code: Uses for AI Tools in Scientific Work" (Talk)
    Presenters: Johanna Cohoon and Drew Paine
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#beyond-editing-code-uses-for-ai-tools-in-scientific-work
  - "Ten Projects, Two Teams, One Question: How Does AI Impact Development?" (Talk)
    Presenters: Dave Brownell
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#ten-projects-two-teams-one-question-how-does-ai-impact-development
  - "Coding with LLM Agents: The Research Software Engineer as the Quality Gate" (Talk)
    Presenters: Nicole Tebaldi and Kyle Crocker
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#coding-with-llm-agents-the-research-software-engineer-as-the-quality-gate

### 10:30am–12pm — The Human Factor

- Time: 2026-10-20T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: Talks
- Chair: Kate Arneson
- Concurrent with: RSE Practices in the Age of AI Part I (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); HPC + AI (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Usability Challenges across AI-Assisted Infrastructure, Security, and Scientific Workflows" (Talk)
    Presenters: Md Hasan Shahriar Simanto
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#usability-challenges-across-ai-assisted-infrastructure-security-and-scientific-workflows
  - "From Mood Boards to Web Components: Our Journey Building a Design System for Research" (Talk)
    Presenters: Katrina Turner and Freddy Mande
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#from-mood-boards-to-web-components-our-journey-building-a-design-system-for-research
  - "Human in the Loop: Requirements Gathering and Researcher Trust in the Age of AI" (Talk)
    Presenters: Michael Kennel
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#human-in-the-loop-requirements-gathering-and-researcher-trust-in-the-age-of-ai
  - "Designing for Two Audiences: AI-Readiness and Human Data Usability" (Talk)
    Presenters: Cody O'Donnell
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#designing-for-two-audiences-ai-readiness-and-human-data-usability

### 10:30am–12pm — HPC + AI

- Time: 2026-10-20T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Talks
- Chair: Vani Walvekar
- Concurrent with: RSE Practices in the Age of AI Part I (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); The Human Factor (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (4):
  - "DART: Distributed Assignment of Research Tasks for Heterogeneous Compute Environments" (Paper)
    Presenters: Abdur Rouf, Fahad Ahmad Khan, Benjamin Keene, Shafaq Chaudhry and Murat Yuksel
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#dart-distributed-assignment-of-research-tasks-for-heterogeneous-compute-environments
  - "Ten Practices for Refactoring Bioinformatics Pipelines to nf-core DSL2 on Shared Slurm HPC" (Paper)
    Presenters: Nil Tianchen Mu, William Dizon, Glen Otero and Torey Battelle
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#ten-practices-for-refactoring-bioinformatics-pipelines-to-nf-core-dsl2-on-shared-slurm-hpc
  - "Tapis AI Assistant: Increasing Research Impact through Traceable and Evaluated Agentic Tools" (Paper)
    Presenters: Smruti Padhy, Anagha Jamthe and Joe Stubbs
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#tapis-ai-assistant-increasing-research-impact-through-traceable-and-evaluated-agentic-tools
  - "Structuring agentic AI for HPC code modernization" (Paper)
    Presenters: Anthony Marinov and Igor Sfiligoi
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#structuring-agentic-ai-for-hpc-code-modernization

### 12–1:30pm — Lunch Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-20T12:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T13:30:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Meal
- Concurrent with: Working Group Fair (Presentations during lunch) (12:45–1:15pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4)
- About: Working Group Fair

### 12:45–1:15pm — Working Group Fair (Presentations during lunch)

- Time: 2026-10-20T12:45:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T13:15:00-07:00 (30 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Concurrent with: Lunch Break (Sponsorship available) (12–1:30pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4)

### 1:30–3pm — RSE Skill Training

- Time: 2026-10-20T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: BoF
- Concurrent with: User Experience: Journey Mapping (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Improve Research Outputs by Improving Institutional Collaboration (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Refactoring Code for Reuse and Impact (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "How to train an RSE: A discussion of RSE skill training - past, future, and present" (Bird of a Feather)
    Presenters: Ellianna Abrahams, Lauren Milechin, Jeffrey Carver, Daniel Woulfin, Patrick Diehl and Gabrielle O'Brien
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/bofs/#how-to-train-an-rse-a-discussion-of-rse-skill-training-past-future-and-present

### 1:30–3pm — User Experience: Journey Mapping

- Time: 2026-10-20T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Workshop
- Concurrent with: RSE Skill Training (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); Improve Research Outputs by Improving Institutional Collaboration (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Refactoring Code for Reuse and Impact (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "Journey Mapping: A technique to see opportunities and recognize gaps in user experience" (Workshop)
    Presenters: Johanna Cohoon, Rajshree Deshmukh, Md Hasan Shahriar Simanto, Mary Goldman, Katrina Turner, Sarah Poon
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/workshops/#journey-mapping-a-technique-to-see-opportunities-and-recognize-gaps-in-user-experience

### 1:30–3pm — Improve Research Outputs by Improving Institutional Collaboration

- Time: 2026-10-20T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: BoF
- Concurrent with: RSE Skill Training (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); User Experience: Journey Mapping (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Refactoring Code for Reuse and Impact (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (1):
  - "How can institutional RSE hubs and OSPOs work together for the betterment of research outputs?" (Bird of a Feather)
    Presenters: William Gearty, Jeffrey Young, Collin Capano, Ian Cosden, Daniel S. Katz, Richard Littauer, Fang Liu and Daniel Shown
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/bofs/#how-can-institutional-rse-hubs-and-ospos-work-together-for-the-betterment-of-research-outputs

### 1:30–3pm — Refactoring Code for Reuse and Impact

- Time: 2026-10-20T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Workshop
- Concurrent with: RSE Skill Training (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4); User Experience: Journey Mapping (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Improve Research Outputs by Improving Institutional Collaboration (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (1):
  - "Fixer-Upper Software: Refactoring Code for Reuse and Impact" (Workshop)
    Presenters: Brian Ward and Jeff Soules
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/workshops/#fixer-upper-software-refactoring-code-for-reuse-and-impact

### 3–3:30pm — Afternoon Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-20T15:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T15:30:00-07:00 (30 min)
- Type: Break
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 3:30–5pm — Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part II

- Time: 2026-10-20T15:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T17:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Code Modernization Using AI (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Workflows (3:30–5pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Josh: Efficient, Portable, and Scalable Cross-Disciplinary Vegetation Modeling via Domain-Specific Language" (Paper)
    Presenters: A Pottinger, Nick Gondek, Lucia Layritz, Maya Zomer, Nicolas Graver, Amanda Anderson-You and Maya Weltman-Fahs
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#josh-efficient-portable-and-scalable-cross-disciplinary-vegetation-modeling-via-domain-specific-language
  - "Take it on the road: How RCD Helps Field Researchers Report Culvert Condition even when Offline" (Paper)
    Presenters: Jing Qi, William Cowen and Christian Darabos
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#take-it-on-the-road-how-rcd-helps-field-researchers-report-culvert-condition-even-when-offline
  - "Escaping the Enclave: Format-Faithful Synthetic Data for Open, Reproducible Medicare Claims Pipelines" (Paper)
    Presenters: Pavel Belakurski, Dmitry Etin, Mark Chumack and Michael Bouzinier
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#escaping-the-enclave-format-faithful-synthetic-data-for-open-reproducible-medicare-claims-pipelines
  - "Automated Data Reduction for Neutron Scattering Experiments: Current Capabilities and Future Directions" (Talk)
    Presenters: Marie Backman, Darsh Dinger, Mathieu Doucet, Peter Peterson, John Hetrick and Addi Malviya-Thakur
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#automated-data-reduction-for-neutron-scattering-experiments-current-capabilities-and-future-directions

### 3:30–5pm — Code Modernization Using AI

- Time: 2026-10-20T15:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T17:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part II (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Workflows (3:30–5pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Agentic code modernization" (Talk)
    Presenters: Peter Peterson and Addi Malviya-Thakur
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#agentic-code-modernization
  - "Scientific Agentic Engineering: A Framework for Reliable AI Agents in Research Software" (Talk)
    Presenters: Victor Weeks
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#scientific-agentic-engineering-a-framework-for-reliable-ai-agents-in-research-software
  - "From Laptop to Cluster: HPC Translation Patterns for AI Stacks" (Talk)
    Presenters: Parmanand Sinha
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#from-laptop-to-cluster-hpc-translation-patterns-for-ai-stacks
  - "Beyond Code Pairs: Generating Test-Grounded Data for AI-Assisted Scientific Software Modernization" (Talk)
    Presenters: Le Chen and Rajeev Thakur
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#beyond-code-pairs-generating-test-grounded-data-for-ai-assisted-scientific-software-modernization

### 3:30–5pm — Workflows

- Time: 2026-10-20T15:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-20T17:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Talks
- Chair: Lance Parsons
- Concurrent with: Case Studies Demonstrating RSE Impacts Part II (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Code Modernization Using AI (3:30–5pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (4):
  - "Cloud-Native Graphical and Programmatic Cross-Database Access to Experiment Metadata with Trino, Superset and Ibis" (Talk)
    Presenters: Eli Mizrachi
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#cloud-native-graphical-and-programmatic-cross-database-access-to-experiment-metadata-with-trino-superset-and-ibis
  - "Custom Containers for Continuous Integration via Spack: Decoupling Environment Configuration from Test Execution" (Talk)
    Presenters: Hilario Torres
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#custom-containers-for-continuous-integration-via-spack-decoupling-environment-configuration-from-test-execution
  - "OSC-IS: Research Software Infrastructure for Scientific Artifact Preservation, Provenance, and Reproducible Collaboration" (Talk)
    Presenters: Fernando Garzon, Steven Yeu, Scott Sakai, and Subhashini Sivagnanam
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#osc-is-research-software-infrastructure-for-scientific-artifact-preservation-provenance-and-reproducible-collaboration
  - "Fabla: An Open-Source Voice-First EMA Platform for Clinical Research" (Paper)
    Presenters: Santiago Arconada Alvarez, Tulika Banerjee, Wiza Munthali, Kennedy Linzie, Mabuchi Nyrienda, Hope Madziakapita, Morgan Greenleaf, Wilbur Lam and Deanna Kaplan
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#fabla-an-open-source-voice-first-ema-platform-for-clinical-research

## Wednesday, October 21, 2026

### 7:30–8:30am — Registration

- Time: 2026-10-21T07:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T08:30:00-07:00 (60 min)
- Room: Prefunction
- Type: Registration
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 8:30–10am — Plenary III, Sponsor Talks

- Time: 2026-10-21T08:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T10:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Plenary
- Plenary: yes
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)
- About: Announcements, US-RSE Updates, US-RSE Awards, BSSw Fellowship Awards

### 10–10:30am — Morning Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-21T10:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T10:30:00-07:00 (30 min)
- Type: Break
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 10:30am–12pm — Collaboration & Community Building

- Time: 2026-10-21T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Software Quality (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Generative AI + Applications (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Building Inclusive Talent Pathways: Scaling Outreach, Workforce Development, and Community Engagement for RSE" (Talk)
    Presenters: Laura Theademan and Suzanna Gardner
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#building-inclusive-talent-pathways-scaling-outreach-workforce-development-and-community-engagement-for-rse
  - "HPC Carpentry and Community Building at NIST" (Talk)
    Presenters: Andrew Reid
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#hpc-carpentry-and-community-building-at-nist
  - "Navigating the Code Review Process as a Team: A Case Study" (Talk)
    Presenters: Abbey Roelofs
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#navigating-the-code-review-process-as-a-team-a-case-study
  - "Collaboration within RSE group at Princeton: development of slurmise for resource usage estimation" (Talk)
    Presenters: Troy Comi, Ioannis Paraskevakos and Rob Bierman
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#collaboration-within-rse-group-at-princeton-development-of-slurmise-for-resource-usage-estimation

### 10:30am–12pm — Software Quality

- Time: 2026-10-21T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Collaboration & Community Building (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Generative AI + Applications (10:30am–12pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "Developing a Handbook of best practices for research software sustainability at Princeton" (Talk)
    Presenters: Tai Sakuma, Joel Bretheim, Ian Cosden, Jacob Murel, Robert Caddy, Henry Schreiner, Lucas Sawade, Rohit Kakodkar, Mohamed Abdellatif, Georgios Artavanis, Andres Rios Tascon, Rebecca Sutton Koeser, Anushka Acharya, Luca Bonaldo, Amy Defnet, Rob Bierman, Lance Parsons and David Luet
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#developing-a-handbook-of-best-practices-for-research-software-sustainability-at-princeton
  - "We Create Quality: Towards a Human-Centric Theory of Research Software Quality in the Age of AI" (Paper)
    Presenters: Reed Milewicz, Connor Brynteson, Ella Luedeke and Italo Santos
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#we-create-quality-towards-a-human-centric-theory-of-research-software-quality-in-the-age-of-ai
  - "Beyond Productivity: Human-Centered Guardrails for AI-Assisted Research Software Workflows" (Talk)
    Presenters: Niharika Pramod Pujari
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#beyond-productivity-human-centered-guardrails-for-ai-assisted-research-software-workflows
  - "Performance Portable Software Design Patterns – What they can do and why we should collect them." (Talk)
    Presenters: Jakob Bludau
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#performance-portable-software-design-patterns-what-they-can-do-and-why-we-should-collect-them

### 10:30am–12pm — Generative AI + Applications

- Time: 2026-10-21T10:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T12:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Collaboration & Community Building (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Software Quality (10:30am–12pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (4):
  - "From Chaos to Schema: LLM-Powered Document Information Extraction" (Talk)
    Presenters: Alice Duan and Launa Greer
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#from-chaos-to-schema-llm-powered-document-information-extraction
  - "Generative AI for Research Data Processing: Lessons Learnt From Three Use Cases" (Talk)
    Presenters: Modhurita Mitra, Martine de Vos, Nicola Cortinovis and Dawa Ometto
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#generative-ai-for-research-data-processing-lessons-learnt-from-three-use-cases
  - "Steering an LLM AutoResearch Loop with Domain Context: A Case Study with Vehicle Energy Models" (Talk)
    Presenters: Nicholas Reinicke and Robert Fitzgerald
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#steering-an-llm-autoresearch-loop-with-domain-context-a-case-study-with-vehicle-energy-models
  - "Logic Meets Intuition: The Neuro-Symbolic Upgrade for LLMs" (Talk)
    Presenters: Shailaja Keyur Sampat
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#logic-meets-intuition-the-neuro-symbolic-upgrade-for-llms

### 12–1:30pm — Lunch Break (Sponsorship available)

- Time: 2026-10-21T12:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T13:30:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Meal
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 1:30–3pm — RSE Practices in the Age of AI Part II

- Time: 2026-10-21T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: Reflections on RSE Roles & Pathways (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6); Building Infrastructure for Communities or Organizations (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "AI-Augmented Research Software Engineering: Risks, Challenges, and Practices" (Paper)
    Presenters: I Luk Kim, Xiao Liu, Jungha Woo, Elham J Barezi, Jorge Ivan Fuentes Rosado, Jaewoo Shin, Lan Zhao and Carol X. Song
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#ai-augmented-research-software-engineering-risks-challenges-and-practices
  - "A Generalized Methodology for Evaluating AI-Integrated Research Software: Lessons from a Smart Search Implementation for Cyber-Training" (Paper)
    Presenters: Xiao Liu, Jungha Woo, Lan Zhao, Jaewoo Shin, Chimdia Kabuo and Carol Song
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/papers/#a-generalized-methodology-for-evaluating-ai-integrated-research-software-lessons-from-a-smart-search-implementation-for-cyber-training
  - "A Nonprofit's Google Summer of Code Experience in the Age of AI-Assisted Contributions" (Talk)
    Presenters: William Gearty
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#a-nonprofit-s-google-summer-of-code-experience-in-the-age-of-ai-assisted-contributions
  - "Preparing Students for AI-Assisted Research Workflows" (Talk)
    Presenters: Alejandra Castillo
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#preparing-students-for-ai-assisted-research-workflows

### 1:30–3pm — Reflections on RSE Roles & Pathways

- Time: 2026-10-21T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: RSE Practices in the Age of AI Part II (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Building Infrastructure for Communities or Organizations (1:30–3pm, Willow Glen Room)
- Talks (4):
  - "What They Don’t Tell You About the Data Science to RSE Transition" (Talk)
    Presenters: Ritika Giri
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#what-they-don-t-tell-you-about-the-data-science-to-rse-transition
  - "Bears, Bottlenecks, and Bus Factors: Why Embedded RSEs Pay Off" (Talk)
    Presenters: Miranda Mundt
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#bears-bottlenecks-and-bus-factors-why-embedded-rses-pay-off
  - "Mission Control: Service and the Stewardship of Science" (Talk)
    Presenters: Malcolm Barrett
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#mission-control-service-and-the-stewardship-of-science
  - "Coding is Easy, Everything else is Hard: Lessons learned from working with third-party software developers" (Talk)
    Presenters: Julia Damerow and Susan Massey
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#coding-is-easy-everything-else-is-hard-lessons-learned-from-working-with-third-party-software-developers

### 1:30–3pm — Building Infrastructure for Communities or Organizations

- Time: 2026-10-21T13:30:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T15:00:00-07:00 (90 min)
- Room: Willow Glen Room
- Type: Talks
- Chair: TBD
- Concurrent with: RSE Practices in the Age of AI Part II (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 1 & 2); Reflections on RSE Roles & Pathways (1:30–3pm, San Jose Ballroom Salon 5 & 6)
- Talks (4):
  - "From Lakehouse to Labmate: KBase’s Vision for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery" (Talk)
    Presenters: Mikaela Cashman, David Lyon, Christopher J. Neely, Benjamin Allen, Christopher S. Henry, Robert Cottingham, Gazi Mahmud, Elisha M. Wood-Charlson, Chris Mungall, Paramvir Dehal and Adam P. Arkin
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#from-lakehouse-to-labmate-kbase-s-vision-for-ai-enabled-scientific-discovery
  - "HEROIC: A Research Software Infrastructure for Real-Time Multi-Messenger Observatory Coordination" (Talk)
    Presenters: Jon Nation, Fabián Araneda-Baltierra and Curtis McCully
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#heroic-a-research-software-infrastructure-for-real-time-multi-messenger-observatory-coordination
  - "A Managed Database-as-a-Service Platform for Scientific Computing" (Talk)
    Presenters: Jingyan Jiang, Huihuo Zheng and Venkatram Vishwanath
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#a-managed-database-as-a-service-platform-for-scientific-computing
  - "One Size Fits None: Rethinking Campus Research Computing" (Talk)
    Presenters: Christopher Heller
    https://us-rse.org/usrse26/program/talks/#one-size-fits-none-rethinking-campus-research-computing

### 3–3:15pm — Transition Break

- Time: 2026-10-21T15:00:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T15:15:00-07:00 (15 min)
- Type: Break
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)

### 3:15–4:30pm — Rapid Access Microtalks (RAM), Closing Remarks

- Time: 2026-10-21T15:15:00-07:00 to 2026-10-21T16:30:00-07:00 (75 min)
- Room: San Jose Ballroom Salon 3 & 4
- Type: Plenary
- Plenary: yes
- Chair: Cordero Core, Jennifer Gregory
- Concurrent with: nothing (the only session at this time)