Program Agenda
July 31 – August 1, 2026 • Harvard University
Day 1 — Friday, July 31, 2026
Short Courses, Data Challenge Demo, & Evening Poster Session and Reception
Three morning short courses (8:00 AM – 12:00 PM) and three afternoon short courses (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM) run in parallel. Participants may register for one morning and one afternoon course. The day closes with a demo session of the challenge awardees, a poster session and a reception in the evening.
| Time | Program Item | Title | Instructor(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:30 AM | Registration & Breakfast | — | — |
| 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM | SC1 — Morning Track A | Agentic AI: From Zero to Infinity | Tian Zheng (Columbia) |
| 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM | SC2 — Morning Track B | Theory of Scaling in Modern Deep Learning | Soufiane Hayou (JHU); Nikhil Ghosh (Flatiron) |
| 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM | SC3 — Morning Track C | An Overview of LLMs for Statisticians | Linjun Zhang (Rutgers) |
| 10:00 – 10:15 AM | Coffee Break | — | — |
| 12:00 – 1:00 PM | Lunch Break | — | — |
| 1:00 – 5:00 PM | SC4 — Afternoon Track A | Reinforcement Learning: Foundations & Applications | Chengchun Shi (LSE) |
| 1:00 – 5:00 PM | SC5 — Afternoon Track B | AI in Accelerating Clinical Trials & Drug Development | Alexia Iasonos (MSKCC); John O'Quigley (UCL) |
| 1:00 – 5:00 PM | SC6 — Afternoon Track C | Theory for Diffusion Models: Continuous & Discrete | Sitan Chen (Harvard) |
| 3:00 – 3:15 PM | Coffee Break | — | — |
| 5:15 – 5:45 PM | Data Challenge Demo | Demo by the Challenge awardees | — |
| 5:45 – 7:45 PM | Poster Session & Welcome Reception | Open to all attendees and instructors | — |
Day 2 — Saturday, August 1, 2026
Main Conference Day
Each of Sessions 1, 2, and 3 runs 1 hour 30 minutes and contains 5 talks: 2 invited talks (25 min each, 5 min Q&A) followed by 3 short paper award talks (8 min each, 2 min Q&A). The lightning talk session is 30 minutes by 9 stellar abstract award winners (3 min each).
| Time | Program Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 8:55 AM | Breakfast | — |
| 8:55 – 9:00 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks | |
| 9:00 – 10:30 AM | Session 1 | 5 talks: 2 invited + 3 paper award talks (1h30min) |
| 10:30 – 11:00 AM | Coffee Break | — |
| 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | Session 2 | 5 talks: 2 invited + 3 paper award talks (1h30min) |
| 12:30 – 1:40 PM | Lunch Break | — |
| 1:40 – 2:00 PM | Award ceremony | |
| 2:00 – 3:30 PM | Session 3 | 5 talks: 2 invited + 3 paper award talks |
| 3:30 – 4:00 PM | Coffee Break | |
| 4:00 – 5:00 PM | Panel Discussion | Moderated panel + audience Q&A |
| 5:00 – 5:30 PM | Stellar Abstract Lightning Talks | 9 × 3-min Stellar Abstract Award talks |
| 5:30 – 5:35 PM | Closing Remarks | |
| 5:35 – 7:30 PM | Poster Session & Reception Supported by Jump Trading | Posters, food & beverages |