Guidelines for Minisymposia

The PASC Conference series is an international and interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of knowledge in scientific computing and computational science with a strong focus on methods, tools, algorithms, workflows, application challenges, and novel techniques in the context of scientific usage of high performance computing.

The Conference is co-sponsored by the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS – a unit of ETH Zurich) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The conference is managed by CSCS. The event will be hosted at Universität Bern & PHBern, in Bern, Switzerland.

The technical program of PASC26 is organized around the following scientific domains:

  • Chemistry and Materials (incl. ceramics, metals, polymers)
  • Climate, Weather, and Earth Sciences (incl. solid earth dynamics)
  • Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (incl. behavioral, economic, legal, political, business, philosophy, languages, the arts, ethics in computing such as environmental impact of HPC, mitigation of biases in algorithms, machine learning, etc.)
  • Engineering (incl. computational fluid dynamics, computational mechanics, computational engineering, materials, acoustics, signal processing, etc.)
  • Life Sciences (incl. biophysics, computational biomechanics, genomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, neuroscience, and computational biology)
  • Physics (incl. astrophysics, cosmology, plasma physics, and quantum information sciences)
  • Computational Methods and Applied Mathematics

We also encourage submissions that explore AI across all the above areas.

Proposals that emphasize the theme of PASC26 – Building Trust in Science through HPC Co-Design – are particularly welcome. Additional information on the theme of this conference edition can be found here. The proposal submission form will ask how you have addressed this year’s theme.

Kindly read carefully the “submission and review process,” in particular the sections highlighted in the boxes below.

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW PROCESS

A minisymposium is a two-hour session of four 30-minute slots on a topic of current importance in computational science that showcases research related to domain science, applied mathematics, computer science and software engineering, applied to any of the seven domains, and is an ideal platform for promoting interdisciplinary communication.

The minisymposium submission for PASC26 is a two-stage process. The first stage is an expression of interest, which comprises of a description of the proposed minisymposium (abstract) and suggestions for possible speakers who are experts in their field(s).

  • One of the four speakers must be an early career researcher. A speaker is considered early-career if they have less than 7 years of full-time experience in the field since their last degree (the 7-year window may be extended for extenuating circumstances such as parental or medical leave).
  • Presenters should come from different institutions. Applications in which all presenters represent different institutions will be given higher priority during the evaluation process.

The expressions of interest will be reviewed by the Minisymposia and Posters Program Committee. A selection of expressions of interest received will be invited to submit a full proposal.

The review process will consider the relevance, impact, and pertinence of the proposed topic(s) and also evaluate the proposed list of speakers for balance in terms of gender, career level, and the geographic spread of the represented institutions. Additionally, the interdisciplinary nature of the submission and overall balance of the program in terms of coverage of themes and domains will be considered.

The conference will focus on how High Performance Computing (HPC) co-design is realized through collaboration among individuals and teams who shape interoperability among hardware and software technologies, artificial intelligence, distributed computing infrastructure, advanced simulation and real-time data analysis.

  • Organizers should avoid inviting speakers who are already presenting on similar topics in other minisymposia. Preference will be given to sessions where speakers give only one talk during the entire conference.
  • Multiple 2-hour sessions are not accepted. Minisymposium organizers may submit more than one proposal, but each submission must include a substantively different abstract and clearly distinct content.

The second stage, namely the full proposal, requires an extended abstract and names of possible speakers and presentation titles for the four 30-minute presentation slots (typically, these slots are 25-minute talks with 5 minutes for Q&A). The minisymposium organizer is permitted to deliver one of the four presentations. If desired, the fourth 30-minute slot could also be a panel discussion or open discussion forum. Presenters of the first three minisyposium slots can also participate in the minisymposium closing discussion without violating the one-talk-per-presenter’s regulation.

The organizer of a minisymposium takes an “active chair” role in the session – that is, the organizer should present a brief overview of the themes of the minisymposium and the state of the art, introduce the speakers and their topics, and facilitate a lively and interactive discussion amongst the speakers and audience throughout the session.

> In order to be allowed to submit a full proposal, minisymposium organizers must first submit an expression of interest.

The expression of interest consists of the following:

  • Title
  • Scientific domain(s): A primary domain and (preferably) additional domains.
  • Organizer details: Names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
  • Abstract: Description of the minisymposium (up to 500 words), including suggestions for topics and speakers.
  • Diversity and Inclusivity: A statement on how you have addressed issues of diversity and inclusivity (geographical diversity – proposed speakers should come from multiple institutions and multiple countries – gender diversity, racial diversity, under-represented groups, career stages (one of the four speakers must be an early stage researcher), and so on.

Following the evaluation of the expressions of interest, organizers may be invited to submit a full proposal. The full proposal consists of the following:

  • Title
  • Scientific domain(s): A primary domain and optionally additional domains.
  • Organizer details: Names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
  • Presenter details: Names and contact details of four proposed speakers (three if the minisymposium proposal includes a discussion panel) and proposed titles for their presentations.
  • Extended abstract: A description of the minisymposium that outlines the scope, describes the problems being addressed and their importance, and discusses current directions of research and methods being developed to solve these problems (up to 800 words).
  • Abstract for publication: A short abstract for publication in the conference program (no more than 200 words).
  • Diversity and Inclusivity: A statement on how you have addressed issues of diversity and inclusivity (geographical diversity – proposed speakers should come from different institutions and multiple countries – gender diversity, racial diversity, under-represented groups, career stages (one of the four speakers must be an early stage researcher), and so on.

If the proposal is accepted then presentation titles and abstracts (200 words) will be requested from each speaker, and necessary revisions can be made to the minisymposium abstract for publication in the conference program.

> No promise that the minisymposium will take place at PASC26 should be made to the proposed speakers until notified that that the second stage submission proposal has been accepted for presentation within the conference program.

Domain experts from the Minisymposia and Posters Program Committee will assess the expressions of interest and full proposals based on the following criteria:

  • The work should be of significant current interest to the given scientific domain, and ideally, have potential application to other scientific domains
  • Research should be based on state-of-the-art numerical methods
  • The proposal should be designed such that the speakers bring a range of different perspectives and views to the topic
  • The suggestions for possible speakers must include at least one early career researcher and should consider diversity: geographical diversity – speakers from multiple institutions and multiple countries; diversity in terms of gender and other underrepresented groups; diversity in terms of career stage (one of the four speakers must be an early stage researcher) and expertise; diversity in terms of academia vs industry; and so on.

Proposals must be submitted through the PASC26 online submission portal.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

09 November 2025: Deadline for expressions of interest (NO EXTENSIONS!)
11 December 2025: Decision notifications (invitations to submit full proposals)
18 January 2026: Deadline for full submissions (NO EXTENSIONS!)
18 February 2026: Acceptance notifications
15 March 2026: Deadline for abstracts from presenting speakers

Deadlines correspond to anywhere on earth (‘AoE’ or ‘UTC-12’).

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION TERMS

Conference contributors whose submissions are accepted for presentation at the conference are expected to present their work on-site.

Please note that PASC26 is unable to reimburse the expenses or waive the registration fees of organizers and speakers. All organizers and speakers must register for the conference and are subject to the corresponding registration fees.

The PASC Conference reserves the right to remove contributions that are considered outside the scope of the conference at any time.
The designated presenters may be changed closer to the event according to circumstances and based on agreements discussed with the organizing committee.