September 27-30, 2026 LASER Center Villebrumier Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering & Teaching Recipes for Success
Following the success of FISEE 2019 and 2023 in Villebrumier, FISEE 2026 will again be devoted to advanced topics in software engineering education, with a particular focus on what occupies everyone’s thoughts and discussions right now: effective use of Artificial Intelligence.
A lot of hand-wringing is taking place about how AI disrupts teaching, disrupts software engineering, and disrupts the teaching of software engineering. The FISEE 2026 workshop goes beyond the hand-wringing to focus on the future and on the positive. AI is here to stay; we will explore how to make the best of it for improving the field.
Another distinctive feature of the workshop: considering software engineering as a whole, beyond “coding”. Maning of the discussions taking place today examine the future of coding. FISEE 2026 will cover the teaching of software engineering in its entirety, of which coding is only a small part. Other disciplines involved are requirements engineering, architecture and design, testing, formal software verification, software metrics, project management, lifecycle models, agile/DevOps methods etc.; they all need to be taught, and are all potentially affected by AI.
FISEE 2026 follows two successful events, FISEE 2019 and FISEE 2023. Like other events at the LASER center, FISEE is not a traditional conference but a forum for discussion, followed by post-event publication in the LASER sub-series of Springer LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).
Reports of successful innovations, with objective evaluation, are particularly sought, as well as insightful explorations of innovative approaches and methodologies for the various disciplines of software engineering including those listed above.
As in all LASER workshops, the event will devote a large share to discussions between experts in software engineering education and artificial intelligence. The aim is to come up with a clear set of guidelines so that the community knows what actually works.
FISEE 2026 will explore the exciting side: what can we do to use AI effectively to boost software engineering, programming, requirements engineering and their teaching?
Reports of successful innovations (with, of course, an objective evaluation of pluses and minuses) are particularly sought, as well as insightful explorations of innovative approaches and methodologies. As in all LASER workshops, the event will devote a large share to discussions between experts in software engineering education and artificial intelligence. The aim is to come up with a clear set of guidelines so that the community knows what actually works.
Like other events at the LASER center, FISEE is not a traditional conference but a forum for discussion, followed by post-event publication in the LASER sub-series of Springer LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).
Submissions are now open
- 10 July 2026: deadline for submissions of workshop presentations.
- 10 August 2026: notification.
- 15 November 2026: deadline for full paper submission for post-conference LNCS format.
- Easy Chair link for submissions.
Keynote speaker: [to be announced]
Organization
Program co-chairs: Jean-Michel Bruel (Univ. Toulouse), Sophie Ebersold (Univ. Toulouse), Armando Fox (UC Berkeley), Manuel Oriol (HEIG-VD, Switzerland)
Conference chair: Bertrand Meyer (Eiffel Software)
About the workshop
We will discuss in a friendly context how AI can best work for the teaching of software engineering.
The workshop is focused on discussion and exchanges.
The post-proceedings will be published as a volume of the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
Participation and submissions
All submissions will be reviewed for conformance to the aims of the workshop, but the actual refereeing process will apply to final contribution submitted after the workshop for publication in the LNCS proceedings. Authors should consult Springer’s authors’ guidelines and use their proceedings templates, either for LaTeX or for Word, for the preparation of their papers. Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers. In addition, the corresponding author of each paper, acting on behalf of all of the authors of that paper, must complete and sign a Consent-to-Publish form. The corresponding author signing the copyright form should match the corresponding author marked on the paper. Once the files have been sent to Springer, changes relating to the authorship of the papers cannot be made.
Submissions
Proposals
Proposals can be either full papers or extended abstracts (2 to 15 pages). All submissions will be reviewed for conformance to the aims of the workshop.
Post-proceedings
Final contributions must not only be conformant to the aims of the workshop, but also meet the following criteria:
Significance: The paper’s contributions are important with respect to topics addressed by computing education, and in particular software engineering education at any level.
Novelty: The paper presents new ideas and results and places them appropriately with respect to the state-of-the-art.
Evidence: The paper presents sufficient evidence supporting its claims, such as experimental results, statistical analyses, case studies, and anecdotes.
Clarity: The paper presents its contributions, methodology, and results clearly: i.e. adequate use of the English language, absence of major ambiguity, clearly readable figures and tables, and adherence to the LNCS format.
Papers will be reviewed by three PC members using a two rounds single-blind review process.
The first round may lead to either (1) reject the paper, (2) accept the paper (with minor modifications), or (3) request authors to provide a newer version of the paper (major revisions). In case of major revisions (case 3), authors are requested to provide a newer version of the paper along with a letter that explains how each concern has been addressed. Authors will have up to one month to submit the new (and final) version of the paper along the letter. The day after the letter and the newer version of the paper are submitted, the second round review is started. For the second round, reviewers will have 10 working days to review the latest submitted version. After that, the final decision is made based on reviewers’ scores. In case conflicts persist, the final decision is made by the chairs.
Topics
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Role of AI in teaching the disciplines of software engineering
- Specific techniques for making AI support individual disciplines (e.g. requirements engineering, verification).
- How do the traditional topics of a software engineering course fare in an AI-aware curriculum? What should we teach and not teach?
- “Vibe X” (where X is anything but coding in software engineering)
- Teaching software engineering with AI: experience reports
- Running software engineering class projects in the age of AI
- Models for class development
- Labs and practical sessions in the age of AI
- AI-aware curriculum development
- AI-aware course design
- Empirical research in AI-aware SE education
- Changes to the learning process
- Changes to the student evaluation process
Important dates
Proposals (full papers or extended abstracts)
- 10 July 2026: deadline for submission of extended abstracts (and invitation requests)
- 10 August 2026: notification of participation acceptance and position papers
- 31 August 2026: deadline for early bird registration
Workshop
- 27 September 2026 (Sunday evening): arrival day; welcome cocktail; concert
- 28 September 2026 (full day): workshop
- 29 September 2026 (full day): workshop
- 30 September (morning): workshop
- 30 September, 14: departure
Conference chair
Bertrand Meyer (Recognyze.ai, Eiffel Software)
Program chairs
- Jean Michel Bruel (University of Toulouse)
- Armando Fox (UC Berkeley)
- Sophie Ebersold (University of Toulouse)
- Manuel Oriol (HEIG-VD, Switzerland)
Organization chairs
- Marco Piccioni, PhD
PC Members
- Jean-Michel Bruel, IRIT (France)
- Alfredo Capozucca, University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
- Michael Caspersen, Aarhus University (Denmark)
- Elisabetta Di Nitto, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
- Sophie Ebersold, IRIT (France)
- Armando Fox, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
- Zhoulai Fu, SUNY (Korea)
- Alfonso Fuggetta, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
- Bertrand Meyer, Eiffel Software (Switzerland)
- Rumyana Neykova, Brunel University (UK)
- Manuel Oriol, HEIG-VD (Switzerland)
- Meriem Ouederni, INP Toulouse/ ENSEEIHT (France)
- Andreas Rausch, TU Clausthal (Germany)
- Nimisha Roy, Georgia Institute of Technology (USA)
- Zheying Zhang, Tampere University (Finland)
Venue
The workshop will be held in Villebrumier near Toulouse in Southwest France, a conference center devoted to meetings on new technologies. Villebrumier is easily reachable from Toulouse International Airport (40 km) or Montauban train station (15 km, 4 hours from Paris via high-speed trains). Participants will be hosted (single or double room) on site or in a nearby hotel.
To ensure the quality of interactions, the number of participants on-site is limited, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Program
| Sunday September 27 |
| 18-19:30 Special attraction: concert (open to workshop participants) 8 PM Welcome cocktail |
| Monday Sept 28 | Technology for education |
| Time | Activity |
| 9:00-10:30 | Keynote 1 + discussion |
| 11:00-12:30 | Papers session 1 – (11:00 – 11:30) Paper 1 – (11:30 – 12:00) Paper 2 – (12:00 – 12:30) Paper 3 |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-15:00 | Discussion |
| 15:00-17:00 | Working groups on AI assistants |
| 17:00-18:00 | Discussion |
| 19:00-21:00 | Dinner |
| Tuesday Sept 29 | Software engineering education |
| Time | Activity |
| 9:00-10:30 | Keynote 2 + discussion |
| 11:00-12:30 | Papers session 2 – (11:00 – 11:30) Paper 4 – (11:30 – 12:00) Paper 5 – (12:00 – 12:30) Paper 6 |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-15:30 | More working groups discussions |
| 15:30-18:30 | More working groups discussions |
| 19:00-21:00 | Dinner |
| Wed. Sept 30 | Conclusion |
| Time | Activity |
| 9:00-10:30 | Working groups prepare conclusions |
| 11:00-12:30 | General discussion, next steps, preparation of manifesto |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch |
Workshop material
Workshop slides
Post-proceedings slides
Registration
We realized that Villebrumier workshops really only make sense if they are onsite – the participant interaction experience is a key part. This scheme does not prevent remote participation for a few attendees, but the core event should not take place virtually.
The participants will be hosted at Villebrumier. As there are a limited number of rooms, single and double rooms will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. We offer one convenient package including accommodation and meals.
| Cost | Regular attendance fee |
|---|---|
| EUR 695 | Early bird attendance until August 31: 625 EUR Regular attendance: 695 EUR Single or double room for 3 nights (Sunday to Wednesday), 3 breakfasts, 5 breaks, 3 lunches, 3 dinners |
| Cost | Per-day attendance fee |
| EUR 275 per-day | Per-day attendance inclusive of lunch, coffee breaks and dinner (not available for speakers) |
| Cost | Remote attendance fee |
| EUR 175 | Remote attendance (whole event, not available for speakers) |
Transportation from Toulouse airport will be provided at a cost of EUR 20 in cash. Pick up will be on 27 September 2026 at 4:00 PM. Transportation back to Toulouse airport will be provided at a cost of EUR 20 in cash. The shuttle will leave from Villebrumier on 30 September at 2 PM.