CHOOSE Forum at the Software Engineering Conference 2026 in Bern: Software Engineering, AI & Scientific Computing

25 février 2026

Timo KEHRER

• Dr Sebastiano Panichella, UNIBE
• Prof Andreas Fischer, UNIFR
• Dr Matteo Biagiola, UNISG

• Christian Birchler, University of Bern
• Eva Pigova, BeamNG GmbH
• Damian Boborzi, University of Augsburg
• Claudio Panizza, LOXO
• Nitish Patkar, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
• Nargiz Humbatova, Università della Svizzera italiana
• Jinhan Kim, Università della Svizzera italiana
• Daniel Hogg, Adnovum
• Alex Wolf, University of Zurich
• Sarah Rebecca Meyer, University of Bern

Context: The CHOOSE Forum, organized by the special interest group CHOOSE (Swiss Original and Outside-the-box Software Engineering) of the Swiss Informatics Society (SI), has a long tradition of promoting advanced topics in software engineering through high-quality talks and discussions. Known for hosting excellent speakers, the forum has served as a vibrant platform for knowledge exchange and networking. After a break during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now preparing to reestablish the annual forum, and the first edition after the restart will be co-located with the Software Engineering (SE) conference 2026 (https://se2026.inf.unibe.ch), taking place in Bern from February 23 to 27. The SE conference itself is considered the most important scientific conference in the field of software engineering in the German-speaking region (D/A/CH), organized under the auspices of GI, SI, and OCG. Despite its long history dating back to 1998, the SE conference will be hosted in Switzerland for the first time in 2026.

Scope and Goals: The 2026 CHOOSE Forum (https://se2026.inf.unibe.ch/en/choose-forum/) shall bring together experts from software engineering, artificial intelligence, and scientists from other domains to explore the evolving intersections of these fields. With growing interest in the dependability of AI-based systems and the rigor of scientific research, this event provides a platform for open dialogue, shared challenges, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The forum will be held as a one-day event on February 25, 2026, in parallel with the main scientific program of SE 2026. Cross-disciplinary talks and a concluding panel discussion will cover core SE topics such as software verification, testing, and the trustworthiness of AI systems, but also reproducible research methods, open data/code practices, and the importance of publishing and learning from negative results. The panel shall include voices from AI, SE, and the life sciences, fostering deep discussion on building reliable systems and reproducible scientific computing.

Target Audience: The forum is of particular interest to PhD students in software engineering and SE-related areas, but also to students concerned with computational science, in-silico experimentation and (applied) machine learning who will profit from the interdisciplinary character of the event. 

08:30-09:00: Registration

09:00-09:15: Opening, Sebastiano Panichella

09:15–10:00: Session on "Simulation & Testing for Autonomous and Cyber-Physical Systems" (Session Chair: Matteo Biagiola)

• Christian Birchler: "Simulation-based regression testing for Autonomous Vehicles & Overview of Sim2Cloud"
• Eva Pigova, Damian Boborzi: "Simulating the Real World: An Introduction to the BeamNG Platform & Generation of 3D Generative models"

10:00-10:30: Coffee Break

10:30-11:15: Session on "Engineering Intelligent Systems: From Autonomous Vehicles to AI Code Generation" (Session Chair: Sebastiano Panichella)

• Claudio Panizza: "From code to corner: The software behind LOXO urban vehicles"
• Matteo Biagiola: "A journey in AI-based code generation"

11:15-12:00: Session on "Sustainability and Reliability of AI-Driven Software" (Session Chair: Andreas Fischer)

• Nitish Patkar: "From Perception to Action: Can UI Interventions Foster Sustainable LLM Chatbot"
• Nargiz Humbatova, Jinhan Kim: "Breaking DNNs: Mutation Testing for Deep Neural Networks"

12:00-13:30: Lunch

13:30-14:15: Session on "Trust, Modernization, and Certification in AI-Enabled Software Systems" (Session Chair: Matteo Biagiola)

• Daniel Hogg: "Legacy Application Modernization with AI Agents"
• Alex Wolf: "Legacy Application Modernization with AI Agents"

14:15–15:00: Session on "Interdisciplinary Perspectives: AI, Biology, and Bioinformatics" (Session Chair: Sebastiano Panichella)

• Sarah Rebecca Meyer: "Integrating Physiology and Machine Learning to Predict Oxyhaemoglobin Dissociation Curve Shift in Preterm Infants"
• Sebastiano Panichella: "Bridging Research and Practice in Simulation-based Testing of Industrial Robot Navigation Systems"

15:00-15:30: Coffee Break

15:30-16:45: Panel on "AI, Software Engineering & Reproducibility and Science Challenges"

16:45-16:50: Closing: Sebastiano Panichella

18:30-21:00: Apéro

Bern, Stadium Wankdorf

Map

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Prof. Timo Kehrer, University of Bern