AI + Astronomy: Models, Data, Discovery

Europe/Zurich
GA 321 (Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus)

GA 321

Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
Description

We are delighted to invite you to the Second International Workshop on AI + Astronomy: Models, Data, Discovery, a two-day event dedicated to exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping astronomy. After a successful workshop that took place last year in Hangzhou, China, the second edition will take place this year at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

The workshop will highlight the transformative role of large-scale AI models in enabling data-intensive scientific discovery.

The program will feature plenary and parallel sessions covering:

·       Advances in AI and large models for astronomy

·       Applications to spectral surveys, imaging, and time-domain data

·       Computing, simulations, and data-intensive astronomy

·       Instrumentation and frontier technologies

·       International collaboration and open science

The main workshop will be held from 31 March-1 April 2026 at the Bernoulli Center at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. Hosted by EPFL Laboratory of Astrophysics in collaboration with the Zhejiang Lab. Leading scholars  will gather to exchange ideas and explore the latest progress and future directions at the intersection of AI and astronomy.

There will be a pre-workshop session at ETHZ Honggerbeg campus in Zurich on Monday March 30. The participants will visit and have a presentation of the ETHZ AI center, and of the CSCS computing platform. This session is mostly dedicated for our international guest.

On April 2nd, 2026, a visit of the Jungfraujoch High Altitude Research Station near Grindelwald, Switzerland will be organised for our international guests.

Participants
    • 10:00
      Welcome Coffee ETHZ

      ETHZ

    • ETHZ: Cosmology meeting ETHZ

      ETHZ

    • 12:00
      Lunch ETHZ

      ETHZ

    • ETHZ: AI Center meeting ETHZ

      ETHZ

    • 14:30
      Discussion Break ETHZ

      ETHZ

    • 15:00
      Travel to Lausanne
    • 08:30
      Registration and Welcome Coffee Main hall

      Main hall

    • Welcome & Opening Session: Welcome GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
      • 1
        Welcome Introduction
        Speaker: Jean-Paul Kneib (EPFL)
      • 2
        Official Welcome from the Dean of the School of Engineering (STI)
        Speaker: Prof. Adrian Ionescu (EPFL)
      • 3
        Presentation of Zhejiang Lab¶
        Speakers: Dr Jian Wang (Zhejiang Lab), Dr Junhui Shi (Zhejiang Lab)
      • 4
        Presentation of the EPFL AI Center
        Speaker: Agnieszka Kapalka (EPFL AI Center)
      • 5
        Open foundation models - Learnings from Apertus
        Speaker: Martin Jaggi (EPFL)
    • 10:30
      Coffee Break GA 331

      GA 331

    • Welcome & Opening Session: Introduction to AI GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
      • 6
        How AI Accelerates Research and Engineering in Nuclear Fusion
        Speaker: Gilles Fourestey (EPFL)
      • 7
        Aliyun Foundation Model
        Speaker: Simon Boehmer (Alibaba Cloud)
      • 8
        Physics-Informed Graph Neural Networks for Dynamical Systems
        Speaker: Olga Fink (EPFL)
      • 9
        The Agency of Art: Bridging Complex Science and Society through Embodied AI
        Speaker: Yuan Martschnig-Wei (Creative AI Foundation)
    • 12:20
      Lunch (Group picture) GA 331

      GA 331

    • Session 1: Astronomical Data GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
    • 15:00
      Coffee Break GA 331

      GA 331

    • Session 2: Astronomical Data (continued) GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
      • 14
        Radio-Interferometric Image Reconstruction with Denoising Diffusion Restoration Models
        Speaker: Emma Tolley (EPFL)
      • 15
        LoTSSDR2 diffuse radio emission classification
        Speaker: Markus Bredberg (EPFL)
      • 16
        AI Based compression for radio-astronomy data
        Speakers: Adrien Devresse (EPFL), Mrs Xiaoran Chen (EPFL)
      • 17
        Physics-Informed Deep Learning for Telescope Beam Deconvolution
        Speaker: Shulei Ni (Zhejiang Lab)
      • 18
        New optimizers for solar physics
        Speaker: Brandon Panos (FHNW)
    • 17:05
      Wrap-up of the day GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
    • 17:15
      Campus Visit I
    • Session 3: Astronomical Large Models GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
    • 10:20
      Coffee Break GA 331

      GA 331

    • Session 4: Astronomical Large Models (continued) GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
      • 24
        AI foundation models for large-scale structure cosmology
        Speaker: Tomasz Kacprzak (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW)
      • 25
        Improving cosmological inference with simulation based inference
        Speaker: Antoine Rocher (EPFL)
      • 26
        How Can LLMs Reshape Astronomy Research?
        Speaker: Zechang Sun (Tsinghua University)
      • 27
        Advancing Cosmology through Artificial Intelligence
        Speaker: Huanyuan Shan (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, CAS)
      • 28
        From Photoionisation Models to Machine Learning: Interpreting Star Formation and AGN in High-Redshift Galaxies
        Speaker: Adele Plat (EPFL)
    • 12:20
      Lunch GA 331

      GA 331

    • Session 5: Astronomical Large Models (continued) GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
      • 29
        Aligning Astrophysical Images with Complementary Data Modalities
        Speaker: Erica Lastufka (UNIGE)
      • 30
        Spectral Foundation Model for Astronomical Surveys
        Speakers: Aurélien Verdier (EPFL), Shengyu HE (EPFL)
      • 31
        OneAstronomy: A Domain-Specific Large Language Model for Astronomical Science and Telescope Automation
        Speaker: Kuang Mao (Zhejiang Lab)
      • 32
        OneAstronomy: A Physics-Consistent Foundation for Understanding the Multimodal Universe
        Speaker: Dr Chiye Li (Zhejiang Lab)
    • Discussion on Future Collaboration (roundtable) GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
    • 15:15
      Closing Remarks GA 321

      GA 321

      Bernoulli Center, EPFL Campus

      GA Building - Station 5 - 1015 Lausanne
    • 15:30
      Campus Visit II
    • 06:40
      Travel to Grindelwald Terminal
    • 09:35
      Travel to Jungfraujoch
    • 33
      Presentation of the Jungfraujoch research station Jungfraujoch

      Jungfraujoch

      Speaker: Prof. Silvio Decurtins (President HFSJG)
    • 12:15
      Lunch Jungfraujoch

      Jungfraujoch

    • 34
      Visit of the Sphinx Observatory Jungfraujoch

      Jungfraujoch

    • 35
      Free Time - Discussion Jungfraujoch

      Jungfraujoch

    • 16:00
      Return travel to Grindelwald
    • 17:00
      Return travel to Lausanne