A Summer of Computing: Highlights from the 2026 CERN openlab Summer Student Programme
Over this summer, CERN’s computing and research groups welcomed a new generation of computer scientists, engineers and physicists. Forty-seven students from 27 nationalities, chosen from a pool of almost 6,000 applicants worldwide took part in this year’s edition of the CERN openlab summer student programme. They joined different teams at CERN to work on computing challenges that help drive CERN’s research forward.
Students took part in a wide range of cutting-edge projects spanning computing, data science, machine learning and high-performance systems, including Next Generation Triggers (NGT), a programme at CERN developing innovative computing technologies for data acquisition and data processing for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider and beyond.
Projects were only a part of the experience. Students also attended a lecture series given by CERN experts and invited speakers, covering topics from theoretical physics to the latest developments in computing. The lectures were also webcast live, and most of them can be watched on the CERN openlab summer student programme’s Indico page.
Some of these lectures were shared with CERN STEAM Academy, giving the students an even closer look at the technical challenges shaping the next generation of detectors. The CERN openlab summer student programme also featured the continued involvement of ideas4HPC, a partnership designed to encourage innovative thinking, diversity and inclusivity of women and other under-represented groups in in High Performance Computing (HPC) and large-scale computing.
The programme concluded with the Lightning Talks: a five-minute presentations in which each student wrapped up their nine weeks of work, sharing their project’s objectives, obstacles, methodology and results. Following their presentations, students received their certificates during a handout ceremony, bringing a summer full of hard work, curiosity and collaboration to a close.
Discover all the Lightning Talks, with corresponding presentations, on indico:
As this year’s cohort disperses and the students return to their universities, they take with them more than a set of new technical skills: they also carry a first-hand sense of the international cooperation and shared purpose that drive CERN’s research forward. It is this blend of hands-on experience and global collaboration that continues to draw the next generation of scientists and engineers to CERN each summer.
Applications for the 2027 CERN openlab summer student programme will open in November 2026.