SKACH Winter Meeting 2026

Name: SKACH Winter Meeting 2026
Start: 2026-01-26T09:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-01-27T18:00:00+01:00
Location: CSCS LCA main Building

26 Jan 2026, 09:00 → 27 Jan 2026, 18:00 Europe/Zurich

Ground Floor E4 (CSCS LCA main Building )

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano

Carolyn Crichton, Jean-Paul Kneib (EPFL), Joanna Jermini-Howard

Description

We are pleased to invite you to participate to the SKACH Winter Meeting hosted by our collaborators at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). This event will focus on consortium-wide updates, and updates from the five SKACH programs: Comms & Outreach, Instrumentation, Computing Platforms & Infrastructure, Data Science & Simulations and Science (AstroSignals).

SKACH is primarily funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), and is responsible for managing the Swiss contribution to the SKAO. SKACH also leverages funding from external grants such as AstroSignals SINERGIA, SNF Bilateral, PASC, InnoSuisse, and Horizon Europe.

This endeavor is lead by a strong contingent of Swiss institutions; including, Universität Basel (UniBas), Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW), Universität Zürich (UZH), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW), Université de Genève (UniGE), Haute École spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO) and the Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico (CSCS).

Participants

Ajith Sampath
Andreas Wassmer
André Csillaghy
Ariane Capt
Ashutosh Kumar Mishra
Carolina Lindqvist
Carolyn Crichton
Chin-Shin Chang
Christopher Bignamini
Darren Reed
Dino Conciatore
Elena Gavagnin
Elia Palme
Emma Tolley
Emmanuel de Salis
Erica Lastufka
Etienne Orliac
Florian Cabot
Florina Ciorba
Gilles Fourestey
Hamza Chouh
Hatem GHORBEL
Helen Biehler
Jean-Paul Kneib
Jerome Tissieres
Joanna Jermini-Howard
luca curella
Lukas Gehrig
Marc Audard
Mark Sargent
Markus Bredberg
Massimo De Santis
Michele Bianco
Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky
Nicolas Cerardi
Noah Kubli
Oleksandr Kubashov
Osman Seckin Simsek
Pablo Fernandez
Pablo Llopis
Pascal Herzog
Philipp Denzel
Piyush Panchal
Rafael Sarmiento
Robert Feldmann
Robert Kincaid
Rohini Joshi
Salvatore Di Nardo
Simon Frasch
Susanne Wampfler
Tanya Petersen
Tatjana Ruefli
Tommaso Boschi
Victor Holanda
Yoan Rappaz

Contact

joanna.jermini@epfl.ch

Monday, 26 January
- Mon, 26 Jan
- Tue, 27 Jan
- 09:30
  
  Registration and Coffee Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- Monday Morning: Opening Session Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib (EPFL)
  - 1
    
    Welcome to the SKACH Winter Meeting & Welcome to CSCS
    
    Speakers: Pablo Fernandez (ETH Zurich / CSCS), Victor Holanda (ETHZ/CSCS)
    
    2026WM_Intro_JPK.pdf
    
    CSCS update and logistics.pdf
  - 2
    
    SKACH 2025 in Review and 2026 Look Forward
    
    Speaker: Carolyn Crichton (EPFL)
    
    Carolyn Crichton_SKACH Winter Meeting 2026.pdf
  - 3
    
    SKACH Communications Update
    
    Speaker: Tanya Petersen (EPFL)
    
    SKACH Communications Winter Meeting Lugano January 2026.pptx
- Monday Morning: Data Science & Imaging Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: Emma Tolley (EPFL)
  - 4
    
    Aligning Astrophysical Images with Complementary Data Modalities
    
    Speaker: Erica Lastufka (University of Geneva)
    
    SKACH_Winter26_Lastufka.pdf
  - 5
    
    Classification of diffuse radio emission from LoTSSDR2
    
    Speaker: Markus Bredberg (EPFL)
    
    SKACHw26_pdf_ver.pdf
  - 6
    
    Progress Report: TABASCAL improvements in terms of speed, accuracy and extensibility
    
    Speaker: Dr Chris Finlay (EPFL)
    
    TABASCAL_SKACH_Update.pptx
- 12:00
  
  Lunch (Group picture) Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- Monday Afternoon: Data Science & Simulations Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: Darren Reed (University of Zurich)
  - 7
    
    Deep Learning Approaches for Solving Chemistry in Radiative Transfer Simulations
    
    Speaker: Dr Philipp Denzel (Centre for Artificial Intelligence, ZHAW)
    
    phdenzel_skach_winter_meeting_260126.pdf
  - 8
    
    ART4SKA - Accelerated Radiative Transfer Simulations for the Square Kilometre Array
    
    Speaker: Dr Tommaso Boschi (ETH Zurich)
    
    ARTS4SKA_SKACH_WinterMeeting_260126.pdf
  - 9
    
    Solving the Cosmological Vlasov–Poisson Equations with Physics-Informed Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks
    
    Speaker: Nicolas Cerardi (EPFL, Swizerland)
    
    Simulating Cold Dark Matter with Physics-Informed Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks
  - 10
    
    Evaluating Learning-Based Compression Techniques for Radio Interferometric Visibilities Data
    
    Speaker: Xiaoran Chen (Swiss Data Science Center)
    
    skach_winter_workshop.pdf
  - 11
    
    Implicit inference of the reionization history with higher-order statistics of the 21-cm signal
    
    Speaker: Nicolas Cerardi (EPFL, Swizerland)
    
    Implicit inference of the reionization history with higher-order statistics of the 21-cm signal
  - 12
    
    PRISME-21 : Public Reference for Interferometric Simulations for Foreground Mitigation in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) 21-cm signal
    
    Speaker: Emmanuel de Salis (HE-Arc Ingénierie, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland)
    
    DE_SALIS-PRISM21.pdf
- 15:00
  
  Coffee Break Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- Monday Afternoon: Data Science & Simulations (continued) Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: Darren Reed (University of Zurich)
  - 13
    
    Physics Informed Machine Learning for Wave Dark Matter Simulations
    
    Speaker: Ashutosh Kumar Mishra (EPFL)
    
    SKACH_2026.pdf
  - 14
    
    Reconstructing the cosmological distribution of dark matter from HI
    
    Speaker: Robert Feldmann (University of Zurich)
    
    Robert_Feldmann_SKACH_2026.pdf
  - 15
    
    VIRUP updates
    
    Speaker: Florian Cabot (EPFL)
    
    FlorianCabot_VIRUPUpdates.pdf
  - 16
    
    Karabo: Overview, Access, and Transition to SDP Configuration
    
    Speakers: Andreas Wassmer (FHNW), Massimo De Santis (HES-SO // Haute Ecole Arc Ingénierie, University of Applied Sciences & Arts Western Switzerland, Saint-Imier, Switzerland)
    
    Update Karabo Pipeline (3).pptx
- Monday Afternoon: Closing - Day 1 Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- 17:15
  
  Apero https://www.locandadellamasseria.ch/ (La Masseria)
  
  https://www.locandadellamasseria.ch/
  
  La Masseria
  
  Via trevano 2; 6948 Porza
Tuesday, 27 January
- Mon, 26 Jan
- Tue, 27 Jan
- Tuesday Morning: SKACH Science Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: Dr Ajith Sampath (University of Geneva)
  - 17
    
    Astrophysics of Galaxies: (My) Highlights from the New SKA Science Book
    
    Speaker: Dr Mark Sargent (EPFL LASTRO)
    
    presMTSargent_270126.pdf
  - 18
    
    MeerKAt observations of Saraswti core region
    
    Speaker: Robert Kincaid (EPFL)
    
    SKA days Lugano 2026.pdf
    
    SKA days Lugano 2026.pptx
  - 19
    
    HIRAX - Overview, Current status, and Swiss involvement
    
    Speaker: Dr Ajith Sampath (University of Geneva)
    
    Ajith_HIRAX_googleslidelink
    
    HIRAX_Ajith_SKACHWinter2026_.pptx
- 09:30
  
  Coffee Break Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- Tuesday Morning: SKAO Regional Centers (SRCs) Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: André Csillaghy (University of Applied Sciences North Western Switzerland (FHNW))
  - 20
    
    SRCNet Development and Science Delivery Update
    
    Speakers: Chin-Shin Chang (University of Geneva), Rohini Joshi (FHNW)
    
    SKACH Winter meeting 2026 SRCNet development update RJ.pdf
  - 21
    
    The SKA Science Preparation: Project Scientist Update
    
    Speaker: Dr Chin-Shin Chang (University of Geneva)
    
    20260126_SKACH_Lugano.pdf
  - 22
    
    SRCNet/CHSRC deployment and demo
    
    Speakers: Carolina Lindqvist (EPFL), Lukas Gehrig (FHNW), Pablo Llopis Sanmillan (EPFL), Pascal Herzog
    
    SRCNet - CHSRC deployment and demo (SKACH winter meeting).pdf
- Tuesday Morning: HPC Science Platforms Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
  
  Convener: Victor Holanda (ETHZ/CSCS)
  - 23
    
    When to Rebalance? Cost–Benefit Analysis of Domain Decomposition in SPH-EXA
    
    Speaker: Dr Osman Seckin Simsek (University of Basel)
    
    2026-01-27-SKACH-SPH-EXA-final.pptx
  - 24
    
    JupyterHub with FirecRESTSpawner at CSCS
    
    Speaker: Rafael Sarmiento (ETH Zürich / CSCS)
    
    jupyterhub-at-cscs-skach2026.pdf
  - 25
    
    FirecREST, an API for HPC and AI workflows
    
    Speaker: Mr Elia Palme (ETH Zurich/CSCS)
    
    FirecREST-SKACH.pdf
- Tuesday Morning: Closing - Day 2 Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- 12:05
  
  Lunch Ground Floor E4
  
  Ground Floor E4
  
  CSCS LCA main Building
  
  Via Trevano 131 6900, Lugano
- 13:05
  
  SKACH Board Meeting (upon invitation only) CSCS - Ground Floor
  
  CSCS - Ground Floor
- 13:05
  
  Tour of CSCS (open to participants - please register at welcome desk)
- 14:30
  
  CSCS/SRCNet Technical Discussion (upon invitation only)

SKACH Winter Meeting 2026

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

https://www.locandadellamasseria.ch/

La Masseria

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

Ground Floor E4

CSCS LCA main Building

CSCS - Ground Floor