PETRA Days 2026

📍 CFEL Seminar Rooms (Ground Floor)
📅 19-20 February 2026 

The workshop brings together the PETRA community to exchange recent technical developments at the beamlines, discuss future directions such as autonomous beamlines and AI, and strengthen collaboration across departments.
The program combines technical talks, posters, software tool pitches, and interactive fishbowl discussions.

Parallel Session Topics

Contributions are invited for parallel sessions covering:

• Beamline Instrumentation

• Software and Computing

• Machine Learning at PETRA

Talks and posters related to these topics are welcome.

Software Tool Pitches (5 min)

Short 5-minute software tool pitches will take place in the general session.

These pitches are intended for software tools developed at any beamline and should briefly describe:

• What the tool is and which problem it addresses

• Its main application (e.g. data analysis, automation, control, visualization, workflows)

• How it works at a high level and how it is used in practice

Both mature tools and early-stage developments are welcome.

Interactive Fishbowl Discussions

PETRA Days 2026 will feature fishbowl-style discussions on forward-looking and cross-cutting topics, including: 

• Autonomous beamlines
• Re-thinking how we work

This interactive format encourages open dialogue, shared perspectives, and active participation from all attendees.

Safe & Anonymous Feedback Channel

To support open communication, a safe and anonymous feedback channel will be available throughout the event.
Participants can use this channel to raise concerns, share observations, or provide suggestions in a confidential manner via the conference app.

Highlight Box - Best / Funniest Failure Prize 🏆

Because complex systems do not always behave as expected.

We invite participants to contribute to the Best / Funniest Failure session by sharing a memorable technical failure - unexpected, puzzling, or amusing in hindsight.
The failure does not have to be your own.

From forgotten limit switches to surprising system interactions, the goal is to learn from experience, encourage transparency, and reflect together - with a sense of humor.

Failures can be submitted during registration and later via the conference app during the workshop. 

Call to Contribute

Contributions are welcome as talks, posters, software tool pitches, and failure stories.
Work in progress, practical solutions, and lessons learned are all encouraged.

📅 Registration closes on Friday 30 January 2026 at 11:00 am.