Student Research Showcase

Call for Submissions

CERTAIN 2026 invites submissions to its Student Research Showcase. The showcase is designed as a non-archival two-page abstract track. We welcome work in progress and encourage submissions that would benefit from community feedback.

  1. Categories

    Who can submit

    • Undergraduate
    • Pre-doctoral
    • PhD

    The pre-doctoral category includes master's students and prospective PhD applicants not currently enrolled in a PhD programme.

  2. Awards

    The senior PC will select four 10-minute Student Award Talks: one per category where suitable, and one overall. Selected presenters will receive awards and an optional mentoring session with a senior PC member to refine their slides and delivery.

  3. Requirements

    What to submit:

    • A non-archival two-page abstract
    • A completed CERTAIN checklist, to be provided with the submission instructions

    For multi-author projects, submissions must list all contributors and clarify the participant's own contribution and the contribution of the full team.

    Work presented in the NeurIPS 2026 main programme may not appear at the workshop; already finalised work is discouraged.

  4. Timeline

    Submission: 29 August 2026, AoE

    PhD reviews: 12 September 2026, AoE

    Senior PC reviews: 19 September 2026, AoE

    Senior PC meeting: 21 September 2026

    Final notification: 25 September 2026, AoE

  5. Visa Support

    We will offer an early visa-support track for authors who need additional time to apply for travel documentation for Sydney. Early submissions will be due by 18 August 2026, AoE, with poster decisions communicated by 1 September 2026, AoE. Eligibility will be determined through a brief self-certification of need, and places will be capped to ensure timely, high-quality review. Student Award Talk selections will be announced for all on 25 September 2026, AoE.

  6. Submission Link

    The submission link will be provided upon acceptance by the NeurIPS Workshop Committee.

Note: Submissions will be non-archival, so students can receive feedback without blocking future conference or journal submissions.

Scope

CERTAIN sits at the intersection of AI and formal methods. It is not a general workshop on AI safety, privacy, or ethics. We include those topics only when they rest on specifications, proofs, certificates, or formal analysis.

  1. Formal Methods for AI

    The specification, analysis, and verification of AI-enabled systems.

  2. AI for Formal Methods

    The use of machine learning to support reasoning, synthesis, and verification with formal guarantees.

Topics in Scope

  • Safety and liveness conditions for AI systems
  • Verification and certification of ML models
  • Runtime guarantees for AI enabled systems
  • AI Privacy and explainability with guarantees
  • Neuro-symbolic and proof-backed AI
  • Verification, synthesis, and control with AI
  • AI assisted theorem proving
  • Formal guarantees for AI-generated software

Out of Scope

  • Purely empirical studies without a specification, proof obligation, certificate, or formal verification procedure
  • General discussions of AI safety or governance without a formal assurance component
  • AI applications without a formal assurance component