EuCAIFCon 2024 conference app — clear track navigation for an AI-meets-physics programme in Amsterdam

The European Conference on AI for Fundamental Physics (EuCAIFCon 2024) was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from 17 to 21 June 2024, drawing approximately 400 participants from particle physics, astrophysics, gravitational wave research, and the broader machine learning community. As a first-of-its-kind event, EuCAIFCon aimed to bridge the gap between AI methodologists and fundamental physics researchers.

The programme featured 5 thematic tracks, 200 oral contributions and 100 posters, covering topics from graph neural networks for particle tracking to foundation models for cosmological simulations.

The Challenge: A New Conference with a Cross-Disciplinary Audience

As an inaugural event, EuCAIFCon lacked the established workflows of long-running conference series. The organisers needed a mobile solution that could be set up quickly, connect to the NIKHEF Indico instance, and handle frequent programme revisions as sessions were finalised.

The cross-disciplinary audience also meant many attendees were unfamiliar with the Indico ecosystem, requiring an intuitive interface that didn't assume prior experience with HEP conference tools.

How HEPCon Helped

HEPCon connected to the NIKHEF Indico instance and imported the full timetable, adapting to yet another Indico deployment outside the CERN environment. Track-based navigation with clear colour coding made it easy for ML and physics attendees alike to find relevant sessions.

Push notifications kept participants informed as the organisers adjusted the programme during the week, and the progressive web app reduced the support burden on the local organising committee.

Outcome

The organisers reported a significant reduction in support requests about schedule changes, as HEPCon handled these automatically. The intuitive interface was well received by the AI community members who had not previously used Indico-based conference tools.