[Opt-Net] CMSC 2026 – Call for Posters and List of Accepted Papers – Deadline: August 15th, 2026

[Alice Raffaele]

(Apologies for cross-posting)

Dear all,

We are pleased to invite you to submit your posters for the 8th edition of
the international conference Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication,
to be held in Padova, Italy, from October 12 to October 15, 2026.

The CMSC conference series, initiated in 2013, aims to explore new ways of
communicating the rich mathematical ideas fundamental to computer science.
There’s a need and an appetite among mathematicians and computer scientists
for outreach and engagement at all levels. Bringing together researchers,
educators, and communicators, the conference aims to explore new approaches
to mathematical and computational thinking and lay the groundwork for
innovative teaching and research engagement methods at all educational
levels.

The organizers of CMSC believe that engaging in mathematical science goes
in two directions. Certain areas of research, such as algorithms and
combinatorics, are accessible even to elementary-age children, while
conversely, interaction with non-specialists, including young learners, can
spark new research questions. Creating opportunities for broad, inclusive
engagement in the mathematical sciences not only enriches researchers but
also brings lasting benefits to society as a whole.

Therefore, we invite both researchers (working in areas such as
mathematics, computer science, engineering, and education) and teachers
(working at any level) to contribute and attend the conference. Any
participant who submits a contribution (i.e., a standard paper or a poster)
that passes the reviewing process will have the opportunity to present
their work during the conference.

DEADLINES FOR POSTER SUBMISSIONS:

Posters are contributions with up to 3 pages for work in progress or a
short description of published work. Please see the Submission Guidelines
at the bottom or on the website: https://cmsc2026.github.io/call/

Poster deadline submission: August 15th, 2026
Notification of acceptance: September 4th, 2026

All inquiries about submissions should be sent to cmsc2026 at dei.unipd.it.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN: https://www.unismart.it/en/cmsc-2026/

Early registration deadline: September 8th, 2026
Late registration deadline: September 18th, 2026

GRANTS: As part of diversity and inclusion efforts, CMSC 2026 is happy to
provide some grants to lower barriers of access to the conference. The
grants are intended for students or postdocs for whom attending the
conference would cause a financial burden. We will give priority, in order,
to: authors of accepted papers, presenters of posters, attendees. Please
send us an email to cmsc2026 at dei.unipd.it by August 25th, 2026. We will
notify grant assignment by September 2nd.

PLENARY SPEAKERS:

   -

   Timothy C. Bell, University of Canterbury. Reflections on 30+ years of
   CS Unplugged
   -

   Vanesa Guerrero Lozano, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Mathematics
   beyond the classroom: two experiences in science communication
   -

   Neeldhara Misra, Indian Institute of Technology. Building Joyful
   Interactives

TEACHERS’ DAY SPEAKERS:

   -

   Centro Montessori SPES Padova, Italy
   -

   Maria Francesca Carfora, Italian National Research Council, Institute
   for Applied Computing “Mauro Picone”
   -

   Lorella Carimali, Liceo Scientifico Vittorio Veneto, Milan
   -

   Frances Rosamond, University of Bergen
   -

   Selected presentations from the accepted papers.

LIST OF ACCEPTED PAPERS (in alphabetical order by first author):

   -

   Valeria Andriano, Monica Barbero, Matteo Bramardi, and Walter Dambrosio.
   Integrating Immersive Technologies into Secondary Mathematics: from AR
   Applications to Teachers’ Training
   -

   Laura Antonelli and Maria Francesca Carfora. Genius: Enhancing
   Mathematical Discovery through Teamwork and Play
   -

   Smitha Balakrishnan, Deepali Navghane, and Vipul Shah. Songs and Other
   Pedagogical Modes to Teach Computational Thinking in Primary School: An
   Experience Report
   -

   Pietro Belotti, Francesca Fumero, and Federico Malucelli. A practical
   activity on the shortest path problem with theoretical and algorithmic
   implications
   -

   Philip Bille and Inge Li Gørtz. Data Stream Algorithms Unplugged
   -

   Alessandro Bogliolo. CodyRoby: An Embodied Programming Environment for
   Computational Thinking
   -

   Laura Cesaro, Amy Eguchi, Amber Jones, Emanuele Menegatti, and Thomas
   Deneux. From Logic Gates to Hidden Layers: a hands-on introduction to
   Neural Networks for young learners
   -

   Laura Cesaro, Anna Polato, and Emanuele Menegatti. Making CS Education
   more accessible through creative robot personalisation
   -

   Neha Garg and Jyothi Krishnan. Playing the Odds: Bids, Beliefs and
   Probabilistic Reasoning in Indian Classrooms
   -

   Christoph Greger and Gregor Porsch. TuringViz: Teaching Turing Machines
   with Configuration Graphs and Computation Trees
   -

   Juraj Hromkovič and Regula Lacher. Teaching Error Detection and
   Correction by Card Magic
   -

   Andreas Imhof and Matthias Müller. Strategies in Geometry Problem
   Solving supported by Dynamic Geometric Software
   -

   Adithi Iyer and Jyothi Krishnan. From Cards to Conversations: Tracing
   Participation Through a Mathematics Game Introduced Online
   -

   Sonja Klein, Lukas Lehner, Klaus Nigsch, and René Röpke From Pantomime
   to Bitomime – A CS Unplugged Approach to Binary Encoding & Decoding in
   Primary Education
   -

   Daranee Lehtonen, Esa Satomaa, Valentina Dagienė, Javier Bilbao, Tuğba
   Öztürk, and Marika Parviainen Interrelations and Overlaps between
   Computational and Algebraic Thinking: A Cross-National Study in Schools
   -

   Michael Lodi. Hangers and Straws: Designing Low-Cost Unplugged
   Activities for Primary-School Algorithms
   -

   Lucas Lorieau and Nicolas Schivre. From Problem Solving to Research
   Thinking: A Graph-Theoretic Whodunit
   -

   Cosimo Perini Brogi. Mapping Abstract Reasoning: A Freinet-Inspired
   Approach to Creative Logic Communication in Secondary Schools
   -

   Antonio Rodà. The Fairness Puzzle: Unplugged Activities for Discovering
   Why Fair AI Is Hard
   -

   Christophe Stammet. Hands-On Methods for Teaching about Generative AI

OTHER EVENTS

On Friday, October 16th, 2026, interested participants of CMSC will be
welcome to join an informal algorithms colloquium focusing on geometric
parameterized complexity, hosted on the same campus. More details will
follow on the website.


If you would like to know more or have questions, you can write to us at
cmsc2026 at dei.unipd.it or visit our website https://cmsc2026.github.io for
more details.

Looking forward to seeing you in Padova!


CMSC 2026 Organizers
Maarten Löffler, Utrecht University (program co-chair)
Alice Raffaele, University of Padova (organizing co-chair)
Francesco Silvestri, University of Padova (organizing and program chair)

Program Committee
Tim Bell, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Sergio Canazza, University of Padua, Italy

Sarah Carruthers, Vancouver Island University, Canada

Valentina Dagiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Henning Fernau, University of Trier, Germany

Bernd Gärtner, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Henry Hickman, University of New South Wales, Australia

Thore Husfeldt, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Jyothi Krishnan, IT Gandhinagar, India

Martina Landman, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Lukas Lehner, TU Wien, Austria

Michael Lodi, University of Bologna, Italy

Zuzana Masárová, ISTA / Grow Trails, Austria

Monica Mattei, International School of Turin, Italy

Valia Mitsou, Université Paris Cité, France

Matthias Mnich, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany

Elena Mumford, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Rüdiger Reischuk, ITCS, Universität zu Lübeck, Germany

Giovanni Righini, University of Milan, Italy

Inge Schwank, University of Cologne, Germany

Jacqueline Staub, University of Trier, Germany

Jay Thakkar, IIT Gandhinagar, India

Josef Tkadlec, Charles University, Czechia

Sebastian Wild, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

Steering Committee
Frances Rosamond, University of Bergen, Norway (Chair)
Małgorzata Bednarska-Bzdęga, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, Poland
Tim Bell, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Sarah Carruthers, Vancouver Island University, Canada
Valentina Dagiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Michael Fellows, University of Bergen, Norway
Valia Mitsou, IRIF, Paris Diderot University, France
Jam Ramanujam, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India
Rüdiger Reischuk, University of Lübeck, Germany
Eljakim Schrijvers, Eljakim IT, Netherlands (International Chair)
Matt Skoss, The Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, Australia
Verena Specht-Ronique, HLTM Marburg, Germany
Brett Stephenson, University of Tasmania, Australia

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Submission Guidelines

Conference Scope

The main topics of the conference include, but are not limited to:

   -

   Teaching Computer Science in early childhood, primary, secondary, and
   higher education
   -

   CS Unplugged
   -

   Computational Thinking / Algorithmic Thinking
   -

   Broadening engagement and diversity for the exact sciences
   -

   Teacher education in Mathematics and Computer Science
   -

   Teaching CS in relation to other subjects
   -

   Linking mathematical and computational content for fundamental
   competency development
   -

   Contests and competitions
   -

   Education for students with special needs
   -

   Education within resource-limited environments
   -

   Education in conflict-affected areas

All contributions (papers and posters) must be submitted through the Microsoft
CMT platform <https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/CMSC2026>, using LNCS
templates. More details will be posted soon. Submissions must be formatted
according to the Springer LNCS style guidelines using LaTeX. The maximum
length of the paper (including references, but excluding the optional
appendix) is 12 pages.
Poster Requirements

To prepare a poster submission (up to 3 pages), authors are also asked to
use the Springer LNCS style
<https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines>
and to use LaTeX <https://www.latex-project.org/>. The purpose of the
poster is to stimulate discussion with conference participants about your
presented activity during the conference. During the poster session, the
poster presenters should be present at their booth to give short
presentations to interested participants.

The final poster of an accepted poster submission should have the following
requirements:

   -

   Size and orientation: A1 portrait (594 × 841 mm)
   -

   Minimum information required: title, author(s), institution(s), contact
   information, problem statement, description of work, gained results, future
   work, and primary references. Please bring a printed poster of the correct
   size to the conference.

Submission Platform

The Microsoft CMT service was used to manage the peer-review process for
this conference. This service was provided free of charge by Microsoft,
which covered all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services, as
well as software development and support.
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