Introduction
The twenty-sixth annual High Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS) Conference will be held May 11-13, 2026, at the Historic Inns of Annapolis in Annapolis, Maryland. We solicit proposals to present talks at the conference.
Background
Our security, safety, privacy, and well-being increasingly depend upon the correctness, reliability, resilience, and integrity of software-intensive systems of all kinds, including cyber-physical systems (CPS). These systems must be capable of interacting correctly, safely, and securely with humans, with diverse other systems, and with the physical world even as they operate in changing, difficult-to-predict, and possibly malicious environments. New foundations in science, technology, and methodologies continue to be needed. Moreover, these methods and tools must be transitioned into mainstream use to build and assure these systems—and to move towards more effective models for acceptance and certification.
Conference Scope, Goals, and Vision
The High Confidence Software and Systems (HCSS) Conference draws together researchers, practitioners, and management leaders from government, universities, non-profits, and industry. The conference provides a forum for dialogue centered upon the development of scientific foundations for the assured engineering of software-intensive complex computing systems and the transition of science into practice. The technical emphasis of the HCSS conference is on mathematically-based tools and techniques, scientific foundations supporting evidence creation, systems assurance, and security. The HCSS vision is one of engaging and growing a community—including researchers and skilled practitioners—that is focused around the creation of dependable systems that are capable, efficient, and responsive; that can work in dangerous or inaccessible environments; that can support large-scale, distributed coordination; that augment human capabilities; that can advance the mission of national security; and that enhance quality of life, safety, and security.
Conference Themes
We invite submissions on any topic related to high-confidence software and systems that aligns with the conference scope and goals listed above. In addition, the 2026 HCSS Conference will highlight the following themes:
THEME 1
TBD
THEME 2
TBD
THEME 3
TBD
THEME 4
TBD
Conference Presentations
The conference program features invited speakers, panel discussions, poster presentations, and a technical track of contributed talks.
Technical Track Presentations
The technical track features two kinds of talks:
Experience reports. These talks inform participants about how emerging HCSS and CPS techniques play out in real-world applications, focusing especially on lessons learned and insights gained. Although experience reports do not have to be highly technical, they should emphasize substantive and comprehensive reflection, building on data and direct experience. Experience reports focus on topics such as transitioning science into practice, architecture and requirements, use of advanced languages and tools, evaluation and assessment, team practice and tooling, supply-chain issues, etc.
Technical talks. These talks highlight state-of-the-art techniques and methods for high-confidence software systems with an emphasis on how those techniques and methods can be used in practice. Presenters of these talks should strive to make their material accessible to the broader HCSS community even as they discuss deep technical results in areas as diverse as concurrency analysis, hybrid reasoning approaches, theorem proving, separation logic, synthesis, analytics, various modeling techniques, etc.
If you are interested in offering a talk—or nominating someone else to be invited to do so—please upload an abstract of one page or less for your proposed talk or a one paragraph description of your nominee’s proposed talk by TBD to https://sos-vo.org/group/hcss_conference/cfp/2026-submit. Abstracts and nomination paragraphs should clearly indicate why the talk would be relevant to HCSS and which, if any, conference themes the talk would address. Notifications of accepted presentations will be made by TBD.
Further instructions for electronically submitting print-ready abstracts and final slide presentations will be provided in the acceptance notification messages. Abstracts of accepted presentations will be published on the HCSS Conference website.
Co-located Meetings
We are pleased to once again welcome the co-location of the Trusted Computing Center of Excellence™ (TCCoE) Summit. The mission of the TCCoE is to lower barriers to adoption and facilitate the principled development and deployment of trustworthy systems. The TCCoE, originally focused on facilitating the adoption of the seL4 kernel in critical defense systems. Recently, the TCCoE has broadened their mission to promote the adoption and deployment of formally verified software (including seL4) in defense applications whose mission requires the highest levels in assurance. The annual TCCoE Summit brings together like-minded individuals from Government, Industry, and Academia to learn of relevant developments, make connections, and work toward the TCCoE’s goals. This year’s summit will leverage synergies with the High Confidence Software and Systems Conference. The overlap between the technologies of interest of these two events and their complementary missions will provide interested attendees a tremendous experience. The TCCoE Summit will be held on May 14-15, 2026.
The Software Certification Consortium (SCC) meeting will again be co-located with HCSS. The meeting will run concurrently to the TCCoE Summit on May 14-15, 2026. The Software Certification Consortium is a group of researchers/practitioners who are interested in the development and certification of high integrity systems. SCC typically meets twice a year, and the themes of the meetings are designed to contribute to a long-term SCC work plan.
Important Dates
CfP Abstracts Due: TBD
Notification of Decisions: TBD
HCSS Conference: May 11-13, 2026
Co-located Meetings
TCCOE Summit: May 14-15, 2026
SCC Meeting: May 14-15, 2026
Planning Committee
Co-Chairs
Mike Dodds, Galois
Sandeep Neema, Vanderbilt University
Steering Group
Perry Alexander, University of Kansas
June Andronick, Proofcraft
Darren Cofer, Collins Aerospace
Kathleen Fisher, RAND
John Hatcliff, Kansas State University
John Launchbury, Galois, Inc.
Patrick Lincoln, DARPA
Stephen Magill, Amazon Web Services
Brad Martin, Galois, Inc.
Lee Pike, Logothetica
Ray Richards, RTX BBN Technologies
Bill Scherlis, Carnegie Mellon University
Eric Smith, Kestrel Institute
Adam W, National Cyber Security Centre
Sean Weaver, DARPA
Matt Wilding, DARPA
Kristin Yvonne Rozier, Iowa State University
Organization
Katie Dey, Vanderbilt University
Sponsor Agency
NITRD HCSS Coordinating Group