Developer SummitJuly 28–31 · Berkeley

Program

A preliminary day-by-day schedule is below. Details may evolve — including during the week itself in response to your stand-up feedback — but the start and end times and dates are locked in, so you can plan your trip accordingly. All times are Pacific Time (PT).

The week follows a simple rhythm. Tuesday is for converging: pitching projects, forming teams, setting direction. Wednesday and Thursday are the build cycle: starting with design discussions, dedicated coding/work time, unconference-style brainstorming sessions, and a daily stand-up to close. Fridayis the final push — and demos.

The week has one overarching goal: to strengthen the open-source ecosystem around agentic AI for science — aligning on standards, interfaces, and roadmaps. The scope is the entire chain by which scientific knowledge is produced (from connecting to previous literature, to running complex scientific workflows with agents, to publishing trustworthy, reusable, and extendable results).

A note on expectations: the emphasis all week is on collaboration and exchanging ideas, not polished deliverables, and there are no prizes and no judging. Friday’s demos celebrate whatever exists by then — a working prototype, a design doc, a failed experiment with lessons, a first merged PR — and we favor showing the thing running over polished slides.

The week at a glance

Tue 28Converge
Wed 29Build
Thu 30Build
Fri 31Ship
9:00
Welcome & intros
Design discussion
Design discussion
Final push
11:00
Brainstorming
Coding
Coding
Demos & closing
1:30
Pitches & teams
Unconference
Unconference
Departure
3:00
Coding
Coding
Coding
5:00
Stand-up
Stand-up
Stand-up
Evening
Summit dinner

Simplified view — coffee breaks and lunches omitted. The full schedule is below.

How the summit works

Most of the schedule is made of five recurring session types. Here’s how each one actually works, and what — if anything — to prepare.

  • Project pitches

    Tuesday, 1:30
    If you arrive with something you want to build, you’ll get two minutes and the room’s attention — no slides needed beyond your intro slide. A good pitch is simple: what it is, why it matters, and what help you need. Not sure how to frame yours? Grab one of the organizers over breakfast and we’ll help you shape it. Others join the projects that grab them — this is where teams form. Don’t have a project? Perfect: your job is to shop around and join one.

  • Design discussions

    Wed & Thu mornings
    Facilitated whole-group sessions on the questions that need everyone in one room — iterating on shared specs like ASTRA ahead of its stable v1, defining APIs and shared infrastructure, mapping what the ecosystem is missing. Come opinionated; the point is to stress-test ideas against your real workflows.

  • Unconference sessions

    Wed & Thu, 1:30
    Nothing is pre-programmed here — you make the agenda. Write a topic on a card, pitch it in one sentence, put it on the session wall, and the room votes with sticky dots. The two or three topics with the most votes run in parallel corners of the room, and you’re free to move between them at any time: if you’re neither learning nor contributing where you are, walk to where you will be. Unconference veterans call this the law of two feet. First time at an unconference? You’ll have the hang of it in ten minutes.

  • Coding blocks

    Every day
    Heads-down time with your project team, with experienced folks from the Lightcone team and beyond on hand to pair with you. Bring your laptop — Claude Code tokens are on us.

  • Daily stand-up

    Every day, 5:00
    We close each day with a quick round: what you got done, what you’re doing next, what’s blocking you — a sentence or two each. It keeps thirty people loosely aware of everything happening in the room, which is where the best cross-pollination comes from. It’s also where we ask for one thing to keep and one thing to change, and retune the next day’s program accordingly.

Come prepared (lightly)

  • Fill in your intro slide. The template is in your welcome email — five minutes is plenty, and half-formed interests are fine.
  • Bring a laptop — and, if you have them, a project idea and an unconference topic. Rough sketches are all you need; Tuesday exists to finish forming them.

Day by day

Tuesday, July 28

Converge
  1. 9:00 – 9:10
    Welcome

    Welcome to the Agentic AI for Science Developer Summit!

  2. 9:10 – 9:40
    Opening Address — Fernando Pérez

    Fernando Pérez — Faculty Director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, Associate Professor of Statistics at UC Berkeley.

  3. 9:40 – 10:00
    Introduction to the Workshop

    Get oriented on the week ahead — the goals, the rhythm of the days, and how each session format works.

  4. 10:00 – 10:30
    Participant Introductions

    Introduce yourself in a single slide — your interests, your skills, and a tease of what you'd like to work on.

  5. 10:30 – 11:00
    Coffee Break
  6. 11:00 – 12:00
    Brainstorming Session

    A first round of open discussion in small groups: scope out what we should tackle during the week and refine project ideas into something pitchable.

  7. 12:00 – 1:30
    Lunch
  8. 1:30 – 3:00
    Reports, Project Pitches & Team Formation

    Each group reports back from the morning's discussions, followed by project pitches — two minutes and the room's attention to recruit collaborators — and team formation. No project of your own? Perfect — shop around and join one.

  9. 3:00 – 5:00
    Coding / Development Block

    Get building with your new team: set up repos and environments, and write the first lines of code — with experts on hand to pair with you.

  10. 5:00 – 5:30
    Daily Stand-up

    A quick round to close the day: what you got done, what's next, what's blocking you — plus one thing we should keep and one we should change, so we can retune tomorrow.

  11. 5:30 onwards
    Social / Networking (Optional)

Wednesday, July 29

Build
  1. 9:00 – 10:30
    Design Discussion

    Dig into core design questions together — iterating on shared specs like ASTRA, defining APIs and shared infrastructure, scoping out new initiatives.

  2. 10:30 – 11:00
    Coffee Break
  3. 11:00 – 12:30
    Coding / Development Block

    Heads-down time to implement and experiment on whatever you're building.

  4. 12:30 – 1:30
    Lunch
  5. 1:30 – 3:00
    Unconference / Discussion Slot

    Bring your own topics — an open slot for sessions you propose, technical Q&A, and meeting collaborators.

  6. 3:00 – 5:00
    Coding / Development Block

    Keep building, with experts on hand to pair with you.

  7. 5:00 – 5:30
    Daily Stand-up

    A quick round to close the day: what you got done, what's next, what's blocking you — plus one thing we should keep and one we should change, so we can retune tomorrow.

  8. 6:00 onwards
    Summit Dinner

Thursday, July 30

Build
  1. 9:00 – 10:30
    Design Discussion

    Dig into core design questions together — iterating on shared specs like ASTRA, defining APIs and shared infrastructure, scoping out new initiatives.

  2. 10:30 – 11:00
    Coffee Break
  3. 11:00 – 12:30
    Coding / Development Block

    Heads-down time to implement and experiment on whatever you're building.

  4. 12:30 – 1:30
    Lunch
  5. 1:30 – 3:00
    Unconference / Discussion Slot

    Bring your own topics — an open slot for sessions you propose, technical Q&A, and meeting collaborators.

  6. 3:00 – 5:00
    Coding / Development Block

    Keep building, with experts on hand to pair with you.

  7. 5:00 – 5:30
    Daily Stand-up

    A quick round to close the day: what you got done, what's next, what's blocking you — plus one thing we should keep and one we should change, so we can retune tomorrow.

  8. 5:30 onwards
    Social / Networking (Optional)

Friday, July 31

Ship · Early Finish
  1. 9:00 – 11:00
    Coding / Development Block

    Your final push — wrap up your tasks, squash bugs, and land your first contributions.

  2. 11:00 – 12:30
    Demos & Closing

    Show what you built — live and running, however rough. We close by mapping where each project lives and how the work continues after this week.

  3. 12:30
    Lunch & Departure

    Grab lunch before you head out — the official close of the summit.