USCMS/IRIS-HEP Analysis Software Training 2026

1 Jun 2026, 08:00 → 2 Jun 2026, 18:00 US/Eastern

John Toll Building (PHY) 2122 (University of Maryland)

Advanced software is a critical ingredient to scientific research. Training young researchers in the latest tools and techniques is an essential part of developing the skills required for a successful career both in research and in industry.

This two day event plans to discuss:

1. Columnar analysis and uproot 

2. Distributed analysis and Dask
3. Data Visualization techniques and libraries
4. Coffea columnar analysis framework
5. The Coffea-Casa analysis facility
6. Statistical tools 

Basic familiarity with basic shell, Python and Git will be assumed. 

Training event materials GitHub repository

Workshop communication will take place on the IRIS-HEP Slack channel #uscms-iris-hep-analysis-software-training-2026

This is an in person event held at University of Maryland just before the USCMS annual collaboration meeting.

Some travel support will be provided to attendees, supported by IRIS-HEP. See the Application Form (link in sidebar) for more information and to apply.

Instructor Team

• Sam Albin, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• Ianna Osborne, Princeton University
• Andres Rios-Tascon, Princeton University
• Lino Gerlach, Princeton University
• Giordon Stark, UC Santa Cruz
• Roger Janusiak, University of Washington

Organizing Committee

• Peter Elmer, Princeton University
• Matthew Feickert, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Local Organizers

• Chris Palmer, University of Maryland

 

All sessions will be held in Toll 2122. 

This event is sponsored by the National Science Foundation through Cooperative Agreement PHY-2323298 (Institute for Research and Innovation in Software (IRIS-HEP)) with support from the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering (PICSciE) and the Princeton University Physics Department. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the developers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Monday 1 June

09:00 → 10:30 Lectures: Lectures (Block 1)

09:00 Welcome / Introduction

uscms_iris-hep_training_event_2026-06-01.pdf

09:15 Coffea-Casa and Compute Infrastructure

Speakers: Andres Rios-Tascon (Princeton University), Samuel Albin (University of Nebraska Lincoln (US))

CMS Coffea-casa instance

Coffea-Casa_Analysis_Facility_Introduction_2026_Training.pdf

Coffea-casa intro

GitHub

Open Data Coffea-casa instance

09:45 Columnar analysis and Awkward Array (1)

Speaker: Ianna Osborne (Princeton University)

GitHub

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee

11:00 → 12:10 Lectures: Lectures (Block 2)

11:00 Columnar analysis and Awkward Array (2)

Speaker: Ianna Osborne (Princeton University)

GitHub

11:45 Distributed Analysis and Dask

Speaker: Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))

GitHub

12:10 → 13:15 Lunch

13:10 → 16:00 Lectures: Lecture (Block 3)

13:15 Distributed Analysis and Dask (2)

Speaker: Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))

GitHub

14:00 Data Visualization techniques and libraries

Speaker: Roger Janusiak (University of Washington)

GitHub

14:45 Coffea columnar analysis framework

Speakers: Andres Rios-Tascon (Princeton University), Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))

GitHub

16:00 → 16:30 Coffee

16:30 → 17:30 Interactive

16:30 Sample game introduction

Speaker: Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))

Sample game submission form

17:00 Q&A for day 1

Speakers: Andres Rios-Tascon (Princeton University), Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US)), Ianna Osborne (Princeton University), Lino Oscar Gerlach (Princeton University (US)), Roger Janusiak (University of Washington)

17:30 → 17:50 Group Photo

19:00 → 21:00 Dinner at Ledo Pizza

Group dinner at Ledo Pizza

Ledo Pizza, 4509 Knox Rd, College Park, MD 20740

Tuesday 2 June

09:00 → 10:30 Lectures: Statistical tools

09:00 Statistics concepts overview

Speaker: Lino Oscar Gerlach (Princeton University (US))

Nick Smith 2025 slides

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee

11:00 → 12:30 Lectures: Analysis Grand Challenge

11:00 AGC: coffea with virtual arrays + Combine

Speakers: Andres Rios-Tascon (Princeton University), Lino Oscar Gerlach (Princeton University (US))

GitHub

Scaling Instructions

12:30 → 13:00 Lectures: ServiceX for CMS

Convener: Roger Janusiak (University of Washington)

12:30 ServiceX for CMS

Speaker: Roger Janusiak (University of Washington)

ServiceX 15 Minute Challenge

ServiceX For CMS.pdf

ServiceX For CMS.pptx

ServiceX User Guide

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 14:30 Interactive: Interactive (Block 2)

14:00 Training Session Survey

Complete feedback survey

Training Feedback Survey

14:30 → 16:00 Interactive: Interactive (Session 3)

14:30 Bring your questions, topics raised during day 1

correctionlib, coffea schemas, array building, ...

Speakers: Andres Rios-Tascon (Princeton University), Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US)), Ianna Osborne (Princeton University), Lino Oscar Gerlach (Princeton University (US)), Roger Janusiak (University of Washington)

15:00 Sample game summary

Submissions for the "sample game" challenge will be open until 14:00. Teams with correct solutions will be asked to present their solutions in the form of a Jupyter notebook to highlight the various approaches teams found. Teams should additionally submit their notebook ("as is" is encouraged — no need to clean it up) by Slack DM to Matthew Feickert.

• Present correct student solutions to sample game
• Present instructor solution

Speaker: Dr Giordon Holtsberg Stark (University of California,Santa Cruz (US))