Focus Period Lund 2026

Focus Period LUND 2026

Optimization for Learning

April 20 – May 22, 2026

Optimization in deep learning is notoriously challenging: problems are high-dimensional, non-smooth, and non-convex. Yet, in practice, simple first-order methods often suffice to fit training data and, when tuned and regularized appropriately, to generalize well. This phenomenon remains only partially understood and is an active area of research. At the same time, modern models—especially large language models—are trained on massive datasets and parameter counts, making training energy- and compute-intensive. Every gain in optimization efficiency (better convergence per step, improved conditioning, lower-precision arithmetic, smarter data sampling, communication-efficient distributed methods, etc) translates directly into reductions in time, cost, and environmental impact.

In this focus period and symposium, we bring together leading experts in optimization for learning to share insights on theory, algorithms, and practice. The five-week focus period will take place at Lund University from April 20 to May 22, 2026, with a three-day symposium in the third week (May 6–8) featuring about 20 distinguished invited speakers. The focus period is organized into two three-week periods that overlap during the symposium week; each period will host up to ten invited early-career scholars.

Scientific committee

The scientific committee consists of internationally renowned researchers, active within the topic of the focus period. The committee members, in collaboration with the organizers, suggest speakers for the symposium, and visiting scholars for the focus periods. The majority of the members of the scientific committee also contribute to the event as speakers during the symposium.

Jeremy Bernstein

Postdoctoral Researcher, MIT, USA

Jelena Diakonikolas

Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Niao He

Associate Professor, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Peter Richtarik

Professor, KAUST, Saudi Arabia

Alp Yurtsever

Assistant Professor, Umeå University, Sweden

Organizing committee

The organizing committee consists of researchers and administrators from the ELLIIT institutions. Their role is to appoint the scientific committee, select speakers and visiting scholars, plan the focus period activities, and serve as hosts during the event.