2026 Workshop for Novel Computing at Los Alamos

As the slowing of conventional CMOS scaling coincides with the growing computational demands of modern technologies, the computing community has shown increasing interest in unconventional architectures that offer new pathways toward energy efficiency, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence. Neuromorphic and low-power device implementations represent a particularly compelling direction; however, translating these concepts into practical solutions requires close multidisciplinary collaboration across materials discovery, device physics, electrical engineering, and computer science. This workshop brings together researchers from these communities to collectively advance next-generation computing by fostering dialogue between experimentalists and theorists, as well as between hardware and software developers. Through a structured interdisciplinary exchange, the workshop aims to highlight shared challenges, emerging opportunities, and potential avenues for breakthrough collaboration.

The workshop will focus primarily on algorithms, materials, and devices relevant to unconventional computing platforms, with the goal of catalyzing new collaborations and research directions through innovative presentations and diverse perspectives from the audience. Topics of interest include memristive and ferroelectric devices, magnetic and photonic platforms, novel architectures for neuromorphic and low-power electronics, and algorithmic frameworks that leverage device physics for efficient learning, inference, and adaptive computation. These areas span multiple length and abstraction scales, linking fundamental materials science and condensed matter physics to electrical engineering and computer science, and encompassing systems ranging from individual devices to complex networks. By bridging these paradigms and perspectives, the workshop seeks to assess the current state of the art in unconventional computing and to identify cross-disciplinary strategies that can inspire future research efforts.

Organizers:

Aiping Chen

Frank Barrows

Christopher Broyles

Judith Driscoll