3:18 p.m.
Dear all,
In our last newsletter, we mentioned that we are organizing a workshop on a concrete way
to teach students to program their own LLM (from scratch) in Python. We surveyed you about
your potential interest and availability. Thanks to everyone who responded and commented!
Now we’re ready for you to register!
**Abstract**: Many students are constantly using ChatGPT & Co. – but do they know how
those “magical” products actually work? We built a short sequence of surprisingly simple
activities you could adopt in your classroom to provide your students with a basic
understanding of how a Little Language Model (LLM, ha!) works.
The activities accomplish two goals at once: students get to learn about LLMs, and they
get a little bit more programming practice in doing so. The activities don’t require
anything but some basic programming in Python, so they’re suitable for the mandatory
informatics course. No complex libraries, no neural networks, and yet we experience
fundamental ideas such as generative textual models, training & inference, model
parameters, bias, ethical and copyright issues with training data, and much more.
**Date and Place**: May 30, 2026 @ USI, East Campus, Lugano.
**Open to**: Informatics teachers at high schools in Switzerland. You’re welcome to
forward this invite to your colleagues!
(Important note only for teachers in Ticino: una versione in italiano di questo workshop
vi verrà offerta come parte della formazione obbligatoria già pianificata. Vi chiediamo di
NON registrarvi tramite il link contenuto in questa newsletter. Riceverete una
comunicazione separata dedicata a voi.)
**Cost**: Entirely free for registered participants. Included in the registration are also
coffee breaks, lunch, and a 75 CHF voucher for SBB-CFF-FFS to help cover travel costs.
**Language**: Primarily in English, with the possibility of asking questions also in
German.
**Event Schedule**: Check the registration site for the complete program of the workshop
day.
**Certificate of Attendance**: We’re happy to provide you with a certificate of
attendance, should you need it.
**Mandatory Registration**: Register online by April 30, 2026 at
https://usi.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0cao1H4mBKiL45E
Looking forward to seeing many of you in Lugano!
Matthias and the LuCE team
PS: You can find this and the previous message in our mailing list archive:
https://lists.usi.ch/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/luce-news@lists.usi.ch/
If you would like to unsubscribe from our list, or if you would like to update your email
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