PICUP 2026 Pacific Northwest Regional Workshop
Date: Friday, June 12, 2026
Registration is now open below! Early-Bird deadline for registration is June 5th.
Registration: $15 until June 5th which includes lunch! $20 after June 5th.
Location: Portland, Oregon
- Willamette University Graduate & Professional Center
- Address: 721 NW 9th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
- Coordinates: 45° 31' 42.031" N, 122° 40' 49.680" W
The Unipiper does not have a well-defined position until you measure it.
Image credit: The Unipiper/imnlen
Who Should Attend
Are you interested in small-batch simulations, artisanal algorithms, and locally-sourced Lagrangians? Do you want to teach your students about free-range Fast Fourier Transforms and ethically-sourced eigenvalue problems but don’t know where to start?
The inaugural Pacific Northwest Distributed Institute for Computational Education in Physics (DICE) welcomes physics educators from across the Pacific Northwest, including those at the high school, two-year college, and four-year college or university levels, who are ready to add a little computational flair to their courses—no prior experience with pour-over Python or hand-crafted Hamiltonians required.
The workshop will feature demonstrations and discussions on strategies for integrating computational activities into physics courses at all levels, from introductory through advanced, along with plenty of time to roll up your sleeves and try things out. Participants will explore proven exercises from PICUP’s repository or develop new ones of their own, all in a relaxed, collaborative setting. There will also be ample opportunity to connect with fellow educators, swap ideas, and build a community dedicated to making physics curricula more modern, more computational, and just a bit more delightfully weird.
Registration
|
Early Bird |
Standard |
|---|---|
| $15 | $20 |
Lunch Friday afternoon is included!
Getting There
Willamette’s Graduate & Professional Center is located in the Pearl District of downtown Portland, just steps from local landmarks such as Powell's City of Books, the original Voodoo Donuts, the Lan Su Chinese Garden, and the new Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts. The site is easily accessible from Portland International Airport via the MAX Red Line and is only a few blocks from Portland Union Station, which serves Amtrak’s Cascades line as well as Portland’s Greyhound station. For those driving, Willamette’s Pacific Northwest College of Art, which is two blocks away, has one-day passes to their parking lot for $12. Additional parking is available in nearby parking garages for ∼$20.
Accommodations
Willamette University has a group rate at The Canopy by Hilton, which is two blocks from the Graduate & Professional Center. Single occupancy rooms start at $154 per night. Other hotels within walking distance include the Harlow Hotel & Coffee Bar, the Cambria Hotel Portland - Pearl District, and the Hampton Inn & Suites Portland - Pearl District. If you are planning on booking a room at The Canopy, please contact Daniel Borrero at dborrero@willamette.edu for the group rate coupon code.
Workshop Schedule
Thursday, June 11th
1:30–2:30: Tour of Intel Ronler Acres campus – Visit one of the fabs where the hardware that you run your computations on is made! (This event is still subject to confirmation by Intel)
3:00–4:30: Tour of Vernier Science Education HQ – Meet with the engineers behind all your favorite lab equipment and learn about what is coming down the pipe!
5:00–7:00: Free Play Party! at Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade ($12 cover)
Friday, June 12th
8:30–9:15: Check-In and Continental Breakfast/Social Time
9:15–9:30: Introductions and Opening Remarks
9:30–10:30: Introduction to PICUP Exercise Sets/Faculty Commons (w/ time to test a computational activity from the repository yourself!)
10:30–10:35: Mini-break
10:35–11:35: Gallery of Participant Computational Activities
11:35–11:45: Mini-break
11:40–12:00 Speaker - Danny Caballero, “Designing a Physics Course with Computation as a Core Component – A case study from Michigan State University”
12:00–12:20: Speaker – Todd Zimmerman, “Making Computation a Thread, Not a Module: Integrating Computation Across the 4-year Physics Program at the University of Wisconsin–Stout”
12:20–1:30: Lunch and Group Photo
1:30–2:30: Hands-on Workshop, “Practical Applications of AI in Physics Teaching”
2:30–2:35: Mini-break
2:35–4:05: Hands-on Workshop, “Python in the Physics Lab”
4:05–4:45: Group Discussion
4:45–5:00: Closing Remarks
5:00–6:30: Dinner and Social Time at the food carts at Midtown Beer Garden (not included with registration)
Questions/Need Help?
If you have any questions, or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact one of the workshop coordinators:
-
- Daniel Borrero, Physics, Willamette University, dborrero@willamette.edu
- Danny Caballero, Department of Physics, Michigan State University, caballero@pa.msu.edu
- Todd Zimmerman, Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Wisconsin-Stout, zimmermant@uwstout.edu
