We are excited to announce the fourth WATCHEP training cohort, for the period 2026-2027. A total of eight students were selected in a competitive process that took into account their proposed research, community engagement, initiative, and leadership. New funding from DOE OHEP allowed us to introduce a fourth focus area–Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning–to join the existing areas of Hardware-Software Co-Design, Collaborative Software Infrastructure, and High-Performance Software and Algorithms. Read more about this year’s cohort in the “Trainees” tab in the top menu.

  • Jose Esparza (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Liam Foster (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Yoshinobu Fujikake (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  • Srikar Gadamsetty (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Joshua Ho (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Qi Bin Lei (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  • Jake Rudolph (University of California, Irvine)
  • Ellison Scheuller (University of California, San Diego)

WATCHEP is a training program with the goal of developing a workforce of experts in computational high-energy physics. Graduate student trainees from the partner universities will complete a tailored instructional curriculum and a supervised research project in a relevant topical area. Trainees are provided financial support during their training period in the program.

This cohort is divided into four major focus areas: collaborative software infrastructure, hardware-software co-design, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence / machine learning. They will work with university and laboratory mentors on computational research projects and follow advanced online training modules. The cohort will also participate in a series of hands-on summer training sessions during their two-year term.