ACCESS-2026 applications now open

March 30, 2026

We’re excited to announce the 2026 edition of ACCESS (Aarhus Computational Entomology Summer School)

ACCESS 2026 information

Dates: September 14th – 18th, 2026
Location: Kaløvigcenter, Aarhus, Denmark
- Setting: Situated on the bay of Kalø Vig, where steep coastal slopes meet forest. Originally a seaside hotel, now a carbon-neutral conference center.
- Amenities: Large garden, fireplace, petanque court, apple grove, homemade meals with local produce.
- Accessibility: Reachable via Bus Line 123 from Aarhus, followed by a short taxi ride or ~20-minute walk.
Capacity: 15–20 fully funded participants (plus a limited number of self-funded slots).
Application Deadline: April 30th, 2026.

Fully Funded: Tuition, accommodation, food, and travel refunds for selected candidates.
Curriculum: Guest lectures, practical workshops, and daily group project work.
Project Structure: Teams (2–4 students) respond to a “mock funding call” to write a collaborative research proposal.
Preparation: ~30 hours of remote work over two months prior to the event (online meetings, literature review, coding prep).

Structure: The course utilizes a hybrid model of Case-Based Learning (expert lectures) and Project-Based Learning.

Pre-Course: Strategic team pairing and 30 hours of remote preparation.
In-Person: 5 days of intensive work involving keynote speeches, peer feedback sessions, poster presentations, and iterative project development.
Field Work: Hardware demonstrations under field conditions.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Plan and communicate projects using automated monitoring for entomological questions.
Select appropriate monitoring methods based on strengths, weaknesses, and data needs.
Design data acquisition programs using autonomous sensors (cameras) with attention to hardware and deployment.
Generate labeled datasets via strategic manual annotation.
Manage data according to metadata standards.
Train models to detect, classify, or characterize insects in images.

Deploy open-source models while accounting for domain shifts and uncertainty

ACCESS is a WG2 activity, with collaboration across WG3 and WG4 for content creation and mentorship.

Co-Organizers: Luca Pegoraro, Jamie Alison, and Quentin Geissmann (supported by Quentin’s team).

ACCESS has successfully run two editions (ACCESS-2024, ACCESS-2025).

Impact: Attracted 70–100 applications annually, selecting only 20 participants per year due to high demand.
Feedback: The course has received overwhelmingly positive evaluations from students and mentors.