WG211/M26Schedule

IFIP Working Group 2.11, Twenty-sixth Meeting

October 13-16, 2026, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada

The meeting will be held on the (outskirts of) Niagara-on-the-Lake, in the middle of the Niagara region wine country, hosted by Jacques Carette. The meeting is planned for 3.5 days, with a half day on October 16.

Venue

The meeting will actually be held at a hotel (wineries were too expensive), the Hilton Garden Inn. Be warned: the hotel itself is "in the middle of nowhere" (even though there are actually 3 hotels at that spot).

Note that breakfast is included at the meeting itself.

Group dinners

Dinners will be arranged at winery-restaurants. We will need to carpool (or hire a couple of taxis), as there is nothing within easy walking distance of the hotel.

• Tuesday 13th: Trius Winery
• Wednesday 14th: Peller Estates Winery
• Thursday 15th: Skylon Tower Revolving Restaurant (as part of the excursion); this is all about the view...

Trius is not particularly far, but unfortunately the road there is a country road with no lighting and no sidewalk.

Group excursion

Pick up at 2:30pm. We'll see some nice spots along the way, have a Maple syrup and chocolate tasting, a boat ride to the Falls, a bit of free time around Clifton Hill (the kitchy-touristy part of Niagara Falls), a guided tour of the Falls including 'Journey behind the Falls', dinner at 8:00 at Skylon Tower, with a 10pm departure back to the hotel.

Registration fee

Registration fee is can$1035. Details of how to pay were emailed out.

Members attending

Please add your name to the following list (alphabetical by last name, please) if you are planning to attend the meeting.

• Jacques Carette
• Atsushi Igarashi
• Ohad Kammar
• Julia Lawall
• Sven-Bodo Scholz
• Satnam Singh
• Friedrich Steimann
• Jeremy Yallop

Guests and Observers

• Michael Adams
• Shraddha Barke
• Andras Kovacs
• Amir Shaikhha
• Guannan Wei
• Ningning Xie
• Jason Ballaci (local observer)
• Reed Mullanix (local observer)
• Matthew Toohey (local observer)
• Oghenevwogaga Ebresafe (local observer)
• Harrison Goldstein (local observer)

Talks

The following people have confirmed they will giving a talk:

• Sven-Bodo Scholz TBD
• Friedrich Steimann "Types and modularity for implicit invocation with implicit announcement"
• Ohad Kammar Modular construction of sound-and-complete simplifiers for varieties of semi-rings
• Julia Lawall: AI discussion
• Michael Adams "Fixen: A Fixed-Point Algorithm Generator"
• Chung-chieh Shan Formalizing einsum with named tensor notation
• Harrison Goldstein "New Foundations for Property-Based Testing"
• Satnam Singh "Hardware Verification with an AI Theorem Prover"
• András Kovács Thinning-stable metaprogramming
• Jeremy Yallop "Staging with equality"
• Jason Balaci TBD
• Reed Mullanix Panbench: comparative benchmarking of proof assistants through parameterised program generation
• Atsushi Igarashi "Compile-Time Tensor Shape Checking via Staged Shape-Dependent Types"
• Ningning Xie (with Oghenevwogaga Ebresafe) "A Verified Compiler for Effect Handlers"
• Matthew Toohey "A Lean-Based Programming Language Specification Tool” (if time permits)
• Shraddha Barke "Mining Symbolic Constraints for Tool-calling Agents" (14th or after?)
• Amir Shaikhha "Einstein Meets Codd: Tensor Algebra through the Lens of Relational Algebra"
• Guannan Wei "When Do Staging Annotations Preserve Semantics?" (14th or after?)

Travel

For international travel, Toronto International (YYZ) is going to be simplest, but is still quite far away. But there's a trick! Instead book to YCM (Niagara District Airport). Then your 'flight' will include a direct bus from YYZ to YCM, and YCM is very close to the hotel (still need a taxi to get there.) Or book a Niagara Airbus shuttle (see below).

If you have already booked to YYZ, you can add a landline trip from YYZ.

For people who are closer, Toronto Island (YTZ), Hamilton (YHM) and Buffalo (BUF) are all possibilities.

Getting to the Hotel

• YCM: recommended. Easy taxi. You can now book YYZ <-> YCM with landline

• Also recommended: use https://www.niagaraairbus.com/ from any of YYZ, BUF, Niagara Falls NY airport, YHM and many other points.

• The hotel recommends CTG Canada - info@ctgcanada.ca - +1-877-967-0888. They offer service to/from Buffalo and Toronto. Another option would be Limos Niagara - info@limosniagara.com - +1-905-680-0606, though may not offer service from Buffalo. I have no personal experience with either.

• YYZ:

1. by car, this is an easy 1h15 drive.
2. by bus (not recommended, it is much longer, but if you insist): a) Take a https://flixbus.ca to St Catharines or Niagara and then a local bus (or taxi) to the hotel. St Catherines is closer. The flixbus is direct, so decently fast. b) you can take two GO buses to Niagara College which is 'across the street' (erm, major highay); a cab/Uber from there is simplest, but it is just over 1km, so walkable. There are other options too (a variety of trains + buses) but all take roughly 3 hours to get you there. Google maps can inform you.

Visa Information

Apparently most visitors to Canada now need an "electronic travel authorization (eTA)", which costs $7 and can take several days to get. So plan to apply ahead!

Accommodation

There is a block of 20 rooms reserved for us at the Hilton Garden Inn, available via this deep link to Hilton's web site. If you prefer, you can also call the hotel direct and reference "IFIP Working Group 2.11 -- McMaster -- SRP 913". They are holding this for us until Saturday September 12, 2026, after which you can only get the normal rates.

There are two other hotels right next door. If you want an airbnb or similar, you will have to rent a car (or a bike) as there is nothing within easy walking distance. I've stayed in one in the town of Virgil myself, and quite enjoyed it. (I'll be at the hotel.)

Note that breakfast will be provided in the meeting room, so there is no need to arrange for that separately.

Weather

Early October in Southern Ontario has very unpredictable weather. It could be "warm fall", (22C) or cold (6C) and rainy. And that can change on a day-by-day basis. I have never seen it snow that early.

Arrivals and departures of attendees

Bodo: I will arrive on Oct 13th, around 4pm; most likely by rental car from YYZ.

Friedrich: I am scheduled to arrive on Oct 12th (Mon) at 12:50 pm (AC 0841). Happy to share a ride, possibly public transport? (The trick will not work for me, because of deaparture times.) I wil leave on Friday, 18:20 (AC 9104)