Welcome to the 6th Chameleon User Meeting!

WHEN: April 15th to 16th, 2026
WHERE: National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Mesa Lab, Boulder, CO
REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/6th-chameleon-user-meeting-tickets-1982009337282

Join us in Boulder, Colorado for the 6th Chameleon User Meeting from April 15-16th, 2026!

The Chameleon User Meeting is an in-person forum held over two days for users to discuss their research and education projects, share experiences of working with the Chameleon testbed, solve challenges together, and propose new features that will make their experiments and education projects easier. The User Meeting will have features to interest Chameleon newbies as well as veterans, end-users and operators, and researchers and educators. For our sixth meeting, we are grateful to co-host with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at its main campus in Boulder, CO. NCAR recently moved from an associate site to join as an official Chameleon site and partner as part of Chameleon Phase 4.

Please note, as the logistics and agenda for the User Meeting are still in progress, the information below is subject to change.

The 6th Chameleon User Meeting will include two days of programming. This year's meeting focuses on infrastructure, services, and tools for AI and machine learning research. The first day is primarily devoted to keynote speakers and lightening talks from Chameleon users that dive into the particulars and lessons learned from their projects on the testbed. The second day features live tutorials given by Chameleon staff and mini-symposia on special topics, including ones from previous years such as teaching with testbeds, edge computing, and reproducibility.

See our Call for Presentations with specific instructions on how to submit a proposal to present at the meeting. The top ten proposals will receive travel support to the User Meeting. Deadline for submissions is Feb. 16th, 2026.

We will charge a registration fee for general attendance. Take advantage of the early bird pricing once registration is open to get a discount!

Please check back here for more updates as they arrive.

To see our previous user meetings, check out our archive here.

Call for Presentations: Chameleon User Meeting 2026

The Sixth Chameleon User Meeting will be held April 15-16, 2026 at the NCAR Mesa Lab in Boulder, Colorado. This year's meeting's theme focuses on computer science research and education in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). The objective of the meeting is to create a community discussion on AI research, approaches to education, and most importantly what platform you need – or may need in the future – to solve the hard problems and train the workforce of the future. We invite researchers and educators using Chameleon to submit presentation proposals sharing their experiences. Come to network with scientists working on similar topics, share tips on how to muster resources and data for hard-to-get experiments, and find materials and digital artifacts to teach AI classes!

As in previous years, we will reimburse travel expenses of up to $1,500 for the presenting authors of the top 10 selected abstracts (one author per abstract).

Important Dates

Submission deadline: February 16, 2026 at 11:59 PM (any time zone on Earth)
Acceptance notification: February 19, 2026
Submit by sending mail to: presentations@chameleoncloud.org

Submission Instructions

Email your final submissions to presentations@chameleoncloud.org before the deadline.

Presentation proposals should be submitted as PDF documents, 2 pages in length, and include:

Presentation title
Author/Presenter name(s) and affiliation(s)
Chameleon project ID(s) under which work was carried out
Contact email
If your presentation gets accepted, would you be interested in submitting a full paper? (Please put a statement, e.g., "Interested in full paper submission")

We are particularly interested in presentations that address AI and ML research on cloud testbeds. While we expect you to explain enough about your research or education projects to make the platform requirements clear, we also want you to save the important results for sharing at high ranking research conferences – your submissions here should focus on infrastructure requirements (hardware, configuration, etc.), experimental apparatus, challenges, and lessons learned.

Your proposal should address the following:

1. Project Overview. Briefly describe your research project or educational activity. What problem are you addressing? What is your approach?

2. Infrastructure Requirements & Usage. What specific Chameleon capabilities did you leverage? This might include:

Hardware configurations (GPU types, accelerators, bare metal access)
Networking and storage requirements
Software stack control and customization
Reproducibility features
Heterogeneous resources and their management

3. Challenges & Insights. What worked well and what didn't? Where did you encounter bottlenecks or limitations -- whether in hardware availability, configuration complexity, software maturity, or experimental workflow? What was particularly valuable (and we should do more of) and features or capabilities are missing? How did Chameleon's capabilities compare to other public clouds and/or commercial cloud platforms for your specific needs?

4. Services, Tools & Workflow Support. What services or tools (beyond raw infrastructure) were critical to your work? This might include orchestration platforms, experiment management systems, data pipelines, reproducibility frameworks, or user interfaces. Where did existing tooling fall short? What gaps exist between infrastructure capabilities and researcher-friendly workflows?

We especially encourage submissions that:

Provide detailed, specific insights about infrastructure requirements for AI/ML workloads
Discuss challenges unique to AI research and education
Represent diverse AI/ML domains (robustness/safety, sustainability, systems optimization, federated learning, education, etc.)
Offer concrete recommendations for testbed evolution

Review & Selection

Submissions will be reviewed and ranked by a program committee to be announced soon. Selection will be based on the depth of infrastructure insights, relevance to the AI/ML research community, potential to inform testbed development, and contribution to productive discussion.

Travel Support

For the top 10 selected abstracts, we will reimburse travel expenses of up to $1,500 for one presenting author per abstract. Submitting a presentation proposal serves as your travel support application. Reimbursement covers transportation, lodging, and meals for attendance at the User Meeting.

What to Expect After Acceptance

Accepted presenters will be expected to:

Attend the User Meeting in person
Deliver a ~15-minute presentation on the morning or afternoon of April 15th
Participate in a panel discussion following the presentation sessions
Contribute insights to a post-meeting community report documenting infrastructure requirements, challenges, and recommendations for advancing AI research testbeds

This report will be published and shared with the research community to guide future development of Chameleon and similar cyberinfrastructure.

Questions?

We look forward to learning from your experiences and working together to build better infrastructure for AI research!

The program for the 6th Chameleon User Meeting will follow the general schedule below. Information is subject to change. We will fill in more specifics in the near future.

Day 1 (April 15th, 2026)

8 AM: Welcome Reception/Doors Open

9 AM: Opening Keynote

10 AM: Presentation Panel I

11:30 AM: Panel Discussion I

12:00 PM: Break for Lunch

1:00 PM: Afternoon Keynote

2:00 PM: Presentation Panel II

3:30 PM: Panel Discussion II

4:00 PM: Closing Remarks

Day 2 (April 16th, 2026)

8 AM: Doors Open

9 AM: Opening Remarks

9:15 AM: Morning Tutorials & Mini-Symposia

12:00 PM: Break for Lunch

1:00 PM: Afternoon Tutorials & Mini-Symposia

2:30 PM: Closing Remarks

Registration for the 6th Chameleon User Meeting

Register Here on EventBrite

Pricing

We are offering early registration discounts for folks who register by Feb. 28th, 2026. Registration prices increase on Mar. 1st, 2026, so don't wait long to reserve your spot!

Early registration (if you register before Feb. 28th):

Student: $50
Regular: $100

Regular registration (March 1st and on):

Student: $75
Regular: $150

Additional Details

Registration for the event will close on Apr. 2nd, 2026.

Refunds will be issued for cancelled registrations prior to Apr. 2nd, 2026. No refunds are available after Apr. 2nd.

Conference Location

NSF NCAR’s Mesa Lab
1850 Table Mesa Dr
Boulder, CO, 80305

Getting to the Mesa Lab

The Mesa Lab is on the side of a mountain. It is not easily accessible by walking/biking (unless you want to do a workout!). There are no public buses that go to and from the Mesa Lab. If you don’t have a vehicle, you will likely need to arrive via rideshare.

Important Things to Know

This Things to Know About the Mesa Lab webpage has more information about the cafeteria and other important information.

Parking Lot

The parking lot of the Mesa Lab is large and open to the public. It is a slight incline up to the main entrance of the building. It is a 5-10 minute walk into the building.

Getting to Boulder

Denver International Airport (DIA) is 45 miles from NCAR and there are several ways to arrive.

The RTD Denver AB bus (westbound to NCAR) is the least expensive option. It leaves the airport every half hour (see schedule) and stops throughout Boulder.
- RTD’s Trip Planner will also help you plan your travel by bus to destinations throughout the Boulder region (including Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Superior, etc.) and to Denver International Airport.
People also commonly use Lyft and Uber from the airport to Boulder. This can be expensive (around $80 each way). Rideshare is very accessible in Boulder.

Staying in Boulder

We are excited to offer discounted prices at select local hotels for meeting participants. Discounted rooms are available on a “first-come, first-serve” basis. Room availability is limited and reservations must be made by March 25, 2026.

You will receive instructions for making reservations for the discounted room blocks after registering for the event.

Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Boulder (5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder, Colorado 80303)
- Regular price per night (taxes and fees included): $139
- Discounted price per night (taxes and fees included): $125
The Residence Inn Boulder (3030 Center Green Drive, Boulder, CO 80301)
- Regular price per night (taxes and fees included): $143
- Discounted price per night (taxes and fees included): TBD

Getting Around and Enjoying Boulder

Boulder Visitor Information - restaurants, alternative hotel options, & things to do
Shared E-Scooters & E-Bikes
B-Cycle is a non-profit bike-sharing app that you can use to rent bikes from the 41 stations around town.
- Thanks for your interest in riding BCycle! Below are the instructions on how to access your free month BCycle pass during your visit. The steps are:
  - 1) Click here to start the signup process: https://boulder.bcycle.com/UCAR and follow the instructions on this website
  - 2) Download the BCycle App
  - 3) Choose the Monthly Pass and follow the registration steps
  - 4) IMPORTANT! Make sure to deselect the auto-renewal feature to avoid being charged full price upon expiration of your pass
  - 5) Enter the promo code UCAR30 using your email address to register for free
  - 6) Continue the registration process and confirm that your total is $0 before finalizing your new account
Lime has e-scooters for rent in East Boulder and must be ridden on multi-use paths and bike lanes.
HOP is useful for getting around to the city's most popular attractions and arrives every 7-15 minutes.
- More information can be found on the City of Boulder website.
Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks - hiking

The Weather

Coloradans often joke, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 20 minutes.” Conditions change rapidly here, so dressing in layers is essential. While summers are typically hot and dry, afternoon thunderstorms are common. Even on warm days, temperatures drop quickly at night—especially at higher elevations. We also recommend keeping a sweater and rain gear in your pack at all times when hiking.

Boulder is 5,430 feet (1,655 meters) above sea level. At this elevation, it is important to stay hydrated and wear sunscreen and sunglasses. If you are coming from a lower elevation, it is likely that you will notice the effect of the altitude. Some people experience headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, and general fatigue. It is advised to drink plenty of water, especially in the week leading up to arrival.

Dress Code

The dress code at the Mesa Lab is casual.

Please send your questions regarding the Chameleon User Meeting to contact@chameleoncloud.org.