On June 25th, Dr. James C Davis of Purdue University delivered an engaging academic talk to CREATE students on "Reusing Pre-Trained Neural Networks: A Software Engineering Perspective".

The 5th annual CREATE SE4AI Retreat was held on Saturday, July 4, 2026, at the Concordia University Conference Centre, bringing together software engineering graduate students from Concordia University, Polytechnique Montréal, and Queen's University for a full day of learning, collaboration, and networking.

The retreat began with a keynote presentation by Prof. Benoit Baudry on Dependency Hell Redux, followed by program updates from the CREATE SE4AI leadership team. Participants then took part in the CREATE-a-Thon, a hackathon-style activity where student teams developed proof-of-concept solutions to real community challenges using agentic AI. The event showcased the creativity and technical skills of the participating teams, with solutions addressing topics such as food waste reduction and care coordination for seniors.

The day also included opportunities to connect with fellow trainees and invited guests from industry and academia.