Daniel Russo, Ph.D.

Copenhagen Symposium

Human-Centred AI in Software Engineering.

An annual, invitation-only gathering that brings together leading researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to shape how AI is adopted in software engineering, always with a strong human-centred focus.

Annual · Invitation-only · Alfred P. Sloan & Carlsberg Foundations · Copenhagen

Unlike a conventional conference, the symposium is a working forum built on Liberating Structures: facilitation methods designed so that every voice is heard and every participant contributes. Through structured, interactive sessions, participants collaborate in small groups, rotate across discussions, and co-create insights that become concrete actions.

Dedicated workstreams each address a specific challenge in human-centred AI adoption, and continue beyond the event, maintaining momentum and collaboration across the year.

Key themes
01

Key themes

From coding to collaborating with AI

The shift from traditional coding towards managing AI tools, and emerging roles such as AI Contingency Analysts and AI Capability Conductors.

02

Ethics & accountability

Transparency, accountability, and bias recognition in AI systems, with ethical standards that keep human responsibility central.

03

Teams & collaboration

How AI changes team structures, workflows, and collaboration patterns, and the rise of prompt engineering as a new collaborative skill.

04

Adoption & literacy

Extending AI literacy to diverse stakeholders, standardising terminology, and opportunities for small firms to adopt responsibly.

The Copenhagen Manifesto

Responsibility · Transparency · Inclusivity · Sustainability

Read the Manifesto
Outcomes

The symposium turns discussion into shared assets: papers, standards, collaborations, and field-building. The items below were reported by participants as directly sparked, enabled, or substantially advanced by our gatherings.

Active workstreams

  • LLM Guidelines for Software EngineeringGuidelines, and a tool that checks against them, for the rigorous use of large language models in empirical software engineering research.
  • Agentic Execution of Research PapersAgentic tools that execute, compare, and validate studies, moving research beyond the static PDF toward “executable science.”
  • Collective versus Individual AI AdoptionHow AI adoption unfolds across organisation, community, team, and individual, and the hidden costs of purely individual use.
  • Business Value of AI4SEHow firms actually create value with AI in software engineering, and how that differs from what they expect to achieve.
  • Transformative Career PathwaysHow organisations should support engineers’ growth, emerging roles, and evolving skills as AI reshapes the profession.
  • When AI Disrupts Who DecidesWhere human judgement remains essential, and how to design decision-making in human-AI collaboration.
  • AI and Cognitive DebtWhether AI-assisted work accumulates cognitive debt that erodes skills and sustainability, and how to measure and mitigate it.

Peer-reviewed publications and articles

  • The Impact of Generative AI on Creativity in Software Development: A Research AgendaV. Jackson, B. Vasilescu, D. Russo, P. Ralph, R. Prikladnicki, M. Izadi, S. D’Angelo, S. Inman, A. Andrade, A. van der Hoek. ACM TOSEM, 2025. DOI
  • Seamful AI for Creative Software Engineering: Use in Software Development WorkflowsS. Inman, A. Murillo, S. D’Angelo, A. Brown, C. Green. IEEE Software, 2025. Link
  • Designing AI Settings to Increase User ControlS. Inman and collaborators. IEEE Software, 2025. Link
  • Exploring GenAI in Software Development: Insights from a Case Study in a Large Brazilian CompanyG. Pereira, V. Jackson, R. Prikladnicki, A. van der Hoek, L. Fortes, C. Araújo, A. Coelho, L. Chelli, D. Ramos. ICSE SEIP, 2025. Link
  • Get on the Train or Be Left at the Station: Using LLMs for Software Engineering ResearchB. Trinkenreich, F. Calefato, G. Hanssen, K. Blincoe, M. Kalinowski, M. Pezzè, P. Tell, M.-A. Storey. FSE Companion (HUMANISE), 2025. DOI
  • Guidelines for Empirical Studies in Software Engineering Involving Large Language ModelsS. Baltes et al. arXiv preprint, 2025; presented at AIware 2025 (arXiv track). Website · Preprint
  • Creativity, Generative AI, and Software DevelopmentV. Jackson et al. Software Engineering in 2030 Workshop, FSE Brazil, 2024.
  • Reflections on the Reproducibility of Commercial LLM Performance in Empirical Software Engineering StudiesF. Angermeir et al. ICSE 2026. Accepted; link to be added when available.
  • An Eye for AI: Eye-Tracking the Micro-Interruptions of GenAI Code SuggestionsT. Alakmeh, S. D’Angelo, T. Fritz. ICSE 2026. Accepted; link to be added when available.
  • Fostering Creativity with ChatGPT in Requirements Engineering Education: An Academic ExperienceM. Costa, M. Lima, M. Meireles, T. Conte. SBQS Education Track, 2025. Venue

Community standards, resources, and special issues

  • LLM GuidelinesCommunity standard under continuous refinement. Website · Preprint
  • Special Issue on Creativity in Software EngineeringIEEE Software, 2025. Guest editor introduction by V. Jackson, A. van der Hoek, R. Prikladnicki, K. Singh. Link

Convenings and field-building

  • Dagstuhl Seminar 25412 — Creativity, GenAI, and Software Development: A Future Together2025. Program
  • Shonan Meeting — Crafting the Future of Developer ExperienceAccepted; November 2026. Program page to be linked when available.
  • Generative AI and Empirical Software Engineering — A Paradigm ShiftC. Treude, M.-A. Storey. AIware 2025. Program

Courses and institutional initiatives

  • AI Tools for Development at CMUUniversity course, with materials. Course site
  • Guidelines for GenAI in SE educationUniversity-level guidelines and a pilot using Mistral Le Chat as a research assistant, reported by Paris Avgeriou.