Curious students
You got hooked on this physics and want time on the bench. ThermoSchool walks you from zero to a working p-bit. Then you enter ThermoJam on a mixed team.
Gray's Inn, London · Fri 26 to Sun 28 February 2027 · ~100 participants
Thermosynthesis
Awaken the Old Continent
Europe invented thermodynamics. For three days, students, scientists and entrepreneurs settle into a temporary collective ground state inside the Elizabethan Hall of Gray's Inn. This is the reawakening.
Return computing to equilibrium
01 · Manifesto
Europe sleeps in the science it invented.
Carnot’s cycles. Kelvin’s absolute scale. Maxwell’s demon. Boltzmann’s statistical mechanics. The old continent once defined the physics of energy, heat, fluctuation and equilibrium. Then the computational age migrated. Deterministic silicon empires rose elsewhere while the birthplace of the science grew quiet.
Thermosynthesis is the catalytic fluctuation that ends that dormancy. Thermodynamic computing computes with noise. Probabilistic bits take the place of brittle certainty. Thermal fluctuations become the native resource. Sampling becomes the fundamental operation. Energy landscapes take the place of brute-force search.
For three days, in one hall, we create a temporary attractor. A low-energy configuration where the old continent remembers its power.
P(s) ∝ exp(−E(s) / kT)
02 · Three days
Three days.
A school with mentorship, a coding jam, and science sessions. Organised by Uncertain Systems. Approximately 100 participants. Day 1 is limited to 60.
Day 1
Friday 26 February 2027, Bingham Room
Thermodynamic Computing School. A single training day with mentorship: lectures and worked problems, mentoring in small groups in Bingham West and East. 60 places.
Day 2
Saturday 27 February 2027, The Hall
Everyone in one room. A keynote opens the day, then the coding jam, a competition on set challenges with prizes, runs in The Hall. Science panels are held as scheduled blocks in The Hall. The Benchers' Library is a quiet overflow and focus room. Meals included free for jam participants.
Day 3
Sunday 28 February 2027, The Hall
Lightning talks and science posters in named blocks: two blocks of lightning talks, two poster sessions. Block themes [BLOCK THEMES TBD].
Indicative times
Friday
- Registration 09:00
- Welcome 09:30
- Wrap-up 18:00 to 18:30
- Mentor office hours to 21:30
Saturday
- Registration 09:00
- Keynote 09:30 (to be announced soon)
- Jam kickoff 10:00
- Coding from 10:30
- Science panel block 1 [TIME TBD]
- Science panel block 2 [TIME TBD]
- Code freeze 17:30
- Demos and judging 17:30 to 19:00
- Prizes 19:00
- Close 21:30
Sunday
- Registration 09:30
- Block A · Lightning talks I, from 10:00
- Block B · Poster session I [TIME TBD]
- Block C · Lightning talks II [TIME TBD]
- Block D · Poster session II [TIME TBD]
- Closing 16:00 to 16:30
8 South Square, London WC1R 5ET · Nearest station: Chancery Lane · Map [MAP URL]
03 · Who
Who is this for?
People who are already thermo-pilled. If energy landscapes, sampling, and p-bits are how you think, this weekend is for you.
Expert scientists
Your work already lives here: energy-based models, p-bits, TSUs, Active Inference, the Free Energy Principle. Come for the panels, the posters, and a full weekend with the same crowd.
Ambitious entrepreneurs
You are building companies and hardware around thermodynamic computing. Thermosynthesis puts you in a room with the researchers and students already in this field.
04 · Saturday keynote
To be announced soon.
Saturday 27 February · The Hall
To be announced soon
Thermoschool theory pathways by Uncertain Systems. Mentors drawn from hardware, statistical physics, and Active Inference.
05 · Speak / Mentor
Speak, teach, mentor.
We are inviting people working on thermodynamic computing, energy-based models, stochastic thermodynamics, p-bits and TSUs, diffusion and sampling, and Active Inference to teach, speak and mentor.
Friday · Bingham Room
School lecture
A [LENGTH TBD] min lecture with worked problems. Remote live or pre-recorded possible.
Friday, optional Saturday
Mentor
Small-group mentoring and office hours at the Friday school; optional mentoring at the Saturday jam.
Saturday · The Hall
Science panel
A seat in a panel block in The Hall. Remote panelists possible.
Sunday · The Hall
Lightning talk
A [LENGTH TBD] min talk in a Sunday lightning talk block.
Proposals by [SPEAKER DEADLINE TBD]
Selected speakers and mentors will be announced here once confirmed.
06 · ThermoJam
Compete on the problems.
Saturday 27 February 2027, The Hall, everyone coding together. A competition with prizes around set challenges. More on ThermoJam.
Draft · challenges to be confirmed
Challenge 1 · [SPONSOR-SET CHALLENGE TBD]
Example only: energy-based-model sampling with an open-source thermodynamic library, such as Extropic's thrml.
Challenge 2 · [TBD]
Example only: a thermodynamic linear-algebra or sampling task.
Challenge 3 · [TBD]
Example only: a diffusion or denoising challenge.
Challenges and full rules are published to participants before the jam begins.
Judging
- Technical correctness and rigour
- Use of thermodynamic and probabilistic principles
- Originality
- Performance on the challenge metric [METRIC TBD per challenge]
- Quality of demo and explanation
Criteria are published before the jam. Weights [TBD]. Judged by a panel including organiser-appointed judges [JUDGES TBD].
Prizes
- Overall prize [£ AMOUNT TBD]
- One prize per challenge track [£ AMOUNT TBD each]
- [OTHER PRIZES TBD]
Prize amounts to be confirmed.
Teams
- Team size [TBD, e.g. 1 to 4]
- Mixed teams welcome
- Code freeze 17:30
- Demos 17:30 to 19:00
- Prizes 19:00
07 · Posters
Bring your work to The Hall.
Sunday 28 February 2027, The Hall, in poster blocks alongside the lightning talks.
Topics: thermodynamic computing hardware and algorithms, energy-based models, sampling, stochastic and information thermodynamics, diffusion models, Active Inference and the Free Energy Principle, and related work.
- Format [POSTER SIZE/ORIENTATION TBD]
- Abstract up to [WORD LIMIT TBD] words
- Deadline [POSTER DEADLINE TBD]
- Travel support for presenting students [TBD]
08 · The vessel
Gray's Inn.The Honourable Society, in London.
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. 8 South Square, London WC1R 5ET. One of the four Inns of Court, six centuries of hall, chapel, library and garden behind High Holborn. The Elizabethan Hall holds the Great Screen of the 1570s and stained glass from the 1400s. The Walks run five acres of lawn through the city. Chancery Lane station sits at the gate.
Nearest station: Chancery Lane · Map [MAP URL]
09 · Enter the attractor
The right people will feel they have to be there.
Register interestHold the date. We write when the circle opens.Apply for Thermo JamSet challenges, published criteria, prizes [AMOUNTS TBD].Submit a posterSunday poster blocks in The Hall.Become a mentorMentor at the Friday school and the Saturday jam.
Register interest
Tell us who you are and which days you want. Day 1 is limited to 60 places. Attendance is free. Accommodation and food are at your own expense (meals during ThermoJam included). Registration opens 1 November.
Sponsor Thermosynthesis
A small number of organisations can support the event and take part in the programme.