Introduction
The SciPy India 2026 Conference returns after a five year gap, bringing the country's scientific computing community together at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai on 19 and 20 December 2026. It is the fourteenth edition, and the first to be held in Chennai. Previous editions ran from 2009 to 2021, several of them at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
SciPy India is an international scientific computing and open source software conference for anyone who writes or depends on code to do scientific, computational and data driven work. The 2026 edition has two distinct days: workshops on Saturday 19 December, and the main conference day on Sunday 20 December.
The conference is organised by the SciPy India community, with student tickets and a code of conduct. All sessions are conducted in English.
Event Overview
The conference runs from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM IST on both days. On Saturday 19 December, workshops take place in the seminar halls of the Department of Physics at IIT Madras. On Sunday 20 December, the conference day takes place at the IC&SR Building, in the T.T. Jagannathan and A.M.M. Arunachalam auditoriums. The two buildings are about 400 metres apart.
The call for proposals closed on 1 November 2026, and the programme is expected in November 2026. Recordings of the conference day talks will be published on YouTube after the event. Workshops are in person only and will not be recorded.
What to Expect
Saturday is the workshops day, with hands on tutorial sessions in the Department of Physics seminar halls. Sunday is the conference day, with talks, a poster session and keynotes in the IC&SR Building auditoriums. The programme had not been published at the time of writing.
Tickets cover access to all talks, workshops and the poster session, along with conference materials, networking, lunch and coffee and tea breaks on both days. The organisers note that spots are limited and advise booking early.
The conference welcomes attendees from all backgrounds, and especially encourages students, industry practitioners, early career researchers and people from underrepresented groups in STEAM fields.
Who Should Attend
The conference is for researchers and scientists in academia, industry and government laboratories; educators and faculty who teach computational work and free and open source software in science and engineering; software developers building scientific libraries, tools and infrastructure; research software engineers; engineers using Python and allied languages for modelling, simulation and analysis; data scientists and machine learning practitioners; HPC specialists and system administrators; and students at any stage of training toward a career in scientific computing, data science, artificial intelligence or research software. The organisers add that just about anyone with enthusiasm for scientific computing, free and open source software and open science is welcome.
Key Highlights
- The fourteenth edition of SciPy India, and the first since 2021.
- The first SciPy India conference held in Chennai, hosted by IIT Madras.
- Two distinct days: hands on workshops on 19 December, conference talks and a poster session on 20 December.
- Accessible pricing, with student tickets at 699 INR for one day and 1,199 INR for both days.
- Recordings of conference day talks published on YouTube after the event.
- A community run conference with a code of conduct and a volunteer programme.
Agenda and Speakers
The programme, including keynote presentations, selected talks and workshops, is expected to be announced in November 2026. The call for proposals closed on 1 November 2026, and the organisers are reviewing submissions. No keynote speakers had been announced on the official site at the time of writing. The confirmed structure is: workshops on Saturday 19 December at the Department of Physics, and the conference on Sunday 20 December at the IC&SR Building, both days running from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM IST.
Registration Information
Tickets are on sale on KonfHub, and registration closes on 18 December 2026. Early bird tickets cost 699 INR for one day and 1,199 INR for both days, while they last. Regular tickets cost 999 INR for one day and 1,699 INR for both days, until 8 December. Late bird tickets, from 9 to 18 December, cost 1,499 INR for one day and 2,499 INR for both days. Student tickets cost 699 INR for one day and 1,199 INR for both days. Corporate tickets cost 2,499 INR for one day and 3,999 INR for both days. A contributor ticket costs 3,999 INR for both days and includes a T-shirt. GST at 18 percent and KonfHub processing charges at 4.43 percent are added at checkout.
Tickets are non refundable and cannot be transferred. Attendees must be 18 or older and must show their ticket and a valid ID at the registration desk. Student status is verified at the desk. A limited number of on the spot tickets may be sold at the venue for 1,499 INR per day, if seats remain, but this is not guaranteed, and on the spot tickets do not include lunch or a conference T-shirt.
Venue and Location
The conference is held at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, Tamil Nadu. Workshops on 19 December are in the seminar halls of the Department of Physics. The conference on 20 December is in the T.T. Jagannathan and A.M.M. Arunachalam auditoriums at the Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC&SR) Building.
The campus is about 15 kilometres from Chennai International Airport, 13 kilometres from Chennai Central Railway Station and 10 kilometres from Chennai Egmore Railway Station. Maps, directions and accommodation notes are on the venue and travel page of the official site. Accommodation and travel are not included.
Why This Event Matters
Scientific Python is the quiet infrastructure of modern research. The libraries the SciPy ecosystem maintains sit behind work in physics, biology, engineering, climate science and machine learning. A conference devoted to that ecosystem is where researchers learn the tools properly, where library maintainers meet their users, and where students discover that research software is a career, not just a side skill.
The 2026 edition is also the first SciPy India since 2021, and the first in Chennai. Five years is a long gap in a field that has changed this fast, and the return of the conference gives the community a place to take stock. The two day structure, with a full workshops day before the talks, suits a practical audience.
Event Details
- Event: SciPy India 2026 Conference, 14th edition
- Dates: 19 to 20 December 2026
- Time: 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM IST each day
- Venue: Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, Tamil Nadu (workshops: Department of Physics; conference: IC&SR Building)
- Organiser: The SciPy India community
- Format: In-person
- Tickets: Early Bird 699 INR (one day) / 1,199 INR (both days); Regular 999 INR / 1,699 INR; Late Bird 1,499 INR / 2,499 INR; Student 699 INR / 1,199 INR; Corporate 2,499 INR / 3,999 INR; Contributor 3,999 INR (both days). GST and platform fees extra.
- Registration deadline: 18 December 2026
Last verified: 13 November 2026.
