# 2026 Conference Agenda ![HILT 2026 Conference logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum8856/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/2026-04/HILT%20Conf%202026%20Logo_XL.png?itok=jk7VHRmf) ## HILT Conference 2026, “The Weight of the Degree: Rigor, Responsibility, and the Modern Campus” Friday, September 25, 2026 Location: David Rubenstein Treehouse, Boston, MA ## Program Agenda ### 8:30am: Registration Opens Please check in at the registration table on the third floor to receive your conference name badge. A Harvard ID is required to enter the Treehouse. Continental breakfast will be provided. Attendees will be invited to sit in Canopy 301, and the program will begin promptly at 9:00am. ### 9:00am: Welcome Remarks (Canopy 301) Introductions from our host: **Dustin Tingley**, Interim Vice Provost for Advances in Learning. Welcome remarks from **John Manning**, Provost of Harvard University ### 9:10am: Morning Plenary Session (Canopy 301) **“The Recentering of Academic Rigor in Service of Society: A One Harvard Perspective.”** Across higher education, calls to recenter academic rigor have largely focused inward—on curricula, grading, and student well-being. This plenary expands the conversation to our societal responsibility: ensuring that Harvard’s credentials remain trustworthy signals of genuine achievement for the patients, clients, citizens, and communities our graduates will serve. How do we teach students to apply rigorous standards in the real world without alienating colleagues or looking down on the public? In an era shaped by artificial intelligence, concerns about fairness, and changing workforce expectations, graduates must pair expertise with intellectual humility—applying rigorous standards while building consensus, collaboration, and trust. This plenary will convene a cross-Harvard panel of faculty who prepare the professionals, citizens, and leaders on whom society depends. ***Speakers include:*** - **Amy Edmondson**, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management (HBS) - **Rachel Weber**, Emma Bloomberg Professor of Urban Planning; Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design; Director of the Master in Urban Planning Program (GSD) - **Le Xie**, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering (SEAS) - Moderated by: **Bernard Chang**, Daniel D. Federman, M.D. Professor of Neurology and Medical Education; Dean for Medical Education (HMS). ### 10:15am: Break / Transition to Concurrent Morning Breakout Sessions Attendees will use this time to break from the morning plenary session, collect any remaining snacks from the food stations, and transition to [**Concurrent Morning Breakout Sessions**](https://hilt.harvard.edu/2026-concurrent-breakout-sessions). ### 10:30am: Concurrent Morning Breakout Sessions Review information about our [**Concurrent Morning Breakout Sessions**](https://hilt.harvard.edu/2026-concurrent-breakout-sessions), including each location (and our Speaker and Facilitator Bios—coming soon!). ### 11:30am: Break / Transition to Lightning Round Showcase Attendees will use this time to break from the concurrent morning breakout sessions and transition to the [**Lightning Round Showcase**](https://hilt.harvard.edu/2026-hilt-conference-lightning-round-showcase)**.** ### 11:45am: Lightning Round Showcase (Canopy 301) In this session, presenters have 3 minutes to share a teaching and learning program, project, or resource from across the University. The [**Lightning Round Showcase**](https://hilt.harvard.edu/2026-hilt-conference-lightning-round-showcase) will offer a glimpse into the innovative work shaping teaching and learning at Harvard. Attendees can visit speakers at designated tables during Lunch to ask follow-up questions and/or make connections. ### 12:15pm: Lunch and Networking (Canopy 301) Lunch will be provided outside of Canopy 301. Attendees are welcome to use Canopy 301 to eat and network with other attendees, including speakers featured in our [**Lightning Round Showcase**](https://hilt.harvard.edu/2026-hilt-conference-lightning-round-showcase) and/or the AI Lightning Rounds Breakout Session. If attendees prefer to break off into quieter areas, they can use any of the other breakout session rooms listed on our agenda to gather. ### 1:15pm: Concurrent Afternoon Breakout Sessions Review information about our [**Concurrent Afternoon Breakout Sessions**](https://hilt.harvard.edu/2026-concurrent-breakout-sessions), including each location (and our Speaker and Facilitator Bios—coming soon!). ### 2:15pm: Break / Transition to Afternoon Plenary Session Attendees will use this time to break from the concurrent afternoon breakout sessions and transition to the Afternoon Plenary Session in Canopy 301. ### 2:30pm: Afternoon Plenary (Canopy 301) **“Designing an AI-Native Course.”** This session will explore what a course that is both enabled by AI and aware of its limitations can be. In so doing, we aim to empower faculty to adopt technologies, policies, and pedagogy that help them adapt their courses to a changing reality. We will focus on specific AI capabilities that we have built ourselves, experimented with in our own classes, and are now making available to the wider Harvard community. We will discuss how these tools might be leveraged to better achieve course goals while preserving instructors' own unique approaches to the material they teach. We expect this session to be provocative. We will ask faculty to think deeply about creating authentic learning experiences in and out of the classroom, and how these approaches can yield more, not less, human connection between students and faculty. ***Speakers include:*** - **Sharad Goel**, Professor of Public Policy (HKS) - **Teddy Svoronos**, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy (HKS). ### 3:15pm: Closing remarks (Canopy 301) **Dustin Tingley**, Interim Vice Provost for Advances in Learning; Professor of Government; and Faculty Director, HILT will close the conference.