PLATEAU2026
16th annual workshop on the intersection of HCI and PL
@ Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA USA March 9th and 10th, 2026

PLATEAU Overview

The PLATEAU workshop covers all topics at the intersection of PL and HCI. It brings together expertise on the usability of programming languages and tools with expertise on how the programming languages toolbox can be used in service of HCI goals.

Paper formats:
  • 4-page short papers
  • 10-page long papers
  • 5- to 9-page flex length papers
What to Submit

We encourage both standard research papers and more unusual works—for instance, papers that describe works-in-progress or recently completed work, report on experiences gained, question accepted wisdom, raise challenging open problems, or propose speculative new approaches. In short, a PLATEAU submission should describe work or perspectives on which the authors want to receive feedback or which they believe will trigger interesting conversation at the workshop.

Topics

Some particular areas of interest are:

  • empirical studies of programming languages
  • methodologies and philosophies behind language and tool evaluation
  • software design metrics and their relations to the underlying language
  • user studies of language features and software engineering tools
  • visual techniques for understanding programming languages
  • design of new programming languages
  • critical comparisons of programming paradigms
  • tools to support evaluating programming languages
  • psychology of programming
  • domain specific language (e.g. database languages, security/privacy languages, architecture description languages) usability and evaluation

PLATEAU is interested in a broad range of topics, and this list is not exhaustive. If you think your work might interest the PLATEAU community, please submit!

Format

We accept papers in a range of lengths. Short papers may be up to 4 pages. Long papers may be up to 10 pages. Flex-length papers may be any length in between! References and appendices do not count against the page limit. Paper submissions should not be anonymized.

Submissions should use the PLATEAU LaTeX class. Please also ensure that your submission is legible when printed on a black and white printer. In particular, please check that colors remain distinct and font sizes are legible.

Proceedings

The PLATEAU proceedings will be archived in Carnegie Mellon University's KiltHub repository. Included papers will be freely available (open access), have independent DOIs, and be indexed by Google Scholar. There will be no publication fee for authors.

Papers will be included in the PLATEAU proceedings at the authors’ discretion. If you anticipate publishing the same work at an additional venue that has double-publication restrictions, we are happy to withhold papers from the proceedings. We strongly encourage you to submit your PLATEAU papers to top-tier HCI and PL venues after receiving feedback from the PLATEAU community!

Papers should be submitted at: https://plateau26.apps.in.ripley.cloud

Reviewing and Mentoring Process

All submitted papers will be reviewed by the organizing committee to ensure that they are appropriate for PLATEAU. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to present at the workshop. In addition, each accepted paper will be matched with two mentors from PLATEAU's mentoring panel. Each mentor will provide detailed constructive feedback on the paper.

In-Person PLATEAU

The full PLATEAU experience is currently only possible in person, so we encourage attendees and authors to come to the event. However, we understand some individuals may not be able to travel for a variety of reasons. If you cannot come in person but still wish to participate in PLATEAU, please email us at to discuss options.

Stay Up to Date

Please sign up for our mailing list our mailing list if you are interested in learning more about future editions of PLATEAU.

Important Dates
Wednesday, December 17th, 2025 (AoE time)
Paper Submission
March 9th and 10th, 2026
Workshop
Mentors
Titus Barik
Apple
Alan Blackwell
University of Cambridge
Harry Goldstein
University of Buffalo
Shriram Krishnamurthi
Brown University
Toby Li
Notre Dame
Steve Oney
University of Michigan
Nadia Polikarpova
UC San Diego
Mark Santolucito
Barnard
Organizing Committee
Sarah E. Chasins
University of California, Berkeley
Joshua Sunshine
Carnegie Mellon University
Student Organizers
Justin Lubin
University of California - Berkeley
Yiliang "Leo" Liang
Carnegie Mellon University
Eric Rawn
University of California - Berkeley