Events · HUGS 2027

1st International Workshop on Human-First Generative Software Engineering (HUGS 2027)

A one-day international workshop co-located with ICSE 2027 in Dublin, Ireland.

HUGS 2027 brings researchers and practitioners together to keep GenAI-assisted software engineering human-controlled, accountable, trustworthy, and aligned with ethical, legal, and societal values.

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Event details

A call to shape human-first generative software engineering.

Generative AI is becoming a lasting part of software engineering, reshaping how software-intensive systems are specified, designed, implemented, tested, documented, evolved, and operated. These capabilities promise faster and more powerful engineering workflows, but they also challenge established assumptions about human expertise, traceability, responsibility, independent assurance, certification, and societal trust.

HUGS 2027 invites researchers and practitioners to discuss how software engineering can ensure that GenAI-assisted development remains human-controlled, accountable, trustworthy, and aligned with ethical, legal, and societal values. The workshop welcomes contributions across software engineering, with particular attention to critical, high-impact, and software-intensive systems where responsibility, assurance, and trust are essential.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Human-controlled GenAI for requirements, architecture, modeling, implementation, testing, documentation, maintenance, and operations.
Traceability, accountability, rationale, and provenance for AI-generated or AI-mediated engineering artifacts.
Human-centric assurance, independent review, human-in-the-loop verification and validation, and adaptive certification.
Transparent DevOps, MLOps, and TrustDevOps pipelines for GenAI-assisted software engineering.
Control surfaces, guardrails, prompts, workflows, and engineering interfaces for AI-assisted development.
Ethical assurance cases, value-sensitive engineering, governance models, and responsible AI integration in software engineering.
Empirical studies, industrial experience reports, benchmark proposals, tools, methods, and negative results.
Socio-technical, legal, regulatory, organizational, and policy challenges in GenAI-assisted software engineering.

Workshop format

HUGS is proposed as a one-day, interactive workshop at ICSE 2027 in Dublin, Ireland. Accepted papers will establish a shared basis through lightning talks, while moderated breakout groups will develop concrete research questions, risks, tool ideas, benchmark scenarios, and community actions. The exact workshop date is to be confirmed.

Submissions

HUGS solicits 3-page extended abstracts, including figures, tables, and references. Contributions may present early research ideas, position or vision papers, experience reports, industrial challenges, benchmark proposals, negative results, tool concepts, or research agendas. Accepted abstracts will be published in the IEEE workshop proceedings, and every submission will receive at least three reviews. Authors can submit through the HUGS 2027 HotCRP submission site.

Anticipated outcomes

A shared research agenda for human-first generative software engineering.
Open problems and candidate benchmark scenarios for empirical and tool-building work.
A network of researchers and practitioners interested in continuing HUGS as a recurring venue.
A post-workshop report or article summarizing the roadmap developed by participants.

Proposed workshop focus

Three connected perspectives for a practical, human-first conversation.

Human-controlled design with GenAI

Engineering methods, environments, and control surfaces that let stakeholders define the role, boundaries, assumptions, and failure modes of GenAI in software-engineering workflows.

Human-centric assurance and oversight

Traceable AI-generated artifacts, transparent pipelines, independent review, adaptive certification, and evidence for accountable engineering decisions.

Ethical, legal, and societal values by design

Value-sensitive engineering, governance models, ethical assurance cases, and mechanisms that connect engineering practice to societal and normative commitments.