Press Release

The COMSOL Conference 2026 Boston will feature keynote talks by Intel, Formula E, MIT, NASA Ames Research Center, General Motors, and Cosmon, as well as a panel on scaling AI-ready multiphysics workflows.

BURLINGTON, MA (September 3, 2026) — COMSOL, an independently owned global leader in modeling and simulation software, today announced the six keynote talks and panel discussion that will take place at the COMSOL Conference 2026 Boston, which will be held October 7–9 in Boston, MA. This year's COMSOL Conference will provide engineers, researchers, industry leaders, and students with an opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about the latest in multiphysics modeling and simulation, including emerging technologies like AI-assisted modeling and agentic workflows. At the conference, the keynote talks and panel will showcase how leaders from academia and a variety of industries — including aerospace & defense, electronics, automotive, medtech, and motorsport — use the COMSOL Multiphysics^® software to advance research and optimize product design.

This year's keynote and panel speakers will include:

• Edvin Cetegen of Intel

• Dan Cherowbrier of Formula E

• Jongyoon Han of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Hannah Alpert of NASA Ames Research Center

• Taylor Garrick of General Motors

• Rui Aguiar of Cosmon

• Alessandro Alabastri of Rice University

• Temesgen Kindo of Vertex Pharmaceuticals

• Canan Karakaya of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

"Multiphysics modeling and simulation empowers engineers to make better decisions by capturing the interactions between multiple physical phenomena early in the design cycle," said Edvin Cetegen of Intel. "I'm looking forward to presenting at the COMSOL Conference and sharing how my team uses multiphysics simulation to advance our work. I'm also looking forward to learning about how others develop their modeling workflows and connecting with a community that continues to push the boundaries of what's possible with multiphysics simulation."

Below, learn more about Cetegen's talk along with the other keynote talks and the panel.

Intel: "Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Enable High-Fidelity Modeling of Semiconductor Substrate Thermomechanical Behavior"

Advanced semiconductor packaging technologies require efficient, high-fidelity models to predict substrate thermomechanical behavior and address reliability challenges. In this presentation, Cetegen will introduce a novel AI-based approach for computationally efficient prediction of substrate warpage at any given temperature.

Formula E: "Accelerating Innovation: Simulation, Systems, and the Future of Electrified Motorsport"

In this keynote talk, Cherowbrier will discuss how cutting-edge simulation bridges the gap between digital modeling and real-world engineering when performance is on the line. Using the world’s premier electric motorsport championship as a high-stakes testbed, Cherowbrier will demonstrate how engineers navigate extreme multiphysics challenges, tight physical constraints, and live, high-pressure environments.

NASA Ames Research Center: "Reconstructing Surface Heating from an Inflatable Atmospheric Reentry Vehicle"

In Alpert's keynote talk, she will share how NASA combined in-flight thermocouple data with inverse analysis in COMSOL Multiphysics^® to estimate the surface heat rate across an inflatable reentry aeroshell, ultimately contributing to improved thermal models and design tools for NASA’s future aeroshell missions.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Model-Based Engineering of a Multistage Electrical Desalination System Using COMSOL Multiphysics^®"

Electrical desalination processes such as electrodialysis (ED) and ion concentration polarization (ICP) present unique multiscale, multiphysics modeling challenges. In this presentation, Han will showcase the ongoing effort at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics to implement system-level modeling of a multistage portable seawater desalination system that combines ED and ICP stages, moving toward practical optimization of the system.

General Motors: "From Atoms to Wheels: The Role of Multiscale Modeling in the Future of Transportation Engineering"

Virtual engineering of battery systems for electric vehicle propulsion offers a reduced-cost alternative to the traditional development process and uses multiscale modeling to virtually probe the impact of design changes. In this keynote talk, Garrick will cover the typical model calibration process that utilizes a versatile reference electrode and the development of lithium plating calibration tables between virtual and physical experimentation. He will also discuss the thermal distributions and state-of-charge nonuniformity that develops within battery systems during charging.

Cosmon: "Agentic AI in Industrial Simulation: Real-World Workflows"

The promise of agentic AI in engineering is undeniable: Think of autonomous systems that can design, simulate, and iterate complex physical models in minutes instead of months. But where are businesses seeing real wins today? Aguiar will unpack how agentic AI drives complex simulation software under the hood and why achieving a world-class final model (accurate to within 0.2% of physical benchmarks) required a completely new workflow. Attendees will learn how the deployment of AI in deep tech shifts the human engineer's role from a "mechanical builder" to a "scientific validator" and how organizations can build workflows that catch potentially dangerous errors that AI confidently conceals.

Panel: "Scaling AI-Ready Multiphysics Workflows"

In this panel, the speakers from Rice University, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will join Ed Fontes, VP of development at COMSOL, in a discussion on how organizations can build confidence in simulation results, manage complexity between physics areas, and create workflows that can be reused, extended, and trusted by broader teams. The panelists will also look ahead to how simulation apps, digital twins, and AI-based methods such as agentic workflows may change the way models are built, deployed, and used.

COMSOL-Led Presentations

In addition to the keynote talks, Andrew Strikwerda, a senior applications manager at COMSOL, will deliver a presentation covering key updates in the upcoming version of the software, COMSOL Multiphysics^® version 2027, which will launch later this year. During the presentation, Strikwerda will discuss the software's new capabilities for AI-assisted simulation, add-on products, and features for advancing modeling and simulation work.

There will also be 20+ minicourses highlighting how the software can be used across engineering disciplines as well as topics such as solving large models with CPU and GPU solvers, surrogate models and uncertainty quantification, and generative and agentic AI with COMSOL^®.

For more details on the featured presentations, to see the conference agenda, and to register for the COMSOL Conference 2026 Boston, visit the conference website.

About COMSOL

COMSOL is a global provider of simulation software for product design and research to technical enterprises, research labs, and universities. Its COMSOL Multiphysics^® product is an integrated software environment for creating physics-based models and simulation apps. A particular strength is its ability to account for coupled or multiphysics phenomena. Add-on products expand the simulation platform for electromagnetics, structural, acoustics, fluid flow, heat transfer, and chemical applications. Interfacing tools enable the integration of COMSOL Multiphysics^® simulations with all major technical computing and CAD tools on the CAE market. Simulation experts rely on COMSOL Compiler™ and COMSOL Server™ to distribute applications to their design teams, manufacturing departments, test laboratories, and customers throughout the world. Founded in 1986, COMSOL has 16 offices worldwide and extends its reach with a network of distributors.

COMSOL, COMSOL Multiphysics, COMSOL Compiler, and COMSOL Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of COMSOL AB.