Syllabus

AI-Assisted Programming for PhD Researchers

Times, sessions, and topics below follow the official course description. The course runs 25–27 August 2026 at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg.

Day 1: Foundations and the Agentic Core Loop

Time	Session	Materials
09:00–10:30	Welcome, Setup, and From Autocomplete to Agents	Setup, Lecture 01
10:30–10:45	Break
10:45–12:15	Version Control with Git	Lecture 02
12:15–13:15	Lunch
13:15–14:45	First Steps with an Agent	Lecture 03, Lab 1
14:45–15:00	Break
15:00–16:30	Planning with AI	Lecture 04, Lab 2
16:30–16:45	Break
16:45–17:00	Day 1 Wrap-Up

Day 1 times are indicative: the first session includes guided installation of the course tools and accounts, and can run long.

Day 2: Verification, Safety, and Extension

Time	Session	Materials
09:00–10:30	Verification and Testing with Agents	Lecture 05, Lab 3
10:30–10:45	Break
10:45–12:15	Working Safely with AI-Generated Code	Lecture 06, Lab 4
12:15–13:15	Lunch
13:15–14:45	Extending the Agent	Lecture 07, Lab 5
14:45–15:00	Break
15:00–16:30	Your Research Project	Lecture 08, Lab Project Overview, Capstone
16:30–16:45	Break
16:45–17:00	Day 2 Wrap-Up

Day 3: Build and Show

Time	Session	Materials
09:00–10:30	Project Development I	Capstone
10:30–10:45	Break
10:45–12:15	Project Development II	Lecture 09, Capstone
12:15–13:15	Lunch
13:15–17:00	Showing Your Work	Showing Your Work

Accreditation

The course is pass/fail, and attendance is what decides it. Be there for the three days and you pass. There is no exam, no grade, and no scoring of your capstone project.

You still show your project to the group on Day 3 afternoon, because that is where most of the learning happens, but it is not assessed. See Showing Your Work.