katherinemohr.github.io
CppCon '26 Trip Report!
I ❤️ C++
Published September 13, 2026
author’s note:
this is very much still a draft!
if you found this after meeting me at cppcon
(or alternately, if this page is somehow at the top of your “cppcon” search results like it is for my labmate
),
you should instead look at my cpp quiz. i put way more effort into that.
I am spending this week in Aurora, CO at CppCon!
If you know me, you know that I love C++, so I was so incredibly excited to be awarded the Hudson River Trading CppCon 2026 Scholarship a few months ago. Thank you to HRT for making it possible for me to attend this conference :)
Day 0:
Sunday was before the true start of the conference, so I didn’t do much besides grab lunch with the other HRT CppCon Scholarship recipients and hang out at the registration reception/poster session.
Even from just these two events, it was already abundantly clear that AI would be a primary topic of discussion, specifically
- How do we teach C++ nowadays?
- How good are LLMs at optimizing C++ code vs existing optimization techniques?I can’t find the blog post, but the answer to this one seemed to be that LLMs are good at recognizing the semantic meaning of an algorithm and then fully replacing the algorithm with an asymptotically better version in a way that -O3 wouldn’t be able to do because it lacks the ability to reason about such large changes.
- Are LLMs able to write “high-quality”, modern C++ code?
- And of course, will C++ devs still have jobs in a year?I really hope so.
I also got a bunch of fun swag, including an east const bracelet from Jon Kalb himself!
Goalsetting
I’m already exhausted after day 0, but I’ve come away with a few goals for the week.
- Professional
- Solidify my quick pitches for my 2 current PhD projects.
- Ask more questions, particularly in during the Q&A sections of talks, since I often feel more intimidated asking a question in front of a crowd.
- Be more consistent about taking notes in talks/posters (and later add those notes here for posterity).
- Fun
- Take more photos! Specifically, use up the film in the Instax camera HRT gave us.
- Relatedly, get selfies with C++ folk in the community whom I look up to.
- Go on a hike.
- Play in the waterpark.
- Rally a group to go to Casa Bonita with me.