Release Updates

We're excited to share that our paper "Design-First Governance for Reliable AI-Assisted Software Development" will appear at the International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA) 2026, one of the premier venues in software architecture research.

The paper comes out of the reality of our development environment at SOKNA and centers on a simple but important insight: the environment in which an AI agent operates is just as critical to its success as the agent itself, no different from how we think about the conditions that enable humans to do their best work.

A core part of our approach is an automated pipeline that establishes and maintains a governance layer for AI agents. It enforces both implicit and explicit architectural constraints that guide them in extending the codebase deliberately and consistently, preventing architectural drift.

The paper appears in the New and Emerging Ideas track at ICSA 2026.

After using this internally to easily and effectively transform 40+ GB of videos (14 hours) into structured microlearning content for SOKNA Onboarding, we're sharing it with the community. The pipeline runs entirely on Google Colab and uses Qwen3-ASR for transcription, LLMs for semantic chunking, Article and quiz generation, and FFmpeg for video segmentation.

Along the way, we learned a few things worth sharing: extracting audio-only (16kHz WAV) and using the batch option drastically reduces processing costs (14 hours for under $2), Qwen3-ASR handles Arabic and mixed-language content better than Whisper, and Google Drive links don't work for ASR API, you need a public bucket. Also, the 720p with +faststart metadata is the sweet spot for web video streaming.

Check it out: github.com/SOKNA-TECH/course2video-pipeline

SOKNA R&D is looking for outstanding Software Engineering Interns to join our fast-paced, curiosity-driven growing team. We are tackling unique real-world challenges at the intersection of software engineering, data science, and human-centered design.

In this role, you will build proof-of-concept solutions to a variety of problems based on solid investigation of best practices and existing solutions.

Skills:

• You have strong programming skills, mainly Python or Javascript with solid knowledge of git.
• You have strong knowledge of web development best practices (a plus).
• You are keen to follow SE best practices and code with quality, not just code that works.
• You are fearless and takes initiative to dive into problems and figure things out

Why Join Us?

• Join a growing, ambitious team within SOKNA, with access to a world-class network of mentors and experts
• Work on real-world use cases that actually matter
• Competitive pay and excellent future opportunities.
• This is a 1-month full-time position, with the potential to extend/ evolve into a long-term role.

How to apply?

• Send to us:
  • A link to a short video intro (1–2 minutes) telling us who you are and why you're interested in this internship.
  • A link to your resume (PDF or personal site), please include:
  • Links to your GitHub, blog, portfolio, or any past projects you're proud of
  • The email of a professor who can give you a reference
• Apply:. by 📅 August 15, 2025

We are pleased to announce that SOKNA R&D's proposal, "GenOps-as-Code," has been accepted into the Industry Challenge track at ICSE 2026. This is the leading international conference in software engineering. In this challenge, participants from around the world are invited to propose innovative solutions, with distinguished submissions eligible for awards ranging from US $1,000 to $5,000. Check more details here.

To encourage and support Egyptian innovators in contributing to this global challenge, we are launching a local sponsorship program that includes:

• Travel sponsorship for one accepted solution paper from Egypt.
• Feedback and mentorship on early drafts of submissions from industry and academic experts.
• Mock presentation rehearsals for accepted papers.

If you are interested in joining this program, please apply by Sept 7th, 2025. Apply here:.

You can find more details about our proposal here.

Please note that this initiative is independently managed by SOKNA R&D and is not officially affiliated with ICSE. The deadline for the final ICSE solution submission is November 7th.