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Pingala Interactions in Computing

ACM India Council is pleased to announce the second edition of its flagship research networking event “Pingala Interactions in Computing (PIC)”. PIC will bring together some of the best minds in Computing over four days annually to network in an interactive and immersive atmosphere and promote scientific exchange of the highest quality.

Named after Pingala, an ancient Indian mathematician and the creator of the Binary Numeral System, PIC will comprise about 50 young Indian and international researchers combined, interacting with eminent laureates in Computing, to derive inspiration and motivation from role models and peers, and exchanging their research ideas within this elite company. The presence of eminent laureates and participants selected after a highly competitive selection process promises to make it one of the most sought-after and respected networking events for young Computing researchers organized in India.

When & Where

The second edition of PIC will take place on Saturday-Tuesday 22nd – 25th February 2025 at the fabulous Mysore campus of Infosys, which provides a world class, self-contained facility where the participants will be able to concentrate on the interaction, secluded from any distractions. We thank Infosys for hosting this prestigious event for ACM India.

Laureates

We are honored to have the following international and Indian laureates for the second edition of PIC.

Amanda Randles

Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Duke University.

Anastasia Ailamaki

Professor of Computer Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

Dame Wendy Hall

Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President (International Engagement) and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton.

Debdeep Mukhopadhyay

Institute Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

Siddharth Barman

Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science.

Sunita Sarawagi

Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Associate professor, Center of Machine Intelligence and Data Science, IIT Bombay.

Call for Participation

The participants will comprise 50 young researchers from India and abroad, carefully selected by an eminent jury. Students currently enrolled in PhD program in a Computing discipline (thesis topic identified) and active professional researchers (from academia or industry) with successful PhD defense date on or after 1st January 2020 will be eligible to apply as young researchers.

For international applicants, Bachelor’s degree cannot be from India. The India- international split of participants will be 50-50 by design, and while selecting the participants within the two categories, we will be seeking parity in industry- academia, gender and geography. Thanks to a generous travel grant from ACM, we will provide travel support for the participants, up to $1200 for the international participants and up to Rs16000 for the Indian participants to supplement what they cannot obtain from other sources such as their institution or organization. The boarding and lodging will also be covered by the event, serving it as an incentive for prospective applicants without worrying about the financial aspects of participation in this forum.

Apply to Participate in PIC 2025

Young researchers residing in India and abroad, please apply now to participate in PIC 2025. Since the seats for this prestigious research event and once-in-a-lifetime experience are limited, the selection process will be quite competitive.

An independent international selection committee will review the applications and make the final selections. The selected participants will be informed over email along with further logistics. Residents of the Indian subcontinent and ASEAN region are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please apply via the following link: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/PICconf2025/

The Microsoft CMT service is used for managing the application reviewing process for this event. This service is provided for free by Microsoft and they bear all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Important dates:

Submissions open: 05 Nov 2024

Submission deadline: 25 Nov 2024

Notification: 15 Dec 2024

PIC 2025 Program

The program for PIC 2025 will be finalized and uploaded here by January 2024.

PIC 2025 Selection Committee

Committee Chair

Hemangee Kapoor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Guwahati.

Testimonials from PIC 2024

PIC 2024 laureates:

Bob Metcalfe

(ACM Turing Award)

“Great event. Would recommend it unhesitatingly to young researchers.”

Jeff Dean

(ACM Prize in Computing, ACM Fellow, IEEE John von Neumann Medal)

“Thank you for having me at the inaugural PIC! I had a great time, and it was great interacting with other laureates as well as the students and young researchers.”

Tova Milo

(Weizmann Prize, VLDB Women in Database Research Award, ACM Fellow)

“It was a truly wonderful event. I enjoyed *everything*, and mostly the people – senior and student. Thanks for inviting me and for the great hospitality!”

Yael Tauman Kalai

(ACM Prize in Computing)

“Truly perfect event! It has been one of the best academic trips I have ever had.”

Yannis Ioannidis

(ACM President)

“I will recommend PIC strongly and proactively to young researchers. I definitely want to be back myself. When is PIC 2025?!”

Jayant Haritsa

(Infosys Prize, Bhatnagar Prize, Swarna Jayanti Fellowship, ACM Fellow)

“Would recommend it to young researchers very strongly and proactively. Overall, great start – with a bit of fine-tuning, will be an exceptional forum.”

Partha Talukdar

(ACM India ECR Award)

“PIC 2024 was a thoroughly enjoyable experience! The organizers did an excellent job, and I found the diverse mix of speakers and participants from industry and academia incredibly engaging.”

Saket Saurabh

(ACM India ECR Award, Bhatnagar Prize)

“Outstanding. Thanks so much for all the hard work. ACM India rocks!”

Shweta Agrawal

(ACM India OCCW Award, Swarnajayanti Fellowship)

“Easily the best interactions I’ve ever had with fellow participants and speakers in an event! The venue, accommodation and hospitality was top notch. Will definitely recommend other researchers to attend.”

Pratul Srinivasan

(ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award Honorable Mention)

“Amazing job putting this together for the first year! Everything ran super smoothly and it was an unforgettable experience.”

Pranjal Dutta

(ACM India Doctoral Dissertation Award)

“This was a huge effort from ACM India and I thank and salute all the members for putting in so much effort. I wish them all the best for future PICs. 10 years down the line, it’ll be talked about and be a huge success.”

The young researcher participants of PIC 2024:

“A great event where ongoing researchers can interact with experts and industry people to discuss the problem and come to a solution.”

“It is my honor to attend this wonderful PIC 2024 event. Although I am an international participant, I still can feel comfortable and happy with the friendly atmosphere of PIC.”

“This was like a young academician’s dream come true. The kind of one on one interactions I had with senior researchers, entrepreneurs, inventors, industry giants, academicians were invaluable. I especially value the connections and friendships I forged with fellow researchers. The environment of this event was very friendly and welcoming. I got to get advice from my senior peers and it helped me sort through quite a few of the doubts I had in my mind regarding the general research scenario. Thank you!”

“This kind of events should be promoted as much as we could and motivate the researchers to attend it. I would like to add one more thing, as a participant, we observed how much workforce it requires to organise this kind of event. Therefore, we can also volunteer for working together.”

“I strongly urge that this conference should continue and improve more and more over the years. I personally look forward to contributing more closely to the conference next year.”

“It was an enriching experience with great minds in computing. We were able to secure future research prospects and a few long-term friends. Will definitely encourage my peers to experience PIC in the upcoming years.”

“PIC platform provided a great opportunity to interact with the pioneers in the area of computing, the sessions were inspiring and the laureates walking among us was a dream come true. Each and every moment from here will be cherished and are more fruitful.”

“PIC 2024 has been the most energetic and engaging event I have experienced in my career so far. I am eager to contribute in any way possible to the future success of PIC 2025.”

“Achieved a state-of-the-art performance in international events within India.”