The level of computing contributions and research from India compares to any in the world. Nevertheless, there is a significant need for creating a collaborative research environment among India’s young researchers both from academia (PhD students and post-docs) and industry through direct exposure to international researchers. On the other hand, we believe that the participants from the international community will benefit greatly from this in-depth interaction with India’s next generation of researchers and laureates, and will be able to establish future avenues of sustained research together. Inspired by the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and the Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF), PIC is created with a distinct Indian differentiation to provide a relaxed but concentrated environment as a starting point of a sustained interaction, paving way for significant results in the medium term.

We are honored to have Prof. Robert Metcalfe (ACM Turing Award), Dr. Jeffrey Dean (ACM Prize in Computing, ACM Fellow, IEEE John von Neumann Medal), Prof. Tova Milo (Weizmann Prize, VLDB Women in Database Research Award, ACM Fellow) and Dr. Yael Tauman Kalai (ACM Prize in Computing) join us for this inaugural ACM India Pingala Interactions on Computing as international laureates, as well as Prof. Jayant Haritsa (Infosys Prize, Bhatnagar Prize, Swarna Jayanti Fellowship, ACM Fellow), Dr. Partha Pratim Talukdar (ACM India Early Career Researcher Award), Prof. Saket Saurabh (ACM India Early Career Researcher Award, Bhatnagar Prize), and Prof. Shweta Agrawal (ACM India Outstanding Contributions in Computing by a Woman Award, Swarna Jayanti Fellowship) as India laureates.

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 2019 will be eligible to apply as young researchers. For international applicants, Bachelors 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 board 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.