ACM India Eminent Speaker Program (ESP): Call for Speakers

February 2025 Decision Round (OPEN)

The ACM India Eminent Speaker Program (ESP) provides ACM Student and Professional chapters and institutional partners in India with direct access to top technology leaders, innovators and researchers who will give talks on contemporary and engaging issues that are important to the computing community. This outreach program is modelled on ACM worldwide's Distinguished Speaker Program (DSP) , but tailored for the Indian context and with Speakers from India. Speakers who are part of the ESP Panel will list several talks in their area of expertise, and be invited by chapters to give these talks as part of events that they hold. ACM India will help with the match-making and cover the costs for travel while the local chapter will handle accommodation and local logistics. We expect speakers to accept and participate in 3-6 visits each year. While most of these should be in-person to encourage direct engagement and interactions with the participants, some of the talks may be done virtually.

Speakers are included into the ESP Panel through a nomination that can be submitted on a rolling basis round the year and selections happen twice a year: in July and in February. Speakers should preferably be nominated by an ACM India Councillor, ACM Fellow or ACM Distinguished Member, but can also opt for self-nomination. Nominees need to complete the Nomination Form , which will be evaluated by a selection committee consisting of a diverse set of domain experts. Selected speakers will have a 2-year term, which may be renewed based on the level of engagement and feedback from chapters. Speakers who are not selected into the ESP Panel in a round may be re-considered in the next round.

Some of the factors that the selection committee considers in the evaluation are: industry/academic experience, experience with giving talks at public fora or internal events, relevance and popularity of the topic areas of their talks, prior publications/patents/products/open source contributions, awards and professional service, active association with professional bodies like ACM, IEEE, INAE, etc., and letters of support from referees. The committee encourages and values diversity in all dimensions, including gender, institution, physical ability, geographic region, and topic.

In this round, special consideration will be given to broadening the diversity of the ESP panel. In particular, we particularly encourage nominations from women in computing , and from historically under-served geographic regions in the ESP Panel .

The Eminent Speaker Program is managed by the Chapters Sub-committee of the ACM India Council. For more details, see ACM India ESP or contact Abhijat Vichare ([email protected]).

Why Should You Participate?

ESP gives you a chance to give back to the computing community. Many ACM chapters, especially those outside the metro cities and universities, do not have access to high quality speakers and the chance to interact with them. This program serves as an enabling catalyst for emerging chapters and those that aspire to attract high quality content and speakers.

Being an ESP speaker will allow you to visit diverse chapters in the country, meet young and enthusiastic minds, and evangelise your research area. It also offers a chance to network with them, and potentially attract talent. It is also an opportunity to visit new places.

The program works in the spirit of service and outreach. There is no direct financial benefit to the speaker. On completing the speaker’s term, ACM India will make a contribution to the 14 Trees Foundation to plant trees in appreciation of the speaker’s service. Exemplary speakers may also be invited to attend and be recognized in the ACM India Annual event.

Please note that ESP is not a member elevation grade such as Senior Member, Distinguished Member, etc.

Important Dates for February 2025 Decision Round (IST)

Nominations Open: rolling
Nominations Close: Jan 24, 2025
Notification of Decision: Feb 14, 2025
Term starts for selected ESP members: March 1, 2025

Nomination Form

The link to the Nomination Form is here . You may nominate yourself by filling this form and including letters of support from two referees.

If you are an ACM India Council Member, ACM Fellow or ACM Distinguished Member, and wish to nominate someone else, please share this nomination form link with them to fill and submit, along with a brief letter of support from you that the nominee can upload.

Note: Please take care to fill in all required details in the nomination form so that it helps the Selection Committee make an informed decision. Also, please consider the target audience, which is typically undergraduate students at colleges, and occasionally post-graduate students or industry professionals, when proposing the sample topics you will speak on.

ESP Selection Committee

The following are the confirmed selection committee members at this time. Note that nominees should refrain from discussing their nominations with the ESP Selection Committee members.

Jayant Haritsa, IISc (Chair)
Amit Paranjape, ReliScore & PuneTech
Hemangee Kapoor, IIT-Guwahati
Kalapriya Kannan, Intuit
Manik Varma, Microsoft Research
Ravindra Naik, TCS Research
Shourya Roy, Flipkart Research
Ujjwal Maulik, Jadavpur University
Vasudeva Varma, IIIT-Hyderabad