IndiCS: An ACM India Initiative

IndiCS: An ACM India Initiative

The IndiCS (a play on Computer science Seminars in India) seminar series is a new initiative of ACM India that aims to facilitate high quality research interactions and discussions between expert researchers, practitioners and advanced students on topics at the frontiers of computer science through focused, immersive and participative research seminars located in India. This is modeled after similar programs in other geographical areas with a strong research culture in CS. Example such programs elsewhere include Dagstuhl seminars in Germany, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences seminars in UK, Simons Institute programs in the US, Banff International Research Station programs in Canada, NII Shonan meetings in Japan and the like. The IndiCS seminar series replaces the Mysore Park Workshop series that was operational from 2010 to 2017 at the Mysore (India) campus of Infosys.

An IndiCS seminar is intended to be an immersive experience, where the participants stay, eat, discuss and work together for the duration of the seminar. An important component of IndiCS seminars is the facilitation of significant interactions, open discussions and informal collaborations between participants beyond the formal presentation sessions.
Venues

IndiCS seminars are not tied to a particular location/campus in India. Instead, these seminars will rotate among a small set of pre-selected venues that can provide a conducive environment needed for immersive research discussions. Representative venues include Infosys Mysore campus, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, F. C. Kohli Complex of Chennai Mathematical Institute, International Centre for Theoretical Studies and the like. Not all venues may be available at all times of the year, hence the allocation of venues to seminars will be done on a case-by-case basis.

Administration

IndiCS seminars are administered by a Steering Committee and a Scientific Committee.

A Steering Committee consisting of reputed computer science professionals from India and abroad is nominated by ACM India. Steering Committee members have a term of 3 years with the possibility of continuing for one more term. The task of this committee includes (a) recruiting a Scientific Committee for reviewing proposals, (b) deciding an annual calendar of events: call-for-proposals, reviews, seminars, (c) helping find appropriate venues for IndiCS seminars, (d) policy decisions w.r.t. venues, registration fees, DEI issues, code of conduct, outreach, etc. (e) receiving and analyzing feedback from participants and initiating appropriate actions to strengthen the program, and (f) interfacing with ACM India.

The inaugural Steering Committee of IndiCS is listed below:

Rakesh Agrawal (Data Insights Laboratories)
Gargi B. Dasgupta (IBM Research)
Rupak Majumdar (Max-Planck Institute for Software Systems)
Tulika Mitra (National University of Singapore)
Madhavan Mukund (Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chair)
Sriram Rajamani (Microsoft Research India)
Venkatesh Raman (The Institute of Mathematical Sciences)
Sudeshna Sarkar (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)

A Scientific Committee consisting of reputed computer science professionals is selected by the Steering Committee. Scientific Committee members have a term of 3 years, with the possibility of extensions. The task of this committee includes (a) reviewing and discussing proposals, communicating with proposers if necessary to address drawbacks of proposals, and arriving at a final decision with respect to acceptance/rejection of a proposal, (b) assigning an available location and slot to the proposers in consultation with the proposers and the Steering Committee.

In addition, each approved IndiCS venue has a point-of-contact with whom the Steering Committee and proposers (after allotment of a venue) can communicate for logistics planning.

Funding and support

An IndiCS venue will provide meeting rooms and logistics at no cost to ACM India for the duration of the seminar. The hosting organization is also expected to make available boarding and lodging (and if possible, recreational) facilities for around 45 participants, possibly on a chargeable basis (depending on the host organization’s policy). ACM India will provide capped funding per IndiCS seminar to cover cost for boarding, lodging and travel for a limited number of students from India, and for some administrative expenses. All other participants are expected to pay their boarding, lodging and travel costs on their own. Boarding and lodging costs, where applicable, must be paid directly to the hosting organization.

Proposal submission and review

An IndiCS proposal can be submitted here by any group of computer science researchers and practitioners. At least one proposer must be based in India at the time of submitting the proposal.
An IndiCS seminar must be focused on an important computing research topic.
A seminar can have a maximum of 45 invitation-only participants.
A seminar is expected to last 3-5 days. It can be preceded or followed by an optional instructional school, in which case the duration of school + seminar must not exceeed 7 days.
There are two deadlines per year for submitting IndiCS proposals

* December 31, Year X: for seminar(s) in the autumn/winter of Year X+1
* June 30, Year X: for seminar(s) in the spring/summer of Year X+1

All proposals will be evaluated competitively for their quality and scientific merit by the IndiCS Scientific Committee.
Accepted seminar proposals will be scheduled based on a calendar of availability of venues.
An IndiCS seminar is expected to result in a report (to be compiled by the proposers) that should ideally serve as a reference for researchers and practioners working in the research area.

Invited academics with students in advanced stages of their research working on the topic of the seminar may also request such students to be admitted to the seminars. A hosting organization may also request a few of its scientific members working in areas related to the topic to be admitted to a seminar. It is expected that such requests will generally be accommodated by the proposers unless it disturbs the conduct of the proposed seminar itself.

Proposal format

An IndiCS proposal must be submitted as a PDF file containing information arranged in the following sections:

Executive summary: Name, affiliation and email address of all proposers, title of seminar, abstract describing the topics to be discussed at a high level, expected number of attendees, expected duration in days, whether a pre- or post-seminar instructional school is being planned, and if so its expected duration.
Technical proposal: Introduction to the topic of the proposed seminar, why is it relevant and important to the computing community, how will the seminar be structured, tentative list of topics to be discussed, tentative schedule with adequate time for open-ended discussions, interactions and collaborations among participants, expected outcome of the seminar beyond the mandatory report.
Instructional school proposal (if any): Why is it important/beneficial to organize the instructional school before/after the seminar, who is the intended audience, topics to be covered in the school, tentative list of lecturers, tentative schedule of lectures and (if applicable) hands-on sessions
List of invitees: A tentative list of invitees along with their current affiliations for the seminar and instructional school (if planned).

Upcoming deadline:

The next deadline for submission of IndiCS proposals is December 31, 2024.

Proposals can be submitted here . Seminar(s) selected from this round of submissions will be scheduled in autumn/winter of 2024, and proposers will be informed by email.

For queries related to IndiCS seminars, please write to [email protected]