Future Leaders

Future Leaders of AI

The Future Leaders of AI event at the ACM AI Leadership Summit provides a dedicated forum for doctoral students to engage with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and more, at a formative stage of their careers. The event is designed to help doctoral students broaden their perspective beyond individual research problems and situate their work within the evolving technical, ethical, and societal landscapes of AI. Through invited talks and interactive discussions, participants will gain insight into emerging AI frontiers, responsible innovation, and the real-world impact of AI systems. The program combines visionary perspectives with practical guidance, featuring keynote talks from senior leaders in the field as well as stimulating dialogue on open research challenges. Through interacting with peers and mentors, doctoral students will be equipped to reflect on their research directions, build community, and actively contribute to—and lead—the broader conversations of the ACM AI Leadership Summit.

Applications

Students interested in participating to the Future Leaders of AI event should submit the following materials:

1. 1

   Two-Pages Position Statement

   Applicants must submit a two-pages position statement describing their research interests and explaining what they hope to gain from participating in both the Future Leaders of AI event and the ACM AI Leadership Summit. The statement should highlight how participation in the event will contribute to the applicant's research vision, professional development, and engagement with emerging leadership challenges in AI. Applicants are encouraged to reflect on how their work connects to broader questions about the future impact, governance, and responsible development of AI.

2. 2

   Curriculum Vitae (CV)

   A current CV (maximum 2 pages) summarizing the applicant's academic background, research activities, publications (if any), and relevant experience.

3. 3

   Advisor Letter

   A brief confirmation from the applicant's PhD advisor verifying the student's status and supporting their participation in the summit.

4. 4

   Indication of their main area of interest among the following areas:

   • Artificial Intelligence: Focus: ML/AI theory and methods, computational reasoning
   • Systems & Networking: Focus: Operating systems, distributed systems, networking, performance, hardware-software co-design, embedded and cyber-physical systems, automated design
   • Software: Focus: Software development practices and processes, languages and compilers
   • Data Management: Focus: Data management and databases, search and retrieval, data mining, geospatial systems
   • Human-Computer Interaction & Media: Focus: Interaction design, multimedia computing, web science, communication interfaces, accessible computing, graphics, visualization & interactive media
   • Theory, Logic & Formal Methods: Focus: Theoretical foundations of computing, algorithms, formal methods, logic
   • Security, Privacy & Ethics: Focus: Cybersecurity, privacy, trust, assurance in computing and AI deployments
   • Applied Computing & Interdisciplinary: Focus: Interdisciplinary applications, societal impacts, computing education

Submit Your Application

For inquiries please contact: acm-ai-summit-consortium@acm.org