From July 13 to 18, Padova Congress will become the world capital of information retrieval, search engines, and generative artificial intelligence applied to information access with the 48th edition of ACM SIGIR, an in-person conference that will bring over a thousand delegates to the city for five days of papers, demonstrations, workshops, tutorials, doctoral programs, and SIRIP Industry Track.
Among the distinctive services offered, the childcare provided by the conference center stands out: an area equipped for children aged 0 to 12 with recreational and educational activities run by a specialized association. The initiative—the first of its kind in Italy and successfully trialed during the Annual Meeting of the European Astronomical Society last July—responds to the growing need for work-life balance, allowing participants to travel with their entire family and extend their stay in the city.
A brand new addition to the program is the Low Resource Environments Track, designed for researchers from contexts with limited resources, particularly in Africa, where a lack of linguistic data and funding limits scientific progress. The track accepted two-page presentation proposals, which were evaluated by an international committee. Selected authors received funding for travel (covered by SIGIR), accommodation (covered by the University of Padua), and registration fees, while ensuring the scientific rigor typical of SIGIR.
