<div><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">SISAP 2025 - Call for Special Session Proposals  </span><span style="font-size:0.833333rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">[APOLOGIES FOR MULTIPLE POSTINGS]</span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">==================================================================</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">18th International Conference on Similarity Search and Applications, SISAP 2025</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Reykjavik, Iceland, October 1-3, 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a href="https://www.sisap.org/2025/" style="color:rgb(66,133,244);font-size:0.916667rem">https://www.sisap.org/2025/</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">==================================================================</span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Call for Special Sessions at SISAP 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Special sessions are mini-venues, each focusing on one state-of-the-art research direction within the field of similarity search and applications. Special session papers will supplement the regular research papers and be included in the proceedings of SISAP 2025, which will be published by Springer as a volume in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Special sessions should generally be organized in a moderated panel format, typically led by one of the special session chairs, where the authors have reduced time to present their work, followed by an extensive Q&A session with the audience. It is expected that special session chairs attend the conference.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The panel format is a general guideline rather than a strict requirement. If a proposal envisages a different session format, we are open to such a submission and would negotiate it further.</span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Special Session Papers and Review Process</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Normally, each special session will include four to five papers. Special session submissions may include vision/position papers, which will be evaluated based on the quality of the arguments and ideas proposed in the papers. In addition to invited papers, if any, the conference will also welcome open submissions to special sessions. In order to ensure high quality, all papers submitted to special sessions will be peer-reviewed through a strict review process, including papers solicited by the special session chairs. If a special session has many high-quality submissions, some of the submissions may potentially be moved to regular sessions; likewise relevant accepted submissions may be moved into special sessions. </span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The review process will be coordinated with the regular technical program review process, as coordinated by the PC chairs. The organizers of each special session must provide two reviews per submitted/invited paper, while the regular program committee will provide another two reviews. The final decision on acceptance/rejection will be proposed by the special session chairs and approved by the SISAP 2025 program committee chairs. If special session chairs submit work to their own session, the review process for those papers must be managed by the SISAP 2025 program committee chairs.</span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Special session papers must follow the same guidelines as regular research papers with respect to restrictions on formatting, length, and will follow a double-blind review procedure. </span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Special Session Proposal Submission Instructions</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Special session proposals must be submitted by email to </span><a href="mailto:sisap2025@isti.cnr.it" style="color:rgb(66,133,244);text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">sisap2025@isti.cnr.it</span></a><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">  by</span><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> February 3, 2025</span><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. Proposals will be evaluated by SISAP 2025 general chairs and program committee chairs, based on the relevance to SISAP, qualification(s) of the organizer(s), proposal quality, and anticipated community interest in the topic/proposed potential papers. </span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Please include the following information in your proposal:</span></p><ul style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Title (and preferably an acronym) of the proposed special session.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Name, affiliation, brief biography and contact information for each of the organizers.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">A session abstract including significance justification and a brief overview of the state-of-the-art of the proposed special session topic.</span><span style="font-size:11pt;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Note: The session abstract should be in a format that can be copied directly to the conference web-page to advertise the session.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">List of solicited papers, if applicable, including for each paper: tentative title, author list, and preferably a short abstract; if session chairs anticipate submitting to their session, it is worth noting here as well.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Proposal for arrangement of the reviews from session organizers (e.g. list of reviewers for the special session).</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Description of the session format (e.g. panel, technical talks, poster session).</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Plans for advertising the special session (e.g. targeted distribution lists, projects, communities).</span></p></li></ul><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Important Dates for Special Session Proposals</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Submission Deadline</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">     </span></span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">  </span></span><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">3 February 2025</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Notification of Acceptance</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">    </span></span><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">17 February 2025</span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Topics of Interest</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.916667rem;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Topics of interest to the SISAP community include (but are not limited to) the following:</span></p><br style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none"><ul style="color:rgb(49,49,49);font-family:'-apple-system','helvetica neue';font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:14pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity</span></p></li><li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity queries (k-NN, range, reverse NN, top-k, Approximate and/or precise solutions, etc.)</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity measures (for vectors, graphs, structures, time series, complex data, tensors, secondary similarity, etc.)</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity operations (joins, ranking, classification, categorization, filtering, etc.)</span></p></li></ul></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:14pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Scalability</span></p></li><li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Indexing and access methods for similarity-based processing</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">High-performance/large-scale similarity search (distributed, parallel, etc.)</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Data management (transaction support, dynamic maintenance, etc.)</span></p></li></ul></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:14pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Theory</span></p></li><li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Models of similarity</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Intrinsic dimensionality and Curse of dimensionality</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Discriminability and contrast</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Languages for similarity databases</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Manifolds and subspaces</span></p></li></ul></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:14pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Analytics, Learning, Artificial Intelligence</span></p></li><li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Feature selection and extraction for similarity search</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Representations learning for feature extraction</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Visual analytics for similarity-based operations</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Learning/adaptive similarity measures</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity in learning and mining</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Merging/combining multiple similarity modalities</span></p></li></ul></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:14pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Evaluation</span></p></li><li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Evaluation techniques for similarity queries and operations</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Cost models and analysis for similarity data processing</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Performance studies and comparisons</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Test collections and benchmarks</span></p></li></ul></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;font-weight:700;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:14pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Applications</span></p></li><li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Multimedia retrieval systems</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Dense retrieval</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Vector databases</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity search in emerging data domains</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Applications of similarity-based operations</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Industrial applications and case studies</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity search cloud services</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Security and privacy of in similarity search</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;font-size:10.5pt;font-family:'arial',sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;margin-left:27pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:11pt"><span style="font-size:0.875rem;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Similarity for forensics and security</span></p></li></ul></li></ul></div>