IEEE BigData

2026 IEEE International Conference on Big Data

Call for Future Faculty Highlights: IEEE BigData 2026

Overview

The IEEE BigData 2026 Future Faculty Highlights track has two program elements for senior PhD students and postdoctoral researchers on the academic job market:

  1. Rising Star Job Talks, a selective track in which accepted speakers present a job-talk-style overview of their research and receive the IEEE BigData 2026 Future Faculty Rising Star designation.
  2. Faculty AMA Panel, an Ask Me Anything Q&A with 4-5 senior faculty across career stages, open to all conference attendees.

The Rising Star application is competitive and requires a CFP submission (this document). The Faculty AMA Panel is an open session; no application is needed.

The track connects candidates with faculty hiring committees, senior researchers, and conference attendees across research universities, teaching-focused institutions, national labs, industry research labs, and international institutions. It is timed before the academic campus-visit cycle in early 2027.

Program Components

1. Rising Star Job Talks (Application Required)

Selected speakers present a 30-minute job-talk-style overview of their research, followed by a 10-minute Q&A, scheduled in dedicated sessions during the main conference program (December 14-17, 2026). Sessions are grouped by research area when possible. Each speaker receives written feedback from at least two senior committee members on talk content and delivery.

Selected speakers receive the IEEE BigData 2026 Future Faculty Rising Star designation. Speaker name, affiliation, photo, talk title, and abstract are listed on the IEEE BigData 2026 website ahead of the academic campus-visit cycle. The designation can be cited on faculty application materials in the same format as similar programs (e.g., MIT EECS Rising Stars, UChicago Data Science Rising Stars).

Eligibility, submission requirements, and review criteria are detailed below.

2. Faculty AMA Panel

A 75 to 90-minute Ask Me Anything panel with 4-5 senior faculty across career stages (newly tenured, mid-career, senior, and department leadership). The panel is open to all conference attendees and needs no separate application or sign-up. Topics typically include navigating the academic job market, offer negotiation, the first-year faculty transition, building and funding a research group, and balancing teaching with research.

Scope

The Rising Star application welcomes candidates whose research is relevant to any topic within the IEEE BigData scope:

  • Big Data Foundations
  • Big Data Infrastructure
  • Big Data Management
  • Big Data Search and Mining
  • Big Data Learning and Analytics
  • Big Data Applications
  • Data Ecosystem
  • Foundation Models for Big Data
  • Big Data Science
  • Benchmarks
  • BlueSky Ideas

Eligibility

The Rising Star track is open to:

  • Senior PhD students who plan to graduate by Summer 2027 and are applying for tenure-track faculty positions in the 2026-2027 cycle.
  • Postdoctoral researchers entering the academic job market in 2026-2027.

Applicants from underrepresented institutions and international applicants are encouraged to apply.

Submission Requirements (Rising Star Track)

Each application must be submitted as a single PDF containing:

  1. Curriculum Vitae (maximum 4 pages).
  2. Job talk title and abstract (maximum 300 words).
  3. Research statement describing research vision and target faculty position type, for example, research university or teaching-focused institution (maximum 500 words).
  4. Endorsement from the PhD advisor or postdoc supervisor confirming 2026-2027 job-market status. A one-paragraph email forwarded by the candidate is sufficient.

Each candidate may submit only one application.

Submission Site (Rising Star Track)

Submissions are made through the IEEE BigData 2026 submission system. When submitting, please select the Future Faculty Highlights track:

https://wi-lab.com/cyberchair/2026/bigdata26/scripts/ws_submit.php?subarea=SP

Review and Selection (Rising Star Track)

Applications are reviewed by the cochairs and a Future Faculty Highlights program committee. Selection criteria:

  • Research impact and originality of the candidate’s PhD or postdoc work.
  • Clarity and accessibility of the job-talk abstract for a broad big-data audience.
  • Fit with the IEEE BigData scope.
  • Programmatic balance across topics, methods, and institutions.

Final acceptance decisions are contingent on available program slots and confirmed feedback-reader coverage for each accepted talk.

Important Dates

Rising Star Track:

  • Submission deadline: October 24, 2026
  • Notification of acceptance: November 7, 2026
  • Participation confirmation by accepted Rising Stars: November 21, 2026
  • Speaker bio, photo, and final abstract due: December 5, 2026

Faculty AMA Panel: an open session during the conference; no sign-up required.

Submission Site (Rising Star Track)

Submissions are made through the IEEE BigData 2026 submission system. When submitting, please select the Future Faculty Highlights track:

https://wi-lab.com/cyberchair/2026/bigdata26/scripts/ws_submit.php?subarea=SP

Attendance Requirement and Travel Support

Each accepted Rising Star must register for IEEE BigData 2026 and present in person at Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. Remote presentations are not accepted for the Rising Star track. Faculty AMA Panel attendance also requires conference registration.

The Organizing Committee plans to provide either a travel award or reduced registration for accepted Rising Stars. The specific form will be confirmed in October 2026 once the conference financial planning is finalized. Beyond this Rising Star support, the track does not provide separate funding for general student attendance.

Future Faculty Highlights Cochairs

  • Chunwei Liu, Purdue University
  • John Paparrizos, The Ohio State University and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • Yue Zhao, University of Southern California

Steering Committee (IEEE BigData 2026)

  • General Co-chairs: Huan Liu (Arizona State University), Shashi Shekhar (University of Minnesota)
  • Program Co-chairs: Alfredo Cuzzocrea (University of Calabria), Yanjie Fu (Arizona State University), Ranga Raju Vatsavai (North Carolina State University)

Contact

Questions about eligibility, materials, or the program can be sent to the track cochairs.