KAUST Rising Stars in AI Symposium 2026
ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM
Artificial intelligence is reimagining the modern world. It is reshaping science, industry, governance, and daily life. It holds the power to transform challenges into opportunities for the Kingdom and humanity.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the KAUST Center of Excellence for Generative AI continue to proudly support this transition, hosting the fifth annual Rising Stars in AI Symposium.
Tailored for Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career faculty advancing the field of AI, this three-day event enables the exchange of advanced concepts and emerging discoveries from around the world.
Join a dynamic exploration of AI. Apply to be a speaker and inspire global colleagues at the in-person symposium. Together, these “Rising Stars” will help shape the most transformative technological change in history.
Call for speakers:
The symposium committee will select speakers based on outstanding research achievements. Presenters will have the opportunity to share work recently recognized at world-class AI conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, EMNLP, ACL, and COLT.
KAUST and the Center of Excellence for Generative AI invite applications from early-career researchers with notable contributions in machine learning — spanning areas such as computer vision, optimization, reinforcement learning, natural language processing, applied AI, and beyond.
•Application link: https://forms.gle/bDuSPhMCY88mFLFU7
• Deadline to apply: November 15, 2025
• Notification date: December 1, 2025
Call for poster presentation
KAUST scientist (Student, Postdoc and Researchers) are invited to showcase their recently published AI work in the symposium’s poster session. Selected posters will also be featured during the spotlight session.
Poster presentation applications will open soon.
Attending the Symposium
The Rising Stars in AI Symposium will be limited to in-person attendance.
On-site registration will open soon
Agenda
Coming soon
ORGANIZERS
KAUST Centers of Excellence
KAUST Launches Four Pioneering Centers of Excellence to Address Key National and International Priorities
KAUST CORE LABS
KAUST hosts a wide range of sophisticated instruments and world-class facilities that students can access, including the Prototyping and Product Development Core Lab, and laboratories involving robotics and embedded systems, sensors, intelligent autonomous systems and biotechnology. Specific labs will be identified based on the curriculum and individual projects.
A NEW ERA FOR KAUST
Our unrelenting commitment to research, innovation and talent has seen KAUST establish itself as one of the leading research universities in the world, ranking #1 for citations per faculty globally, with a reputation for impact-driven research that contributes to the betterment of the world. This new era of KAUST builds on our many successes, achievements and strong foundations, and our new strategy represents an evolution that brings us closer to the interests of the Kingdom.
CONTACT US
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
4700 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Thuwal 23955-6900
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Follow us on Social media: