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The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the first scientific and educational society created in the field of computing, holds its annual conference "Symposium On Applied Computing" (SAC). On this occasion, the institution, which is present in more than 100 countries, has chosen the University of Salamanca as the venue for the 39th symposium, which in previous years has been held in places such as the United States, South Korea, Brazil and Switzerland.

SAC 2024 is taking place at the Centro de Exposiciones y Congresos Lienzo Norte in Ávila from 8 to 12 April. The opening of the event took place this morning and was attended by the Director of the Faculty of Education and Tourism of Ávila, Mª Isabel López Fernández; the Chief Commissioner of the National Police School, José Luis Tejedor González; the Secretary General of the CUFPN, Miguel Ángel González Díez, and the Chief Inspector of the National Police Casimiro Nevado Santano.

   Authorities present at the opening session of SAC 2024                  

Members of the BISITE Research Group of the USAL, as co-organisers of the event, presented the programme, objectives and main speakers at the congress, which will host more than 500 attendees from 30 different countries. The programme includes keynote lectures such as the one given by Dr. Xue (Steve) Liu, Professor of Computer Science at McGill University in Canada, and Paulo Novais, Professor of the Department of Computer Science at the Universidade do Minho (Portugal). The expert presentations cover topics such as applied computing research and the integration of artificial intelligence to create smarter, more intuitive and understandable systems.

Opening session of the congress

During the congress, the newly created ACM Europe Award will be presented, which recognises the most outstanding papers on five different topics, with financial awards for the authors of the best contributions. SAC 2024 also includes a section dedicated to students, giving them the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with researchers and professionals in their areas of interest. To this end, a section on the event's website was made available to publish abstracts of research papers. The student authors of the papers chosen by the panel were invited to the congress and were also awarded financial prizes, thus encouraging their participation and facilitating contact with international experts.

Attendees at one of the many conferences of SAC 2024

The holding of the congress is an outstanding international recognition for the University of Salamanca and the city of Avila, enabling future collaborations with ACM and with academics and professionals from all over the world.