Second Edition
Joint APPCAIR Workshop 2026
GikaGraph.ai
Organised by
About APPCAIR
The Anuradha and Prashanth Palakurthi Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (APPCAIR) is the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence at BITS Pilani, with active participation from faculty members across all four campuses, Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad, and Dubai. The Centre fosters interdisciplinary research in Artificial Intelligence, promotes collaborations with academia and industry, and nurtures the next generation of AI researchers, innovators, and data scientists through research, education, and outreach activities.
About JAW 2026
The Joint APPCAIR Workshop (JAW) is the flagship annual event of APPCAIR, bringing together the AI research community across all BITS Pilani campuses, along with distinguished researchers and practitioners from academia and industry. JAW 2026, the second edition of the workshop, will be hosted by APPCAIR at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, on 14–15 August 2026.
The two-day workshop provides a vibrant forum for exchanging ideas, showcasing cutting-edge research, and fostering collaborations in Artificial Intelligence. The programme includes invited talks by leading academic and industry experts, a round table discussion, industry lightning talks, a hackathon, faculty talks, and poster presentations by doctoral, postgraduate, and undergraduate students. JAW aims to strengthen interactions among researchers, encourage interdisciplinary collaborations, and inspire students through meaningful engagement with leaders from academia and industry.
Programme
Six threads run across the two days, laid out in the schedule below.
Invited Research Talks
Talks from researchers at leading academic institutions and industry laboratories on their current work across artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Round Table Discussion
A moderated round table putting academic and industry perspectives side by side on where AI research is heading and how it reaches the world.
Industry Lightning Talks
Talks from industry practitioners on taking research into production, alongside stalls from participating organisations.
Hackathon
In collaboration with GikaGraph.ai: a hands-on build sprint on trust and reliability in generative AI output, with a ₹25,000 prize pool.
Faculty Talks
Technical talks from APPCAIR faculty on their current research across the BITS Pilani campuses.
Poster Presentations
Posters from doctoral, postgraduate and undergraduate students. The call for posters opens soon, with participation invited from across the campuses.
Schedule
Event schedule at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus. Talk titles will be added as they are confirmed. The schedule is provisional and subject to change.
Day 1 · 14th August
- 09:00 – 09:40 AM Inauguration
- 09:40 – 10:40 AM Combinatorial Bandits with Full Bandit Feedback
- 10:40 – 11:00 AM Tea Break
- 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Measuring and Teaching Machines to Persuade: From Content to Coding Agents
- 12:00 – 12:45 PM Short Faculty Talks I
- 12:45 – 02:00 PM Lunch Break
- 02:00 – 03:00 PM Decentralised Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning of Stochastic Shortest Paths
- 03:00 – 04:00 PM Short Faculty Talks II
- 04:00 – 05:30 PM High Tea & Poster Presentation
Day 2 · 15th August
- 09:00 AM onwards Flag Hoisting
- 10:30 – 10:45 AM Tea Break
- 10:50 – 11:50 AM Invited Talk
- 11:50 AM – 12:50 PM Invited Talk
- 12:50 – 02:00 PM Lunch Break
- 02:00 – 03:00 PM Round Table Discussion
- 03:00 – 04:00 PM Enough of Scaling Laws! Let's focus on the downscaling of LLMs
- 04:00 – 04:20 PM Tea Break
- 04:20 – 04:50 PM Data as a (Dual) Graph: Rethinking Cognitive Architecture of Agentic AI
- 04:50 – 05:30 PM Valedictory Ceremony
- Evening, 7–10 PM Dinner
Speakers
The speakers below have confirmed their participation. Further names, along with talk titles and abstracts, will be added as they are confirmed.
Prof. N. Hemachandra
IIT Bombay
“Decentralised Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning of Stochastic Shortest Paths”
Dr. Yaman Kumar
Adobe Research
“Measuring and Teaching Machines to Persuade: From Content to Coding Agents”
Dr. Manoj Agarwal
GikaGraph.ai
“Data as a (Dual) Graph: Rethinking Cognitive Architecture of Agentic AI”
More to be announced
Further speakers from academia and industry are being confirmed.
Take Part
Ways to join JAW 2026. Details for the hackathon and posters are being finalised and will appear on the pages below.
Audience
All are welcome. Students, researchers and faculty can simply come along to attend the talks and sessions. No registration is required.
Hackathon
In collaboration with GikaGraph.ai: quantifying trust and reliability in generative AI output, with a ₹25,000 prize pool.
Present a Poster
Doctoral, postgraduate and undergraduate students, email your poster by 11th August 2026.
Venue and Travel
J.C. Chaudhry NAB Auditorium
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Vidya Vihar, Pilani, Rajasthan 333031, India
Pilani is in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. The nearest airports are Jaipur and Delhi, each roughly a four to five hour road journey away, and the nearest railhead is Loharu Junction. Detailed travel directions, campus guest house information and accommodation guidance will be published here before the workshop.
Organising Committee
JAW 2026 is organised by APPCAIR, hosted at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus.
Head, APPCAIR
Prof. Snehanshu Saha
BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa CampusAssociate Head, APPCAIR
Prof. Poonam Goyal
BITS Pilani, Pilani CampusResearch Talks
Prof. Suvanjan Bhattacharyya
Prof. Prashant Trivedi
Round Table Discussion
Prof. Navneet Goyal
Industry Talks and Sponsorship
Prof. Pratik Narang
Prof. Vinay Chamola
Hackathon and Website
Prof. Yash Sinha
Prof. Dhruv Kumar
Poster Presentations
Prof. Shashank Gupta
Prof. A. K. Giri
Faculty and Attendees
Prof. R. Srinivas
Prof. S. N. Patel
Local Organisation and Travel
Prof. Bharat Richhariya
Prof. Prashant Trivedi
Stage
Prof. Bharat Richhariya
Meet and Greet
Prof. Siddharth Mehrotra
Prof. Pranjal Vyas
Student Volunteers
Sponsors
JAW 2026 is supported in part by GikaGraph.ai.
Contact and Sponsorship
For questions about the workshop, participation or sponsorship, write to the organising committee. Organisations interested in sponsoring JAW 2026 or taking a stall at the venue are welcome to get in touch.
Prof. Poonam Goyal
Associate Head, APPCAIR
poonam@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in
More about the centre at appcair.bits-pilani.ac.in.