December 1-4, 2025
HKUST, Hong Kong

Motivation of The Workshop

The rise of programmable network devices -- such as switches and SmartNICs -- has enabled a new computing paradigm: In-Network Computing (INC). By performing computation directly in the data plane, INC can reduce communication overhead, accelerate distributed coordination, and improve the efficiency of system-wide operations. Distributed systems stand to benefit significantly from this paradigm shift. Many of their core functions—such as replication, consensus, scheduling, aggregation, and load balancing—are communication-heavy and latency-sensitive. In-network computing provides a compelling opportunity to rethink these mechanisms by pushing parts of their logic into the network fabric. While recent research has demonstrated the feasibility of INC for specific tasks (e.g., cache indexing, gradient aggregation, distributed counters), broader system-level integration remains challenging. Open questions span from programming abstractions and hardware constraints to performance modeling, security, and compatibility with evolving distributed runtimes. This workshop focuses on in-network computing and AI for distributed systems (INCAS). We aim to bring together researchers and practitioners to share emerging ideas, explore new design patterns, and identify key challenges at the intersection of programmable networks and distributed system architecture.

Important Date (All AoE Time)

Workshop Paper Abstract Registration: July 21st, 2025
Workshop Paper Submission: July 28th, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: September 12th, 2025
Camera-Ready Workshop Papers: October 8th, 2025
Program Available Online: October 12th, 2025
List of Organization Details: October 12th, 2025

Organizers

Steering Co-Chairs

• Deke Guo (National University of Defense Technology)
• Dezun Dong (National University of Defense Technology)
• Theophilus A. Benson (Carnegie Mellon University)

Organization Co-Chairs

• Wenfei Wu (Peking University)
• Xiaoxi Zhang (Sun Yat-sen University)
• Yiran Zhang (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications)
• Qingkai Meng (Nanjing University)

Web Co-Chairs

• Songjun Huang (Sun Yat-sen University)
• Zeteng Yan (Sun Yat-sen University)

Publication Chair

• Jianqiang Zhong (Sun Yat-sen University)

Publicity Chair

• Haoran Xu (Sun Yat-sen University)

Program Committee Members

• Gianni Antichi (Politecnico di Milano and Queen Mary University of London)
• Wenxue Cheng (MSRA)
• Lin Cui (Jinan University)
• Jingpu Duan (Pengcheng Laboratory)
• Jiawei Huang (Zhongnan University)
• Jiayi Huang (HKUST-Guangzhou)
• Wanchun Jiang (Central South University)
• Zhuo Jiang (ByteDance)
• Wenxin Li (Tianjin University)
• Jiaxin Lin (Cornell University)
• Shinan Liu (HKU)
• Shuo Liu (Huawei)
• Youyou Lu (Tsinghua University)
• Zhixiong Niu (MSRA)
• Kun Qian (Alibaba)
• Yiming Qiu (HKU)
• Danfeng Shan (Xi'an Jiao Tong University)
• Haifeng Sun (NUS)
• Xiaoliang Wang (Nanjing University)
• Xingda Wei (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
• Wenfei Wu (Peking University)
• Yongji Wu (UC Berkeley)
• Yunming Xiao (CUHK(SZ))
• Jiarong Xing (UC Berkeley)
• Hong Xu (CUHK)
• Lei Xue (Sun Yat-sen University)
• Gaoxiong Zeng (Huawei)
• Rongfei Zeng (Northeastern University)
• Menghao Zhang (Beihang University)
• Xiaoxi Zhang (Sun Yat-sen University)
• Gongming Zhao (USTC)
• Shizhen Zhao (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
• Jiaqi Zheng (Nanjing University)
• Yang Zhou (UCB & UCD)
• Tom Barbette (UCLouvain)
• *Potential committee members will be finalized soon

Publicity Plan

To ensure strong participation and broad visibility, the INCAS 2025 workshop will be promoted through multiple channels, including the official ACM CoNEXT website, academic mailing lists, and a range of social media platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter/X, WeChat, and others). We will also conduct direct outreach to leading researchers and industry professionals in relevant fields.