SLIIT's ICAC Elevated to Full IEEE-backed International Conference Status

The Faculty of Computing at Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) is pleased to announce that its International Conference on Advancements in Computing (ICAC) will be held this year as the IEEE International Conference on Advancements in Computing, reflecting a new level of IEEE sponsorship.

Since inception of the conference in 2019, ICAC has quietly put forward the freshest ideas in computing and IT, brought together industry leaders and academics from around the world and quietly forged a research culture that has captured the international spotlight. The 8th edition of the conference will take place 9–10 December 2026 at SLIIT, Malabe.

From every edition between 2019 and 2025, ICAC operated under a technical co-sponsorship from IEEE Sri Lanka. For 2026, that relationship has deepened into a full IEEE sponsorship, positioning ICAC as a fully recognized IEEE international conference-marking a significant step yet in the conference's transition from a SLIIT event into an internationally endorsed research platform.

ICAC traces its roots to the National Conference on Technology & Management, which ran for a decade at SLIIT before evolving into ICAC in 2019. Since then, the conference has been held every year without interruption, including a fully virtual format during the 2020 and 2021 pandemic years.

Seven Years of Growth

Across its first seven editions (2019–2025), ICAC has published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers indexed in IEEE Xplore and Scopus, drawn over 1,000 cumulative participants, and hosted more than 20 keynote and invited speakers from institutions including the University of Auckland, Imperial College London, Middlesex University London, and Kyushu University. The conference series has built a Google Scholar h-index of 16, and its research tracks span 11 to 17 areas each year, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, computer vision, IoT, and quantum computing.

Part of a Broader Research Trajectory

The upgrade to full IEEE sponsorship comes as SLIIT's own research output continues to grow. SLIIT now produces more than 300 Scopus-indexed papers annually and is ranked joint-third among all Sri Lankan universities, state and private, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026 — the highest ranking achieved by a private university in the country. Several SLIIT researchers rank among the world's top 2% of scientists in the Stanford–Elsevier rankings.

ICAC 2026 will continue to welcome submissions from academics, postgraduate students, and industry professionals working in computing and IT, both in Sri Lanka and internationally. Further details on submission tracks and deadlines are available at icac.lk.