ACM DXConf 2027: ACM Conference on Digital Transformation

Digital transformation (DX) is shaping all sectors (e.g., agriculture, water/power grids, manufacturing, nuclear, transportation, supply chain). Various industries are adopting computing tools to collect real-time data, automate complex decisions, and modernize operations. However, existing DX solutions are devised in silos in each sector, producing point solutions that rarely generalize beyond a specific scenario. This fragmentation leads to interoperability issues across sector boundaries, with incompatible data and protocol formats, and software tools designed for single sectors only. As this locks techniques, insights, data, models, and expertise in various silos, the current approach fails to address interconnected industries. For instance, agri-food systems require energy, irrigation, and logistics; and datacenter infrastructure is deeply connected to power and water systems — at the infrastructure nexus, DX techniques especially fall short.

For DX to deliver its full promise, we need to understand fundamental questions: What are the computing abstractions, system architectures, and design principles, algorithms and theories that underpin digital transformation? How should we design systems that are resilient, adaptive, trustworthy, and scalable for individual infrastructures and their nexuses?

The mission of ACM DXConf is to foster collaboration between the computing community and industry sectors, to explore and address these questions, and to establish digital transformation as a new discipline. DX is the art and science of devising and applying computing techniques, tools, theories, and principles for industrial systems. By close collaboration, computing scientists will help leapfrog industries with state-of-the-art solutions; on the other hand, researchers in industry sectors will provide a golden source of problems that challenge and extend the boundary of computer science. This is a grand challenge and lifetime opportunity for both communities.