Similarity Search and Applications - 17th International Conference, SISAP 2024, Providence, RI, USA, November 4-6, 2024, Proceedings

This volume contains the papers presented at the 17th International Conference on Similarity Search and Applications (SISAP 2024), held in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, from November 4 to 6, 2024. This year, Brown University had the honor of hosting SISAP 2024, continuing the tradition of providing an annual platform for researchers, practitioners, and developers who are advancing the field of similarity data management. As our digital landscape continues to expand, the need for efficient similarity search methods becomes increasingly critical. The growing complexity and diversity of digital information demand innovative approaches that extend beyond basic exact query retrieval. Addressing the challenges of exploring similar items and managing vast machine-learning datasets efficiently are central to our field. SISAP has firmly established itself as the leading international forum where scholars and practitioners come together to advance the frontiers of similarity search, continuously striving for faster and more effective solutions. Despite the significant progress achieved, the challenges posed by larger datasets, novel data modalities, and emerging applications continue to inspire the community to pursue further innovation. This year’s conference featured the second edition of the SISAP Indexing Challenge, chaired by Martin Aumüller, Vladimir Mic, and Eric S. Tellez, which builds on the success of the previous edition. This challenge marked a significant milestone in the evolution of the technology and fostered the dissemination of best practices throughout the community. Participants worked with a shared open dataset, offering a benchmark for reproducible results. The proceedings include a detailed description of the challenge by its organizers, along with reports from the participating teams. A special session on the first day of the conference was dedicated to the presentation of the challenge, giving each team the opportunity to showcase their approach and results. SISAP 2024 also featured three distinguished keynote speakers (Piotr Indyk, Bradley C. Love, and Sanjiv Kumar), who provided a rich diversity of theoretical, practical, and applied insights. Each day began with a keynote presentation. This year, we received 28 submissions for the SISAP main track and 4 submissions for the SISAP Indexing Challenge from authors representing 15 countries. The Program Committee, composed of 47 members from 18 countries, played a crucial role in ensuring the scientific rigor and quality of the accepted papers. Each submission underwent a thorough review process, with an average of 2.8 double-blind reviews per paper for the SISAP main track. After careful deliberation by the chairs, 24 papers were accepted in total, with 13 being full papers, 7 accepted as short/demo papers, and 4 accepted for the SISAP Indexing Challenge. This resulted in an acceptance rate of 46% for full papers. In addition, the proceedings contain one overview paper of the Indexing Challenge. The proceedings of SISAP 2024 are published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. We extend our gratitude to Springer for their continued support and for sponsoring SISAP Awards. As is tradition, authors of selected outstanding papers were invited to submit extended versions of their work for publication in a special issue of the Elsevier journal Information Systems. Finally, we extend our deepest appreciation to all members of the Program Committee for their diligent and timely reviews, which were instrumental in maintaining the high scientific and academic standards of the conference. Their constructive feedback has been invaluable in helping authors refine their work and enhance the quality of these proceedings.