[hpc-announce] AI4SafeDist 2026: 1st International Workshop on Assuring AI-Enabled Distributed Systems in Safety-Critical Domains

[Sandra Catalán Pallarés]

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Call for Papers
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AI4SafeDist 2026
1st International Workshop on Assuring AI-Enabled Distributed Systems
in Safety-Critical Domains

held in conjunction with SAFECOMP 2026
September 22, 2026

Workshop website:
https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://sites.google.com/uji.es/ai4safedist-2026__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!cKn2TVgXjCSMsmM2_DDh9JtDGkriSVoNJ_KDCdXXkQRBSN-XzxLfMrsudHEVSYINcL15yPqoUafYBFGGcbbA$

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Introduction
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) components are increasingly integrated
into safety-critical systems across domains such as transportation,
industrial automation, healthcare, and smart infrastructures. These
systems are progressively distributed, interconnected, and
data-driven, combining AI-based decision-making with complex software
and hardware ecosystems.

While AI technologies provide new capabilities, they also introduce
significant challenges regarding safety assurance, reliability,
security, and dependability assessment. Traditional engineering
methodologies for safety-critical systems are often not directly
applicable to adaptive and data-driven components, especially when
deployed in distributed and heterogeneous environments.

Recent editions of SAFECOMP have highlighted growing interest in
AI-based systems, safety assurance, runtime monitoring, and
certification challenges. However, systematic approaches for assuring
AI-enabled distributed systems remain an open research challenge.

AI4SafeDist 2026 aims to provide a focused forum within SAFECOMP for
discussing methods, tools, frameworks, and practical experiences
addressing the safety and security assurance of AI-enabled distributed
systems.

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Objectives, scope and topics of the workshop
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The objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers,
practitioners, and industry experts working at the intersection of AI,
dependable systems, cybersecurity, and safety engineering. The
workshop focuses on identifying key challenges in assuring and
certifying AI-enabled safety-critical systems, while promoting
methodologies for the safe and secure deployment of distributed AI.

A core goal is to foster interaction between AI and safety engineering
communities, encourage discussion of early-stage ideas and
work-in-progress results, and contribute to shaping research
directions at the intersection of AI, safety, and security.

We are looking for original high-quality research and position papers
on methods, tools, frameworks, and practical applications for assuring
AI-enabled distributed systems. Topics of interest include, but are
not limited to:

- Safety and reliability in distributed and AI-enabled systems
- Safety/security co-engineering in AI-enabled architectures
- Privacy-preserving and secure machine learning (e.g., federated
learning, secure computation)
- Robustness, explainability, trustworthiness, and resilience of AI systems
- Fault tolerance and dependable AI-enabled architectures
- Model-based and data-driven dependability assessment
- Edge-to-cloud and cyber-physical AI systems in regulated environments
- Multi-concern dependability assurance combining safety, security, and AI
- Socio-technical, regulatory, and ethical aspects of safe and secure AI
- Industrial case studies involving AI in safety-critical environments

Reports on European or national research projects, as well as
industrial experience reports and work in progress, are especially
welcome.

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Publication
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Accepted papers will be published as a complementary volume to the
SAFECOMP 2026 Proceedings (Springer LNCS).

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Submission Guidelines
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Authors submitting papers for AI4SafeDist 2026 must do so via the
EasyChair submission system.

Authors are invited to submit papers of 6–12 pages in PDF format,
including figures and references.

All submissions must contain original work that has not appeared in,
and is not under consideration for, another conference, journal, or
workshop.

All papers will be reviewed by at least three reviewers.

Format: Springer LNCS style guidelines:
https://urldefense.us/v3/__http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!cKn2TVgXjCSMsmM2_DDh9JtDGkriSVoNJ_KDCdXXkQRBSN-XzxLfMrsudHEVSYINcL15yPqoUafYBOO7L-ck$

Submission link:
https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ai4safedist2026__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!cKn2TVgXjCSMsmM2_DDh9JtDGkriSVoNJ_KDCdXXkQRBSN-XzxLfMrsudHEVSYINcL15yPqoUafYBE8tScFg$

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Submission Timeline
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- Full paper submission: 4 May 2026
- Notification of acceptance: 18 May 2026
- Camera-ready submission: 8 June 2026
- Workshop: 22 September 2026

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Organizers
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Manuel F. Dolz, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
dolzm at uji.es

Sandra Catalán, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
catalans at uji.es

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Programme Committee
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Larbi Boubchir, University of Paris, France
Darwin Quezada Gaibor, Universitat Jaume I, Spain
Damien Ligier, DESILO, Seoul, South Korea
Christian Prehofer, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Luis Bernardo Pulido Gaytan, National College of Ireland, Ireland
Leonel Sousa, INESC-ID/IST, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

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*Sandra Catalán Pallarés*
Departament d'Enginyeria i Ciència dels  Computadors
TI1107DD
Universitat Jaume I
Campus de Riu Sec
I-12071 Castelló de la Plana (Spain)
(+34) 964 72 *8257 - *catalans at uji.es <scatalan at ucm.es>