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Call for Papers

REX-IO 2026: 6th Workshop on Re-envisioning Extreme-Scale I/O for
Emerging Hybrid HPC Workloads

Held in conjunction with ACM HPDC 2026, Cleveland, OH, USA

Workshop Date: July 13, 2026

(https://sites.google.com/view/rexio/)

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Scope, Aims, and Topics
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REX-IO focuses on extreme-scale I/O and storage challenges driven by emerging hybrid HPC workloads, from traditional simulation to AI/ML, data analytics, and complex workflows, that combine scale-up and scale-out components. As exascale systems and multi-tier storage hierarchies become more common, the gap between compute and storage performance and the growing complexity of parallel file/storage systems demand new approaches. We invite submissions on I/O characterization, data/storage management challenges, and novel optimization and management techniques (including ML/AI-enabled methods) that improve performance and usability. Starting from its origins at IEEE Cluster 2021, REX-IO will be held at ACM HPDC 2026, continuing its tradition and forum for researchers and practitioners across I/O, storage, facilities, and applications.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Understanding I/O inefficiencies in emerging workloads such as complex multi-step workflows, in-situ analysis, AI, and data analytics methods
- New I/O optimization techniques, including how ML and AI algorithms might be adapted for intelligent load balancing and I/O pattern prediction of complex application workloads
- Performance benchmarking and modeling, and I/O behavior studies of emerging workloads
- New possibilities for the I/O optimization of emerging application workloads and their I/O subsystems
- Efficient monitoring tools for metadata and storage hardware statistics at runtime, dynamic storage resource management, and I/O load balancing
- Parallel file systems, metadata management, and complex data management
- Understanding and efficiently utilizing complex storage hierarchies beyond the traditional two-tiered file system and archive model
- User-friendly tools and techniques for managing data movement among compute and storage nodes
- Use of staging areas, such as burst buffers or other private or shared acceleration tiers for managing intermediate data between computation tasks
- Application of emerging big data frameworks towards scientific computing and analysis
- Alternative data storage models, including object and key-value stores, and scalable software architectures for data storage and archive
- Position papers on related topics

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Submission Guidelines
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All submitted papers should be formatted using the ACM Proceedings Style with sigconf format (please be sure to use the current version). The necessary document can be found here: https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template

Page limit: 5 to 8 pages (excluding references)

All papers must be original and should not have appeared in or be simultaneously under consideration for a different workshop, conference or journal. Indicate all authors and affiliations.

All papers will be peer-reviewed using a single-blind peer-review process by at least three members of the program committee.

Submissions must be in English and PDF format.

Papers must be submitted via the REX-IO 2026 submission site: TBA

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Important Dates
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Please note: All deadlines and dates are Anywhere on Earth
- Submissions open: February 2, 2026
- Submission deadline: March 31, 2026
- Notification to authors: April 30, 2026
- Camera-ready papers due: May 16, 2026
- Workshop date: July 13, 2026

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Workshop Co-Chairs
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- Sarah M. Neuwirth (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany)
- Arnab K. Paul (BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, India)
- Jay Lofstead (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)