How to make up for lack of publications in CV?
As of writing this, I don’t have any publications in journals or conferences. I submitted one as the second author in January to an international conference, and am involved in three other projects.


I cannot speak for admissions committees, but this looks really strong. You have already submitted a paper, and you are involved in not just one but four research projects. As such, you will want to make sure to highlight this at the very top of your CV.

To highlight it, I would not include a "Publications" section, but include a "Papers", and put in submission or draft for as many papers as that applies. (This is a common structure for academic CVs, even for mid-level PhD students.) I would also include a separate section for "Research Experience" or "Research Projects" and list everything you have been involved in.

If you are confident about naming research areas, including research interests at the top of your CV is also a plus. Morgan Rogers' comment is correct that this should be very brief, only bulleted keywords (e.g. "Geometric Deep Learning"). In my area of CS this is perfectly normal (although definitely not expected, particularly for someone who is only applying to a PhD, and not yet a student).



This related question is about if you have no research experience. Fortunately, having significant research experience but no publications puts you in a far better position.