Call for ACM SRC @ MODULARITY: Student Research Competition

MODULARITY 2015 will host an ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), sponsored by Microsoft Research. The ACM SRC is a forum for undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their research, exchange ideas, and improve their communication skills while competing for prizes. The SRC has the following goals:

1. to give undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to share their research ideas and results at MODULARITY in a special forum that provides visibility for their work
2. to give students the opportunity to meet with and interact with MODULARITY attendees to share ideas, gain new insights, and understand possible practical applications
3. to give students an opportunity to sharpen their communication skills, including visual, organizational, oral, and aural modalities
4. to provide detailed feedback to students about their research and presentation, from a panel of distinguished judges from industry and academia
5. to recognize and reward outstanding student research

Participants must be undergraduate or graduate students pursuing an academic degree at the time of initial submission. To receive the support funding, participants must be student members of the ACM, and must provide their ACM member number. Supervisors of the work may not be listed as co-authors; you must submit a single-authored version of your work for the competition.

The contest has two categories, one for undergraduate research and the other for graduate research. Three winners will be selected in each category. Research completed while the student was an undergraduate may be submitted to the undergraduate category even if the student is a first-year graduate student at the time of the conference.

Each competition entry must be authored by one student only – neither supervisors or other students are allowed as co-authors.

For work accepted to the MODULARITY 2015 Student Research Competition, a travel grant of up to US $500 will be awarded to help cover travel expenses to the conference. While the student must be an ACM member to qualify for travel funding and awards, she/he does not need to be one to submit to the competition.

The top three winners at ACM SRC MODULARITY 2015 in each category (undergraduate and graduate) will receive prizes of US $500, US $300, and US $200, respectively. In addition, they will receive gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively and two-year complimentary ACM membership with a subscription to ACM’s Digital Library. Only the first place winners will advance to the ACM Grand Finals with winners from other ACM SRCs. The top three winners will be recognized during the banquet  of the MODULARITY 2015 conference.

How to Participate

Step 1: Submit a Research Abstract

To participate in the competition, submit a research abstract (no more than 800 words) related to the main themes of the conference (see the Call for Research Results Track for a list of conference topics). The submission should describe: the research problem and motivation, approach and uniqueness, results and contributions. Papers will be judged based on how well they cover these aspects of the work. Details on the submission process can be found in the Submission section below.

A panel of experts will review the submissions and select the students to participate in the Student Research Competition, which will be held at MODULARITY 2015 in Ft. Collins, Colorado (USA).

Step 2: First Round Competition - Present a Poster

The first round of the competition will take place in Ft. Collins at the MODULARITY 2015 conference and will be a poster session. This round provides an opportunity to present your research to conference attendees and leading experts from the MODULARITY conference, including the SRC committee. Judges will review the posters and speak to participants about their research. The judges will evaluate the research (quality, novelty, and significance) and the presentation of the research (poster, discussion) and select students to advance to the second round of the competition.

Step 3: Second Round Competition - Give a Presentation (selective)

A subset if the students from Round 1 will be invited to continue in the competitions by giving a short presentation of their research before a panel of judges in a special session at the MODULARITY 2015 conference in Ft. Collins. After each presentation, there will be a short question and answer session. Evaluations are based on the presenter's knowledge of his/her research area, contribution of the research, and the quality of the oral and visual presentation. Three winners will be chosen in each category, undergraduate and graduate, and receive prizes.

Final Step: MODULARITY 2015 Awardees Participate in SRC Grand Finals

The first-place award winners of both categories (undergraduate and graduate) from the SRC held at MODULARITY 2015 will advance to the SRC Grand Finals. A different panel of judges evaluates the winners of all SRCs held during the calendar year against each other via the web. Among the Grand Finals participants, three undergraduates and three graduates will be chosen as the SRC Grand Finals winners. They are invited, along with their advisors, to the annual ACM Awards Banquet, where they receive formal recognition.

Submission

Prepare an abstract that is no longer than 800 words. The abstract plaintext (not a PDF) will be the sole requirement for initial submission. All submissions must be in English. Abstracts must be submitted electronically through EasyChair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=srcmodularity2015).

Prizes and Student Support Information

Students who are selected to participate in the main competition at the MODULARITY conference round are entitled to a stipend for their travel expenses, up to a maximum of US$500. The top three winners in each category (undergraduate and graduate) will be recognized during the conference banquet and will receive prizes of US$500, US$300, and US$200, respectively. The winners of the MODULARITY SRC are also invited to compete with winners from other conferences in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals. For more information about the ACM SRC, please visit the FAQ.

Important Dates

All deadlines are hard. No extensions will be allowed. Deadline is midnight for time zone UTC -12.

January 19, 2015:      SRC submission deadline
February 2, 2015:      Notification
February 19, 2015:    Camera-ready due

ACM SRC Organization and Contact Information

For additional information feel free to contact the ACM SRC Chair:

Jeff Gray, University of Alabama
gray@cs.ua.edu

Sponsor

We gratefully acknowledge Microsoft Research for their support of the MODULARITY 2015 ACM SRC.