Doctoral School

Call for Participation

The UbiComp/ISWC Organizing Committee is excited to announce the joint UbiComp and ISWC 2015 Doctoral School, which continues the successful Doctoral Colloquium event to offer a more in-depth and comprehensive experience to PhD students at different stages in their PhD research.

The Doctoral School (DS) will provide a friendly, supportive, and constructive forum in which PhD students can learn about research and methods from internationally recognized leaders in the community and present their research-in-progress to get feedback from peers and experts in the field. The DS offers PhD students the valuable opportunity to engage in in-depth discussion on their work and gain exposure to a variety of perspectives that can help to strengthen and shape their work as they progress towards their degrees.

Target Participants

The Doctoral School welcomes applications from candidates who are 1-2 years away from their PhDs. However, junior PhD students are welcome to apply if they have already selected a topic they would like to pursue for their thesis work and have some initial results. Applicants should be far enough into their PhDs to have identified the salient issues and appropriate research methodology, as well as achieved some results. The research questions and proposed contributions of the dissertation research should be defined. Preference will be given to applicants who are at a stage where a substantial portion of the research has been completed but are still far enough from completion that feedback received at the DS can influence the remaining research.

Applicants accepted to the DS will be required to give a presentation on their PhD research during the DS. DS student participants will be offered free registration for UbiComp / ISWC 2015 for both the Doctoral School and the main UbiComp / ISWC 2015 conferences. DS student participants will be eligible to apply for student travel grants.

If you require financial assistance to help cover the cost of travel, please apply for a Student Travel Grant and indicate on your application that you have also applied to the doctoral school.

Both Ubicomp and ISWC is committed to being an accessible event, we ask authors to visit that guide and follow the steps: http://chi2015.acm.org/authors/guide-to-an-accessible-submission.

Submission

Student submissions should be 4-6 pages long. Please use the extended abstracts template(Word, LaTex).

Submissions (min. 4 pages, max. 6 pages) should include:

1. Research summary describing the work in progress, and including a ~100 word abstract. Things to consider for inclusion in the research summary are:
   • the expected contribution to the field;
   • the original idea or thesis statement;
   • the problem domain and the specific problem addressed;
   • a brief overview of related work;
   • the methodological approach;
   • research carried out and results so far; and
   • outline of what work remains to be done for the dissertation and a plan for completion.
2. Objective for attending the DS. Briefly (1 paragraph) describe your objectives for attending the DS and how you think the DS will help you in your PhD.
3. Brief biographical sketch including the names and affiliations of the research advisor(s), the date that you began the PhD program, and the expected date of completion.

Accepted submissions will be included in the ACM Digital Library as extended abstracts. Furthermore, students will be invited to present during the joint UbiComp and ISWC poster session.

Applications should be submitted as a PDF file to either of the following email addresses:
doctoral.school2015@ubicomp.org and doctoralschool2015@iswc.net.

Applications will be reviewed by the Chairs and an expert committee. Interested applicants who are not sure whether to apply are encouraged to consult with the Chairs prior to applying.

Important dates

• June 19th, 2015 @ 11:59pm PDT: Submission deadline
• June 26th, 2015: Notification of acceptance
• July 3rd, 2015 @ 11:59pm PDT: Camera-ready version of extended abstracts
• September 7th/8th, 2015: Doctoral school

Doctoral School Chairs