General Information
We solicit submissions to the doctoral colloquium (DC) for IEEE VIS 2021. The DC is a single-day, invitation-only event taking place the day before IEEE VIS on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. Participating Ph.D. students present their proposed dissertation work and receive feedback from leading senior visualization researchers. We invite contributions from student communities involved in all areas of visualization.
The colloquium will allow students to discuss their research directions in a supportive atmosphere with a panel of distinguished leaders and with their peers. Students can expect helpful feedback and fresh perspectives on their research topics and possible career paths and will have the opportunity to interact closely with expert researchers in their field. The colloquium will support community-building by connecting early-career and established researchers in a welcoming and mentorship-forward environment.
The DC call is open to all Ph.D. students — regardless of whether they are presenting research work at the main VIS conference or not. While students at all phases of the Ph.D. process may apply, preference will be given to students who will gain most from the experience: students who are in the process of formulating their dissertation topic or who have just formulated a dissertation topic. In North American terms, this typically corresponds to students who will or have recently had their thesis proposal approved. This more generally corresponds to students who have formally proposed a plan for their dissertation research but still have at least one year remaining before defending their dissertation. Students who are very early in their studies and students who plan to graduate shortly after the VIS conference may not benefit as much from external feedback in the DC as it may come too early to be useful or too late to be incorporated.
All research topics suitable for the IEEE VIS main programs as well as associated workshops and symposia are appropriate for the Doctoral Colloquium. The Doctoral Colloquium strongly commits to achieving diversity among the student participants, including diversity across research groups and geographical areas.
Format
The colloquium will consist of both parallel sessions of student presentations as well as general discussions with the expert panelists. A roundtable discussion session will give student participants the opportunity to interact more informally with all panelists to give students an opportunity to receive advice reflecting a broader set of perspectives.
Only selected applicants will be allowed to participate in the colloquium and those selected will be expected to attend the full day of events.
Funding
With an NSF travel grant, we may be able to partially fund the travel, conference registration, and lodging for accepted DC student participants for US-based Universities.
Submissions
The deadline for DC submissions is extended to July 15, 2021, at 5:00pm Pacific Time (PDT).
Notification: August 15, 2021
Applicants to the Doctoral Colloquium should submit:
- A four-page summary describing their PhD research, including
- The problem being addressed, methodology and plan of research,
- A description of the progress to date, and
- Questions and/or desired feedback from DC panelists.
- The four-page limit does not include references. The writing should be in a proposal format in order to facilitate feedback from the panelists as to the validity of your problem and the efficacy of your approach. The structure should follow the format used by most universities for a thesis proposal: an Introduction, a Related Work, Preliminary Methods, Preliminary Results, Proposed Work, Discussion, Questions for the Panel, and Conclusion. The summary should have a single author – the student submitting the entry. Please distinguish clearly between work that has been accomplished and that remains to be completed. As indicated above, the summary should identify clearly, in a separate section, the feedback the student expects from the panel.
- A short, signed statement (pdf or text) from the student’s advisor supporting the student’s attendance at the colloquium and confirming that the student is in a good position to benefit from participating. The statement should include information about the stage of the PhD project and expected finish date. Note that this should NOT be a letter of recommendation; a brief statement of support is sufficient. The statement should be appended to the student submission PDF file, not sent via email.
Please submit via PCS.
Formatting guidelines and LaTeX/Word templates can be found here.
Student submissions will be reviewed by the DC Chairs and selections will be made on the basis of their contribution to the colloquium goals, strength of research direction, and the advisor’s assessment. Accepted submissions will be printed for colloquium participants, but will otherwise remain confidential.
Doctoral Colloquium Chairs
Bei Wang, University of Utah
Danielle Albers Szafir, University of Colorado Boulder
Nan Cao, Tongji University
Contact VIS DC co-chairs: doctoral_coll@ieeevis.org