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Camera-Ready Instructions 
ACM Student Research Competition
ICSE 2015 will host an ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), sponsored by Microsoft Research. This competition offers undergraduate and graduate students a unique forum to experience the research world, present their research results to ICSE attendees, and compete for prizes.
The ACM SRC at ICSE 2015 consists of three parts: (1) research abstract submission; (2) poster presentation; and (3) a research talk. The winners of the competition will be invited to participate in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals.
Participate in this exciting competition: Submit your work to the ACM Student Research Competition at ICSE 2015. Win a travel stipend to attend the ICSE conference in Florence!
How to Participate: Submit a Research Abstract
To participate in the competition, submit a 2-page research abstract related to the main themes of the conference (see the Technical Research CFP for a list of conference topics). The submission should describe: the research problem and motivation, background and related work, approach and uniqueness, results, and contributions. Papers will be judged based on how well they cover these aspects of the work.
The research abstract must conform at time of submission to the ICSE 2015 formatting and submission instructions and must not exceed 2 pages in the IEEE proceedings format, including all text, appendices, and figures. However references do not count against the page limit: the list of references may expand into a third page, i.e., the third page, if any, should contain nothing except all or part of your references. All submissions must be in English and in the PDF format.
Papers must be submitted electronically through EasyChair by November 21, 2014. A panel of experts will review the submissions and select the students to participate in the Student Research Competition, which will be held at ICSE 2015 in Florence, Italy. Accepted submissions will be published in the conference proceedings.
Coverage of Expenses
Students who are selected to participate in the main competition at the ICSE conference round are entitled to a stipend partially covering their travel expenses. Specifically, ACM's SRC program covers expenses up to $500 for all students invited to an SRC.
Such expenses can include:
- Transportation expenses (air, rail, bus, taxi, car service, car rental, parking);
- Meals, hotel, tips
- Supplies for poster development, poster shipment, etc.
- Conference registration
First Round Competition: Present a Poster
The first round of the competition will take place in Florence at the ICSE 2015 conference and will be a poster session. This is your opportunity to present your research to conference attendees and leading experts in the software engineering field, 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), the presentation of the research (poster, discussion), and select students to advance to the second round of the competition.
Second Round Competition: Give a Presentation
Selected students will give a short presentation of their research before a panel of judges in a special session at ICSE 2015. 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, contributions 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. The winners of the ICSE SRC are also invited to compete with winners from other conferences in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals.
The SRC Grand Finals
All undergraduate and graduate student winners from the SRC held at ICSE 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. One undergraduate student and one graduate student 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.
Requirements
Participants must be undergraduate or graduate students pursuing an academic degree at the time of initial submission. Participants must be current 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.
For More Information
For additional information, visit the official ACM Student Research Competition website.
Supporter
Important Dates
Paper submission: November 21, 2014
Notification: January 21, 2015
Camera-Ready version: February 13, 2015
Deadlines are intended to be 23.59.59 Anywhere on Earth (AOE)
ACM Student Research Competition Co-Chairs
Massimiliano Di Penta, University of Sannio, Italy
Michael Whalen, University of Minnesota, MS, USA
ACM Student Research Competition Committee
| Bram Adams | École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada | |
| Jo Atlee | University of Waterloo, Canada | |
| Luciano Baresi | Politecnico di Milano, Italy | |
| Gabriele Bavota | University of Sannio, Italy | |
| Marsha Chechik | University of Toronto, Canada | |
| Stephan Diehl | University Trier, Germany | |
| Robert Hall | AT&T Labs Research, USA | |
| Klaus Havelund | California Institute of Technology, USA | |
| Rob Hierons | Brunel University, UK | |
| Jeff Huang | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA | |
| Jane Huffman Hayes | University of Kentucky, USA | |
| John Hughes | Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden | |
| Andrea Mocci | University of Lugano, Switzerland | |
| Rocco Oliveto | University of Molise, Italy | |
| Ajitha Rajan | University of Edinburgh, UK | |
| Neha Rungta | NASA Ames Research Center, USA | |
| Suresh Thummalapenta | Microsoft Research, USA | |
| Zhenchang Xing | Nanyang Technological University, China |
Formatting and submission instructions
Please review the submission and formatting instructions carefully. Submissions that do not comply with the instructions and size limits will be rejected without review.
EasyChair submission link
After you have carefully reviewed all instructions on this page, please use the following link for submissions: EasyChair submission link for the ICSE 2015 ACM SRC Competition
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I am a PhD student. Am I eligible to participate in the SRC?
Yes. As a PhD student, you will compete in the Graduate category of the competition.
Q: What should be part of the research abstract?
A submission to the competition should describe recently completed or ongoing student research related to the topics covered by ICSE. It is important that your research abstract discusses (1) research problem and motivation, (2) background and related work, (3) approach and uniqueness, and (4) results and contributions. The committee will assess your research abstract along these dimensions.
It is important to note that an ACM SRC submission should be about a specific piece of research. That is, the research abstract should not contain the student CV and/or a broad description of her/his PhD or Master research activities and achievements.
Q: Based on what criteria will judges evaluate the abstract/research?
The judges will assess research abstracts based on four criteria: Problem and motivation; Background and related work; Approach and uniqueness; and Results and contribution. For the poster presentation, the criteria are: Oral presentation; Visual presentation; Research methods; and Significance of contribution. For the conference presentation, the criteria are Knowledge of research area; Contribution of research; and Presentation.
Q: I noticed that first round participants receive a travel reimbursement of up to $500. Will the participants also qualify for a registration waiver and/or free/discounted student lodging?
There is no registration waiver and no free/discounted student lodging for first round participants of the SRC. Students will still have to pay for conference registration and lodging, for which they can use the travel stipend.
However, there are additional programs to help students keep the cost down (the programs can be combined with SRC): Consider applying as an ICSE 2015 student volunteer.
Also SIGSOFT has a great travel support program for students: SIGSOFT CAPS
Q: My research is not related to software engineering or any of the main themes of the ICSE conference. Can I still participate in the Student Research Competition?
Yes, but not at ICSE. Participate in a SRC at conference that is related to your research.
To participate in the competition at ICSE, your research needs to be related to the main themes of the ICSE conference (see the topics for the technical research track).
If your research is not among the topics relevant for ICSE, please check the list of current SRC calls to find a conference that is better related. If you don't find a conference that covers your research, you can participate in the SRC competition at the SIGCSE conference.