PLDI 2015 Student Research Competition

ACM and Microsoft Research are sponsoring the Student Research Competition (SRC) at the ACM SIGPLAN 2015 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2015).

The SRC provides an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students attending PLDI 2015 to present their research work in the area of programming language design and implementation. The goal is to give students a forum to discuss their research with experts in their field and to help them sharpen their research and communication skills. 

The SRC consists of three rounds:

• Extended abstract round. All students are encouraged to submit an extended abstract an outlining their research. 
• Poster session. Based on the abstracts, a panel of judges will select the most promising entrants to participate in the poster session which will take place at PLDI. In the poster session, students will have the opportunity to present their work to the judges, who will select three finalists in each category to advance to the next round.
• PLDI presentation. The last round will consist of an oral presentation at PLDI to compete for the final award.

The Prize

Winners selected from the presentation session will enjoy the following benefits:

• The top three graduate winners will receive monetary prizes of $500, $300, and $200, respectively. Likewise, the top three undergraduate winners will receive monetary prizes of $500, $300, and $200, respectively. All six winners will receive award medals (gold, silver, bronze) and two-year complimentary ACM memberships, including subscriptions to ACM’s Digital Library.

• The names and research abstracts of the winners will be posted on the ACM SRC web site.

• The first-place winners will be invited to participate in the ACM SRC Grand Finals, an on-line round of competitions among the winners of individual conference-hosted SRCs.

• The top three graduate Grand Finalists will receive an additional $500, $300, and $200, respectively. Likewise, the top three undergraduate Grand Finalists will receive an additional $500, $300, and $200, respectively.

• Grand Finalists and their advisors will be invited to the Annual ACM Awards Banquet for an all-expenses-paid trip, where they will be recognized for their accomplishments along with other prestigious ACM award winners, including the winner of the Turing Award (also known as the Nobel Prize of Computing).

Eligibility Requirements

• Current student status, either graduate or undergraduate, at the time of submission

• In order to participate in the poster session, students will also be expected to be current ACM members

Extended Abstract Submission Details

Each submission should include the student author’s name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and postal address; research advisor’s name; ACM student member number; category (undergraduate or graduate); research title; and an extended abstract addressing the following:

• Problem and Motivation: Clearly state the problem being addressed and explain the reasons for seeking a solution to this problem.

• Background and Related Work: Describe the specialized (but pertinent) background necessary to appreciate the work. Include references to the literature where appropriate, and briefly explain where your work departs from that done by others.

• Approach and Uniqueness: Describe your approach in attacking the problem and clearly state how your approach is novel.

• Results and Contributions: Clearly show how the results of your work contribute to computer science and explain the significance of those results.

Submissions must be original research that is not already published at PLDI or another conference or journal. One of the goals of the SRC is to give students feedback on ongoing, unpublished work. Furthermore, the abstract must be authored solely by the student. If the work is collaborative with others and/or part of a larger group project, the abstract should make clear what the student’s role was and should focus on that portion of the work.

The extended abstract must not exceed 1000 words and must not be longer than 2 pages. Reference lists do not count towards these limits.

Please submit your abstract at the EasyChair submission page

Important Dates

Selection Committee

Isil Dillig, UT Austin (chair).
Aws Albarghouthi, University of Wisconsion-Madison.
Evan Chang, University of Colorado Boulder.
Ravi Chugh, University of Chicago.
Julian Dolby, IBM Research.
Shuvendu Lahiri, Microsoft Research.
Zach Tatlock, University of Washington.

Further Information

For any questions regarding the PLDI 2015 SRC, please contact SRC Chair  Isil Dillig .

 Page design was originally developed for the PLDI 2010 SRC page by Ben Liblit. Icons courtesy of the Tango Desktop Project.