Doctoral SymposiumECOOP 2019

The Doctoral Symposium is a forum for doctoral students to present their research proposal and receive constructive feedback in a friendly atmosphere. The Symposium welcomes both late and early stage PhD students with an identified research topic related to the ECOOP conference, i.e. Programming Languages. Participants will obtain useful guidance that will help them complete their research, prepare their thesis, and begin a research career.

The main objectives of the Doctoral Symposium are:

• to allow PhD students to practise effective writing and communication of their research;
• to receive constructive feedback from the Program Committee, Academic Panel, and other participants;
• to offer opportunities to form research collaborations and interact with other researchers at the main conference.

The ECOOP 2019 Doctoral Symposium welcomes participation of students who pursue their research in the area of programming languages. The event will take place after the main conference, on Friday, July 19th. To get more feedback and share their research with a broader audience, participants of the Doctoral Symposium are strongly encouraged to participate in the Poster Session on Wednesday, July 17th.

Event Format

The Doctoral Symposium takes the form of a full-day event of interactive presentations. The day will start with a series of lightning talks where each PhD student will give an “elevator pitch” of their research. This will be followed by formal presentations from each PhD student, with time allocated for the presentation as well as questions and discussions. The program includes two keynote talks on topics related to PhD studies, research, and life beyond the PhD.

Besides the formal presentations and discussions in sessions, there will be plenty of opportunities for informal interactions during break and lunches. To receive more feedback on their own work and get to know with other researchers, participants are invited to take part in the Poster Session.

Photos

Here are some photos from the event.

Accepted Papers

Call for Submissions

We have two full submission categories, junior submissions and senior submissions, as well as extended abstracts.

• Junior students may not have a full research plan but shall have an identified research topic; they will present their ideas and any progress to date, and will receive feedback to help them determine further steps in research.
• Senior students are expected to give an outline of their thesis research and will receive feedback to help them successfully complete their thesis and defense/viva.

First-round submissions are due on 19 April, 2019, AOE. Second-round submissions are due on 17 May, 2019, AOE. Submissions from the two rounds will be reviewed independently. Submissions rejected in the first round are invited to resubmit for the second round. All accepted submissions are considered of equal value. Authors who need a UK visa to attend the event are strongly recommended to submit in the first round.

As participants of the Doctoral Symposium are not expected to submit technical papers, but rather thesis proposals, participants can submit to both the main conferences/workshops and the Doctoral Symposium. There will be no proceedings for the Doctoral Symposium.

Double-Blind Reviewing

Submissions are double-blind. This means that author names and institution should be omitted from the submission. Also, citations to the authors’ work should be made in third person if the citation is important for understanding the submission, or left anonymous if it is intended to indicate progress in the thesis research. All the missing information can be added in the camera-ready version of the paper. Declaring Conflicts. When submitting the research proposal, please, indicate potential conflicts with the PC members.

Junior PhD Students

Submit a 4–8 page research proposal in the Dagstuhl LIPIcs format with:

• a problem description;
• a detailed sketch of a proposed approach;
• related work.

It is not necessary to present concrete results. Instead, try to inform the reader that you have a (well-motivated) problem and present a possible solution. Attempt to provide a clear road map detailing future research efforts.

Senior PhD Students

The experience for senior students is meant to mimic a “mini-defense” interview. Aside from the actual feedback, this helps the student will gain familiarity with the style and mechanics of such an interview (advisors of student presenters will not be allowed in).

The students should be able to present:

• the importance of the problem;
• a clear research proposal;
• some preliminary work;
• an evaluation plan.

Please submit a 6–10 page thesis proposal in the Dagstuhl LIPIcs format with the following:

• Problem Description
  • What is the problem?
  • What is the significance of this problem?
  • Why can the current state of the art not solve this problem?
• Goal Statement
  • What is the goal of your research?
  • What artifacts (tools, theories, methods) will be produced,
  • How do they address the stated problem?
• Method
  • What experiments, prototypes, or studies need to be produced/executed?
  • What is the validation strategy? How will it show the goal was reached?

This is not a technical paper, so do not focus on technical details, but rather on the research method.

Extended Abstract (Junior/Senior)

Please submit a 2 page abstract (excluding references) of a research proposal in the Dagstuhl LIPIcs following the spirit of an appropriate full submission (junior or senior).

Submission Instructions

Submissions will be carried out electronically via HotCRP at https://ecoop19ds.hotcrp.com/.
To submit, upload a pdf and specify the submission category (junior or senior). Please, also specify the PC members that have conflicts of interest with your submission.

Participation

Accepted students will give two presentations:

• A two-minute no-slides presentation stating key issues of the research (the “elevator pitch”).
• A 15 or 20-minute presentation followed by 15 or 10” of questions, feedback and discussions.

Prior to the symposium, each student will be assigned submissions of two other students. For each submission, the student will prepare a short summary, some feedback, and 2–3 questions on the submission. The participants will be expected to also take an active part in all discussions.