PLDI 2010 Student Research Competition

ACM and Microsoft Research are sponsoring the Student Research Competition (SRC) at the ACM SIGPLAN 2010 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2010).

The SRC provides an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students attending PLDI 2010 to present their research work in the area of programming language design and implementation.

The SRC consists of three rounds: an extended abstract, a poster session at PLDI, and a presentation session at PLDI. At each stage, a panel of judges will select the most promising entrants, who will be invited to proceed to the next round.

SRC participants who advance to the poster round will be eligible for PLDI 2010 travel grants.

Undergraduate and graduate SRC participants have opportunities to meet with researchers in their fields of interest, making important connections and gaining significant insights into their work. The SRC poster and presentation sessions are open to all conference attendees. All SRC participants have an exceptional opportunity to sharpen their research and communications skills in preparation for their SRC experience; these visual, organizational, and presentation skills will be of great value throughout one’s academic and working careers.

Winners

Winners are selected from the presentation session. They 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 plaques 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 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. All six Grant Finalists will receive Grand Finalist plaques.

• 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 ACM student membership

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

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.

The abstract must describe the student’s individual research and 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 800 words and must not be longer than 2 pages. Reference lists do not count towards these limits.

E-mail submissions to SRC Chair Ben Liblit.

Important Dates

Selection Committee

• Ben Liblit (Chair), University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Evelyn Duesterwald, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
• Jonathan Aldrich, Carnegie Mellon University
• Jeff Foster, University of Maryland, College Park
• Armando Solar-Lezama, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Tom Ball, Microsoft Research

Further Information

For any questions regarding the PLDI 2010 SRC, please contact SRC Chair Ben Liblit.

Icons courtesy of the Tango Desktop Project. Some text adapted from the SIGCSE 2010 SRC page by Ann Sobel.