We solicit submissions to the doctoral colloquium (DC) for IEEE VIS 2016. The DC is a single-day invitation-only event taking place the day before IEEE VIS, where Ph.D. students present their proposed dissertation work and receive feedback from leading senior visualization researchers. We invite contributions from the scientific visualization, information visualization, and visual analytics student communities.

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 beginning and advanced researchers.

The DC is open to Ph.D. students at all stages of their studies—preferably those at the proposal defense stage or equivalent—regardless of whether they are presenting research work at the main conference or not. Only selected applicants will be allowed to participate in the colloquium, and will be expected to attend the full day of events. Preference will be given to students who have formulated a dissertation topic but are still a year or more away from graduating. In North American terms, this corresponds to students that will or have recently had their thesis proposal approved. Students who are in the process of formulating their research topic are particularly encouraged to apply, as this is the time where external feedback can have most impact. It is our experience that students who participate in the DC too early in their studies will not be able to get focused and useful feedback, whereas participating too late means that any significant feedback received will not be possible to incorporate in the student’s dissertation due to time constraints.

All research topics suitable for the IEEE SciVis, IEEE InfoVis, and IEEE VAST 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 area.

FORMAT

The colloquium will consist of both parallel sessions of student presentations as well as common discussions with the expert panelists. A catered lunch and a roundtable discussion session will give student participants the opportunity to interact more informally with panelists.

FUNDING

Contingent upon pending requests for external sponsorship of the VIS DC, we may be able to partially fund the travel, conference registration, and lodging for accepted DC student participants.

IMPORTANT DATES

All deadlines are at 5:00pm Pacific Time (PDT).

SUBMISSIONS

Applicants to the Doctoral Colloquium should submit:

• A four-page summary of their thesis research, including the problem being addressed, methodology and plan of research, a description of the progress to date, and the type of input expected from DC panelists. The writing should be in a proposal format, in order to facilitate feedback from the panelists as to 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 which 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. 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.
• The student submission and the mandatory advisor statement should be submitted as a single pdf file at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ieeedcvis16. Maximum file size is 20MB. No supplementary material can be uploaded. If necessary please include a link to the additional material (e.g., a video) in the main PDF file.

Formatting guidelines and LaTeX/Word templates can be found at http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Tasks/camera.html.

Student submissions will be peer-reviewed and selections will be made on the basis of their contribution to the colloquium’s goals, strength of research direction, and the advisor’s assessment. Accepted submissions will be printed for colloquium participants.

CHAIRS

Liz Marai, University of Illinois at Chicago
Pierre Dragicevic, Inria
Tatiana von Landesberger, TU Darmstadt

For further information, please email: doctoral_coll(at)ieeevis.org