We solicit submissions to the doctoral colloquium (DC) for IEEE VIS 2018. 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 call is open to all Ph.D. students — regardless of whether they are presenting research work at the main conference or not. Preference will be given to students who will gain most from the experience, meaning students who are in the process of formulating their dissertation topic or who have just formulated a dissertation topic. In North American terms, this corresponds to students that will or have recently had their thesis proposal approved. Students who are early in their studies and students who plan to graduate in the next year are not encouraged to apply, since external feedback in the DC would come too early to be useful or too late to be incorporated.

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

Only selected applicants will be allowed to participate in the colloquium, and will be expected to attend the full day of events.

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.

Submissions

The deadline for DC submissions is Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 5pm PDT.
Notification: July 11, 2018.

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. It has to include information about the stage of PhD project and expected finish date. 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.

Please submit via PCS.

Formatting guidelines and LaTeX/Word templates can be found here.

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

Doctoral Colloquium Chairs

Fanny Chevalier, University of Toronto
Ross Maciejewski, Arizona State University
Timo Ropinski, University of Ulm
Marc Streit, Johannes Kepler University Linz

Contact VIS DC co-chairs: doctoral_coll@ieeevis.org