Call for Student Research Competition

How the Student Research Competition Will Work

The ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) is an event open to undergraduate and graduate students. At the conference, the authors will present their poster to a panel of experts and those who qualify to the next round will present their research to the conference audience. All accepted SRC submissions will be published in the conference proceedings and the best presentations will receive a prize. The SRC is a fantastic opportunity to be introduced to the community and establish networks with fellow scientists.

Testimonials

“...What really caught my eye was how the community fosters growth and how the competition encourages us to learn the methodology behind other projects to improve our own.”

—Yash Naik, University of Mumbai, SRC undergraduate student participant in 2018

“The SRC was one of the most engaging and intriguing activities of my Ph.D. journey. Besides the ‘eye-opening’ experience the competition offered, I had very insightful feedback on my research, met other student researchers and established relationships I believe would last a lifetime!”

—Andrew A. Bayor, Queensland University of Technology, SRC graduate student participant, 2019

"The ASSETS 2020 SRC was both our first conference attending and presenting. Being able to connect with leading students and researchers in our field was not only exciting, but it was tremendously helpful for pushing our research forward. Additionally, we were able to meet and connect with so many great undergraduate and graduate students in the SRC who are doing amazing research in accessibility. I know that the friendships, acquaintances, and conversations we made and had will help us for years to come. We would recommend the SRC to anyone looking for a great learning experience as new researchers."

—Thomas McHugh and Cooper Barth, Northwestern University, SRC undergraduate student participants, 2020

Eligibility

• Participants must be currently enrolled (at the time of submission) in a university or college and have an active ACM student membership. If you are not a member yet, you can join the ACM by paying a US$19 fee per year.
• At the graduate level (MS or PhD students), team projects or individual projects can be submitted. One team member should be designated to attend the conference and make the oral presentation. Graduate submissions cannot include advisor names.
• At the undergraduate level, team projects are acceptable. All team members should be undergraduate students. One team member should be designated to attend the conference and make the oral presentation. Students may only participate in one ACM SRC per program year (July 1-June 30). Students that have applied to an SRC, but have not been accepted, may respond to other SRC calls for participation during the program year.
• Work accepted as a full paper for one of the technical sessions of the conference cannot also be considered for the Student Research Competition. Students having a technical paper, however, are encouraged to submit separate work to the Student Research Competition.
• The same topic of work cannot be presented at more than one of the conference venues (SRC, DC, or as a regular technical paper).
• SRC submissions should not be under review at other conferences or similar venues.

Submissions

For whom?

The ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) is an event open to undergraduate and graduate students.

What needs to be submitted?

Students wishing to participate submit abstracts of their work. Qualifying research must deal with topics that are relevant to the mission of the ASSETS series, as described by the Call for Papers. Preference will be given to work that has been completed (or close to completion).

Submissions have a 4,000 to 5,000 word limit using templates that can be found in the Submission Templates page. Note that references do not count toward page limits.

Successful entries will be published in the ASSETS 2022 proceedings and the ACM Digital Library. Submissions (in PDF format) should be submitted by the deadline: June 23, 2022, 5 P.M. Pacific Time (GMT -8:00). It is important to note that these are NOT anonymous submissions; the authors' names should be on the paper.

In addition, after acceptance, authors will be required to prepare a short audio speech file describing the content of their posters. This feature makes posters more accessible to blind and low vision attendees. More details on this will be available in due course.

Your PDF file must be accessible. Please refer to the instructions on Creating an Accessible ACM Conference Paper for information on how to accomplish this. If you cannot create an accessible PDF at submission time then you will be given the option to upload either an accessible HTML or Microsoft Word version of your paper in addition to your PDF to facilitate review. If your paper is accepted, the final version will need to be transformed into an accessible PDF document.

Writing Guidelines are available to help authors choose appropriate language for writing about technology and people with disabilities. Finally, please refer to the ACM policy on plagiarism for guidance.

Mentorship

Mentorship is available for anyone looking to submit to the SRC. If you are interested, please see the Call for Mentors page for details on how to request a mentor.

Participating in the SRC

Once SRC submissions are reviewed, accepted projects will be invited to present at ASSETS 2022.

Given the hybrid format of the conference, the current expectation is that at least one author from all categories present their work physically or virtually at the conference. In addition, we will ask all authors to prepare prerecorded and captioned videos that will be made available to all attendees (both virtual-only attendees and on-site attendees). If you have disability or health concerns that prevent travel, please contact assets22-leadership@acm.org.

At the conference, there will be two rounds of competition:

First Round Competition

Participants will present a poster to a panel of judges. After the judges have reviewed the posters and discussed the research with each participant, a group of semi-finalists for each category (undergraduate and graduate) will be selected to present at the second round of the competition.

Second Round Competition

Semi-finalists will then give an oral presentation on their work as part of a main conference session. A panel of judges will evaluate their knowledge of the research area, their contribution to the field, and the quality of the presentation.

Three winners will be chosen in each category, undergraduate and graduate, receiving their medals (gold, silver, and bronze) and a monetary prize of $500, $300, and $200, respectively sponsored by ACM. First place winners will be designated as finalists and will also advance to the SRC Grand Finals. Participants should plan to stay through the ASSETS conference as the awards ceremony will take place during the closing session.

Note: Upon request, American Sign Language interpreters will be provided for participants in the SRC, both during the competition itself and for the remainder of the ASSETS conference. Requests for an interpreter must be indicated on the conference registration form when registering for ASSETS.

Advancing to the SRC Grand Finals

First place undergraduate and graduate student winners from the ACM SRCs held throughout the year advance to the SRC Grand Finals. A panel of judges will evaluate the entries through an online competition. From this competition, three undergraduate and three graduate students from all ACM conferences will be designated the SRC Grand Finals winners.

Important Dates

All deadlines are 5 P.M. Pacific Time (GMT -8:00).

• Friday, August 19, 2022 – Submission deadline
• Friday, September 2, 2022 – Notification of acceptance (student research competition)
• Friday, September 9, 2022 – Camera ready deadline
• Friday, September 16, 2022 – Video presentation deadline

How To Submit

Please send your submission by email to the Student Research Competition Chairs, Mingming Fan and Roshan Peiris, at src-chairs-assets22@acm.org.

Panel of Reviewers

The reviewers will be announced soon. Please check back later.

Panel of Judges

The judges will be announced soon. Please check back later.

Poster Presentation

Poster presentation details are still TBD. Please direct any special requests to the Student Research Competition Chairs, Mingming Fan and Roshan Peiris, at src-chairs-assets22@acm.org.

Further Information

For further information or any questions regarding student research competition submissions, please contact the Student Research Competition Chairs, Mingming Fan and Roshan Peiris at src-chairs-assets22@acm.org.

Further details about ACM Student Research Competitions and the Grand Finals are available at the ACM Student Research Competition Page.