Call for Ph.D Forum at the ICPP 2021 Conference

The International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP) has always been an important event for Ph.D. graduate students to connect to the world of parallel computing in research institutions, scientific laboratories, and industry. ICPP was known in the early days as a conference where graduate student could interact informally with faculty and researchers during the meeting. The "fireside" chats that continued late in the evenings are remembered fondly by many of us who attended ICPP way back when. In keeping with tradition, ICPP 2021 will host a Ph.D. Forum to enable Ph.D. students to (i) present their research in parallel computing to ICPP attendees, (ii) discuss their research ideas with other ICPP participants, (iii) expand their understanding of the parallel computing field by attending ICPP workshops and conference sessions, and (iv) explore potential research projects with new ICPP colleagues.

The Ph.D. Forum will be organized to deliver significant educational and career mentoring value to the participating Ph.D. students. The Ph.D. Forum activities will include sessions during the conference oriented to these issues. The first session will give an overview of the Forum and introduce mentors from academia, research labs, and industry who will be available to the Ph.D. student cohort for informal interactions throughout. The second session will have 3 speakers to describe alternative career paths after graduation. A final session, to be held later in the conference, will provide an open roudtable with mentors and students to discuss specific topics of interest. In addition, there will be an opportunity for a select group of Ph.D. students to present their research work as part of the poster session.

With COVID-19 resulting in ICPP being a partly in-person and partly virtual conference this year, the Ph.D. Forum will be open to all who want to participate. However, we would like to provide an opportunity for Ph.D. students to officially apply for the Ph.D. Forum by submitting an extended research abstract (500 words or less) describing their research objectives, research progress, and current status in the Ph.D. program. Also, if a Ph.D. student would like to be considered for a poster presentation, they are invited to submit a poster along with their extended research abstract. Because there will be a limited number of slots for poster presentation, the Ph.D. Forum committee will select from among the official Ph.D. Forum applications those who will present live during the poster session. These selections will be based on the quality of the extended research abstract and poster submission. The materials from all Ph.D. students who applied to the Ph.D. Forum will be made available online as part of the ICPP 2021 conference.

All Ph.D. Forum application materials (extended research abstract, poster (optional)) should be sent to: Allen D. Malony malony@cs.uoregon.edu. The poster format should follow the guidelines for ICPP poster submission. The deadline for the Ph.D. Forum application is June 20, 2021.