Doctoral Consortium

The CHI '95 Doctoral Consortium is a private event, open to invited participants only. It takes place over the two days preceding the main conference, beginning on Saturday evening with a reception and continuing until Monday evening. During the Consortium, a small number of doctoral students will be invited to give presentations of their research to a select panel of active researchers in human-computer interaction representing a wide range of knowledge and skills. Participants in the Consortium will also have the opportunity to meet and interact with other leaders in the HCI field who will join the Consortium for meals and coffee breaks.

The function of the Consortium is to provide feedback and guidance for students' future research. Experience has shown that doctoral students can gain significant benefits from independent and external feedback. Events like the Consortium help to build a community of doctoral students who can support each other and who may themselves organize such events in the future.

Topics

In keeping with the overall philosophy of CHI '95, the Doctoral Consortium encourages applications from students conducting research in any area of the CHI field.

Review Process

Each submitted application will be reviewed by the Doctoral Consortium Committee. This committee will consist of 4 to 5 members of the human- computer interaction community who are leaders in their fields and who have experience working with students. The committee will also be chosen to represent the range of work encompassed by the human-computer interaction community.

The Consortium Chair will read all applications. Each committee member will read as many of the applications submitted as possible. In addition, each application will be evaluated carefully by two members of the committee. Typically, one evaluator will be selected for her/his ability to review the application from a position of in-depth expertise, while the other evaluator will be selected to provide the perspective of the wider HCI community. Final decisions will be made at a Doctoral Consortium Committee meeting, where the group as a whole will review the recommendations and rationale given by the selected evaluators, as well as the comments of other readers.

In selecting participants for the consortium, the primary criteria will be the significance and originality of the thesis, the advisor's recommendation, the student's background, and the degree of completion of the research. Among applications of equivalent quality, the selection also will be influenced by the desire for the Consortium to represent a broad spectrum of CHI research.

Format

Applications must include five copies of the following:

a Doctoral Consortium Application Form (available here in graphical and textual form).
a two-page thesis summary.
a letter of recommendation from the student's advisor which includes a description of how complete the research is and the expected date for submission of the thesis.
a curriculum vitae.

Summaries must conform to the standard Conference Proceedings format. Applicants are encouraged to browse the summaries in the CHI '94 Conference Companion for examples. The two-page limit includes references, appendices and figures.

Upon Acceptance

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by the end of November 1994.

The two-page summaries of accepted doctoral consortium participants will be published in the CHI '95 Conference Companion. Electronic versions will be published on a CD-ROM. The author of each accepted summary will receive an Author Kit with detailed instructions on how to submit both the camera-ready copy and the electronic version of the summary. These materials are due on January 6, 1995.

Students invited to participate in the Doctoral Consortium will also be encouraged to submit their work to the interactive poster session.

Compensation

Participants receive complimentary conference registration and partial travel reimbursement.

Additional Information

This section provides all of the information you need to prepare your application. Additional information, including answers to questions commonly asked, format templates for camera-ready copy, and copies of review forms and procedures is available electronically via ftp from sigchi.acm.org.

Questions not answered by this material may be addressed to the Doctoral Consortium Chair at the Send To address, or by E-mail (preferred) or telephone as listed under Additional Inquiries.

Checklist for Submissions

Every year some submissions are returned without review because the authors failed to follow the guidelines established by the conference committee. Don't let this happen to you! Please follow the steps in this checklist in preparing your submission, and double-check that you have met all the requirements before sending it.

Read the General Submission Instructions.
Note that submissions must be in English, and that electronic mail or FAX submissions will not be accepted.
Fill out the Standard Cover Sheet.
Fill out the Planning Information Sheet.
Fill out the Doctoral Consortium Application Form (available here in graphical and textual form).
Prepare a two-page summary in the Conference Proceedings format for publication, as described above.
Prepare a curriculum vitae.
Obtain a letter of support from your advisor which includes a description of how complete the research is and when the thesis is expected to be submitted.
Be sure that your submission contains no proprietary or confidential material. Submission of video or pictures of identifiable people should be done only with the understanding that responsibility for the collection of appropriate permissions rests with the submitter, not CHI '95.
Collect the Standard Cover Sheet, the Planning Information Sheet, the application form, the summary, the advisor's letter, and the curriculum vitae, in the order given, in a packet, and make five copies. Use 8.5 x 11 inch or A4 paper.
Make sure each copy of the packet is STAPLED, not loose or held by clips.
You may include a self-addressed reply postcard which will be mailed to acknowledge receipt of your submission.
Send the five copies of your submission packet, and the reply postcard, to the Doctoral Consortium Chair at the Send To address shown. Be sure to allow enough time for your submission to arrive by the indicated Deadline.

Graphical version of the Doctoral Consortium Application Form

Suitable for printing, filling-out, and mailing in.

Textual version of the Doctoral Consortium Application Form

Suitable for saving to your local hard drive, filling-out with your favorite text editor, and sending in.

Keith Instone // instone@acm.org // 94-12-06