DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

The ASSETS 2018 Doctoral Consortium will be held on Sunday, October 21, 2018, in Galway, Ireland. During the Consortium, each student will make a formal presentation about his or her doctoral research. Feedback will be given by each member of the faculty panel, as well as by the other student participants. Discussion will be encouraged.

The feedback will be geared toward helping student participants understand and articulate how their work is positioned, relative to other research on Assistive Technologies, Universal Accessibility, and Universal Usability. Feedback will also address whether their topics are adequately focused for thesis research projects, whether their methods are correctly chosen and applied, and whether their results are being appropriately analyzed and presented.

Student participants will also present their research in the main conference during a poster session that is dedicated specifically to the work of the Doctoral Consortium participants. This will allow conference attendees to interact with, and ask questions of, the Doctoral Consortium participants, and will allow the participants the opportunity to get feedback from a larger audience.

The abstract must clearly demonstrate relevance to accessibility research. Decisions about acceptance will be based on relevance to accessibility, originality, potential significance, topicality and clarity. A detailed list of suggested topics can be found in the Call for Papers.

Goals of the Consortium

The overall goals of the Consortium are to:

The overall purpose of the Consortium is to encourage and prepare a group of promising young researchers dedicated to Assistive Technologies, Universal Accessibility, and Universal Usability.

Who Should Apply

The purpose of the Doctoral Consortium is to provide feedback to Doctoral candidates at an early stage of their research, in order to help guide and shape their research program. Students submitting proposals to the Doctoral Consortium may also submit a different piece of work to the Student Research Competition, but may not submit the same work to both the Doctoral Consortium and the Student Research Competition.

Note: Student work that is complete, or near to completion, should be submitted as either a technical paper or a poster.

Relevant Topics

Relevant topics for the Consortium are the same as for the conference as a whole. See the Call for Papers.

How to Apply

Each Doctoral Consortium application must contain the following materials:

  1. Cover Letter

    The cover letter should contain the following information:

    • A statement of interest in participating in the Doctoral Consortium
    • The full name of University and Department in which the candidate is earning his/her doctorate degree
    • The name of the supervising professor
    • Full contact information, including address, telephone number, fax number, and email address
    • The title of the research, and keywords pertinent to the research
    • The URL of the candidate's web page (if any)

  2. Research Project Summary

    The Research Project Summary must be 2-pages long, use one of the following templates, and include: title, author information, abstract, keywords, thesis research summary, and references. References do not count towards page length.

    This extended abstract must clearly address:

    • The problem that the proposed research is addressing
    • The motivation behind this research, including a broad comparison with the related literature
    • The proposed solution, including a brief description of the proposed methodology to the solution
    • The stage of the candidate's program of study, including the status of the research (i.e., what has been done to date, and what still needs to be done)
    • The envisioned contributions to the accessibility field
    • What the candidate hopes to gain from the Doctoral Consortium
    • Bibliographical references

  3. Letter of Recommendation

    A letter from the primary thesis advisor/supervisor that briefly states what the advisor/supervisor expects the student to gain from, and contribute to the consortium.

  4. The Candidate's CV

    The candidate is required to submit a CV (maximum of 2 pages) that relates her/his background, relevant experience, and research accomplishments.

Submission Format

The Cover Letter, the Research Project Summary, the Letter of Recommendation, and the candidate's CV should be submitted to the Doctoral Consortium Chairs via the Doctoral Consortium submission site as separate PDF documents by Monday, June 18, 2018 at 5 p.m. PDT. The submission website will open approximately one month before the submission deadline.

Note that submissions are not double blind submissions; the applicant's name must appear on the documents.

Student Participant Selection Process

The Doctoral Consortium applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

In selecting participants the committee may also consider balance in geographic areas and topics covered.

Publication

Following the Doctoral Consortium, the participants may be invited to submit revised and updated papers for publication in a 2018 issue of the SIGACCESS Newsletter.

Sign Language Interpreting or Captioning

Upon request, Sign Language interpreting or captioning will be provided for the Doctoral Consortium, and all other ASSETS events. Requests for an interpreter or captioner must be indicated on the conference registration form when registering for ASSETS 2018.

Important Dates

Travel and Hotel Expenses

We are currently seeking funding to support travel and hotel expenses for DC participants. Please check back at a later date for updates.

Further Information

For further information or any questions regarding the event or submissions, please contact the Doctoral Consortium Chairs - Shiri Azenkot and Keith Vertanen at dc-assets18@acm.org.

Schedule

The schedule for the DC will include a very informal social event on Saturday night the 20th for those who are already in town. Students and faculty will both be invited.

The main event starts on Sunday the 21st. The current plan is as follows:

Chairs

Panelists