SIGCOMM 2011

AUGUST 15-19, 2011

TORONTO, ON, CANADA


ACM SIGCOMM 2011 Travel Grants

This year, as in years past, the Conference Organizing Committee is working hard to provide as much travel support to as many conference attendees as possible. We have obtained or are working towards obtaining travel support from several different government and corporate organizations as well as accumulated ACM Sigcomm funds. Through this support, we expect to be able to assist dozens of attendees.

Support is provided for a variety of different types of attendees, from graduate students to post-doctoral scholars to junior faculty. The amount of support depends on the type of attendee and available funding. For example, ACM Sigcomm GeoDiversity travel grants are available for attendees in their early career (at most five years of full-time, full-level, non-postdoc, post-PhD employment) and graduate students from under-represented countries and are awarded based on need, distance to the conference venue, and impact of their attendance in increasing the diversity of conference participation. NSF funds will be limited to US-based graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. A portion of our funds particularly targets students that are female and/or from developing or under-developed countries. We encourage attendees from around the world, especially women and under-represented minorites, to apply.

Please consider the following important information before applying:

Selection Criteria

The following criteria will be used in the selection process:

  1. Preference will be given to applicants that do not present a paper in the conference. The rationale for this criterion is that we expect the participation costs for a presenting author to be covered by their home institution.
  2. Nevertheless, students presenting posters are strongly encouraged to apply. The rationale is to support the participation of students who do not present papers but contribute to the conference in other ways.
  3. Evidence of a serious interest in networking, as demonstrated by coursework and/or project experience, will be required. Advanced students close to graduation or in the job market will also be given priority, when possible.
  4. We also encourage participation of women and under-represented minorities. Special attention will be given to applicants from minority-serving institutions.
  5. After giving priority to the above criteria, (co-)authors of papers may be considered but will be given lower priority. The rationale is to support people that contribute to the conference and cannot attend otherwise due to budget or other constraints. An example is a student who is a second author but does not present and would not be able to attend the conference otherwise. Another example is a postdoc or an undergraduate who presents work with a past affiliation or without affiliation and thus is supported neither by their past nor by their current institution. In both cases, the applicant and the letter-writer should explain in their letters why it is impossible to support the applicant from other sources.

Important Dates

Submission deadline for all programsMay 26, 2011  June 6, 2011 (11:59pm PDT)
Award notificationJune 20, 2011   June 27, 2011
Deadline to accept/decline the awardJune 27, 2011   July 4, 2011

Where and How to Apply

All application materials (applicant's info, CV and and letters) should be submitted electronically to the following website: http://fig.cs.umass.edu/sigcomm11_travel_grants/

The applicant should create an account in the submission system and upload:

  1. an up-to-date CV
  2. an application letter, and
  3. a letter from their supervisor (Ph.D. advisor for students, Ph.D or postdoc advisor for postdocs, or supervisor for faculty/researchers).

The applicant's letter should be clearly divided in the following sections:

  1. an explicit identification of (a) the applicant's current country of study or work, (b) academic status (student, postdoc, or junior faculty member), and (c) whether the applicant qualifies for a GeoDiversity travel grant (see above);
  2. whether the applicant plans to attend any of the workshops;
  3. brief summary of where the applicant is studying/working (provide a URL for a home page if one exists) and the applicant's advisor/supervisor is; the applicant feels is relevant to support their case;
  4. a brief summary of research interests and plans for future research; and
  5. why the conference attendance is important to the applicant's research

The supervisor's letter should be clearly divided in the following sections:

  1. the applicant's good standing in the institution;
  2. explain why the applicant would benefit from attending SIGCOMM as well as how he/she could contribute to the conference;
  3. explain the current funding status and why the applicant is in need of the travel grant.

Supervisor letters may either be uploaded directly into the applicant's account (preferred) or may be emailed (PDF only!) to arun@cs.umass.edu. The submission site has been designed to keep supervisor letters "write-only", i.e., the applicant will not be able to view the uploaded letter in their account.

Questions and email communication should be addressed to the Travel Grants Co-Chairs at sigcomm11travel@cs.umass.edu.

Reimbursement Process

All grants will be handled via reimbursement by check. NSF-sponsored awards will be reimbursed by ACM through a grant at UMass Amherst. Detailed instructions for submitting reimbursement claims for these as well as other awards will be announced to award recipients. For any expense that is covered, a receipt is required. An expense report form and other required forms will have to be turned in after the conference. The reimbursement will be sent as check via mail after the documents are received.