SIGCOMM 2009

AUGUST 17-21
BARCELONA, SPAIN

ACM SIGCOMM 2009 Travel Grants

Thanks to the supporting organizations, SIGCOMM 2009 has four travel grants programs:

The application process is the same for the three first categories (except for google) and is described in the rest of this document. However, the amount of the award will vary, depending on the category and the actual amount spent. As a general guideline, the committee will give priority to applicants who do not present a paper; we will also also give the lowest priority to paper (co-)authors. The reason is that we believe that home organizations should cover costs for presenters and co-authors. Please see the selection criteria section for details.

SIGCOMM 2009 gratefully acknowledges the sponsors of the Travel Grants program. Different sponsors will support different pools of applicants and types of grants:

We expect that each recipient of a STG provides a write-up about one of the papers presented including questions or simply discusses one of the papers saying what he has liked, find missing etc. This will be done using CCR Online. Instructions will be forwarded directly to the awardees.

The exact number of awards per category will depend on the availability of funds and will be determined as these become available.



SIGCOMM 2009 Travel Grants Committee

Review of applications and decisions about the travel awards will be made by the following committee:

Co-Chair Athina Markopoulou University of California, Irvine
Co-Chair Jordi Domingo-Pascual Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
  Chen-Nee Chuah University of California, Davis
  Morley Mao University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Important dates

Submission deadline for all programs (except for the Google grants)June 5, 2009 (extended)
Submission deadline for the Google grantsJune 26, 2009
Award notification (except for the Google grants)June 29, 2009
Deadline to accept/decline the awardJuly 6, 2009
Award notification for the Google grantsJuly 10, 2009

Where and how to apply

All application materials (applicant's info, CV and and letters) should be submitted electronically to the following website: http://odysseas.calit2.uci.edu/travelgrants/

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The applicant should create an account in the submission system and upload: (i) their CV (ii) an application letter and (iii) a letter from their supervisor (Ph.D. advisor for students, Ph.D or postdoc advisor for postdocs, or supervisor for faculty/researchers). The application letter should clearly indicate, among other things specified in the respective category, if the applicant is based in the US or Spain, is a member of the Euro-NF team in a participating institution, or none of the above. The supervisor's letter should be either uploaded by the applicant together with the other materials (preferred option); or emailed directly by the supervisor. Notice, however, that in both cases, the letter will be visible by the applicant.

Questions and email communication should be addressed to the Travel Grants Committee at: sigcomm09-grants@odysseas.calit2.uci.edu.

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 the participation costs for a presenting author should be covered by their home institution.
  2. Students presenting posters are encouraged to apply though. 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 who presents work with a past affiliation or without affiliation and thus is not supported neither by its past nor by its 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.)
  6. Support will not be provided for the sole purpose of attending the workshops associated with SIGCOMM. We note, however, that support for the main conference covers already a large portion of the travel expenses (e.g., flight); awardees can then pay for the additional workshop registration and lodging from other sources, if they so desire.

Student Travel Grants

The purpose of this program is to encourage graduate student participation at the conference by funding the travel cost for students who would otherwise be unable to attend.  Applications are accepted from students at degree-granting institutions throughout the world. 

What is Covered?

We plan to provide up to $1,600 per student to partially or fully cover the following expenses:

Other expenses, not covered by the grant, include: food and misc expenses; registration in the workshops and lodging for those days. Each awardee will be expected to cover any expenses in excess of the above amounts from other funds.

Each student will be awarded the minimum of the above amount and their actual documented cost. Notice that the actual cost will be lower than $1,600 in many cases, e.g. for students located in Europe.

What to submit?

 An application for a travel grant consists of the following materials:

Postdoc Travel Grants

The purpose of this program is to support a limited number of postdoctoral students, who would be otherwise unable to attend.

The same rules as in the Student Travel Grants category apply here with the following minor differences:

GeoDiversity Travel Grants

ACM SIGCOMM has created a travel grant program to increase the geographic diversity of its flagship "SIGCOMM Data Communications Festival". This program selects attendees in their early career (at most five years of full-time, full-level, non-postdoc, post-PhD employment) from under-represented countries, based on need, distance to the conference venue, and impact of their attendance in increasing the diversity of conference participation.

What is Covered?

Support is intended to fully cover travel (economy airfare and local transportation), registration for the conference, lodging at the conference hotel (for the three nights of the conference), meals, etc. The specific amount will vary depending on the actual cost for each applicant, and is not to exceed $2500.

What to submit?

 An application for a geodiversity travel grant consists of the following materials:

Reimbursements

All grants will be handled via reimbursement by check. The NSF-sponsored awards will be reimbursed through a grant at UC Irvine. The EuroNF-sponsored awards will be handled as supplements to existing EuroNF grants. Travel grants of Spanish students and post-docs will be reimbursed through grants awarded by the Spanish Ministry (MICINN-AACC) and Generalitat de Catalunya (ARCS) at UPF. Awards from ACM SIGCOMM and industrial sponsors will be handled through ACM.

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. The details will be announced to the award recipients.

Google SIGCOMM 2009 Conference Grant for female computer scientists

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to encouraging women to excel in computing and technology, we are pleased to announce the Google SIGCOMM 2009 Conference Grant to encourage more female computer scientists to attend and participate in the SIGCOMM 2009 , 18 to 20 August, Barcelona, Spain We encourage all female computer scientists interested in Data Communications to apply.

Two people will be chosen from the applicant pool to receive:

To be eligible for a conference grant candidates must:

How To Apply

To apply send, no later than 26 June 09, an e-mail to europe-events@google.com with the subject heading 'Google SIGCOMM 2009 Conference grant' containing:

For more information, please check the description of the program directly by Google.

Winners and claim process

The winners will be notified by e-mail by Friday 10 July 09 and their names published on the conference webpage. If you are a successful applicant, you will be sent a payment form to expense your ticket and 300 Euro travel contribution, to be completed and submitted after the event.