NeTS: Student Travel Support for the 2016 SIGCOMM Conference

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

The 2016 SIGCOMM conference will take place from August 22 to August 26, 2016 in Florianopolis, Brazil. This award assists 20 US-based graduate students attend this conference. Participation in conferences such as SIGCOMM forms a central part of the graduate school experience as it provides students with an opportunity to interact with senior researchers from academia as well as industry and exposes them to leading-edge research in the field. ACM SIGCOMM stands unique in its emphasis on interactions between networking researchers at an international level, and attending SIGCOMM presents an excellent opportunity for US graduate students to connect with a thriving international research community. In 2014-2015, SIGCOMM added additional programming to enrich the student experience. A mentorship program has run in the past two years assigning junior students with a more senior mentor at the conference. In 2015, the introduction of "preview sessions" gave students a chance to get briefed on topics prior to attending main session talks. The response to both of these has been extremely positive. The support requested in this proposal will enable students to attend the main conference and associated workshops at SIGCOMM 2016. These students would otherwise be unable to attend the conference. The travel grant chair is committed to encouraging the participation of women and under-represented minorities. Intellectual Merit: This project provides travel support for graduate students to attend SIGCOMM 2016 and the associated workshops. This program will expose students to new ideas in these emerging areas, and allow them to interact with other researchers thereby broadening their intellectual horizons. In particular, the mentorship program and topic preview sessions help ensure students are engaged and get maximum benefit from attending the conference. Broader Impacts: This project integrates research and education of students through exposure to a premier technical meeting in computer networks and communications. Students will have the opportunity to observe high-quality presentations and interact with senior researchers in the field both in the main conference and the associated workshops. The proposed student participation will have a positive impact on the quality of their research. Women and other minorities are encouraged to participate. The SIGCOMM conference has developed into a top-tier international conference, presenting a tremendous opportunity to students to expand their breadth of ideas, research skills, and technical perspective.