Google Doctoral Consortium

We are pleased to announce the 2021 W4A Google Doctoral Consortium. Up to 4 PhD students will be invited to participate in a special session with industry and research experts and get constructive feedback on their dissertation research.

  • Awardees will receive $500USD for conference registration and other related expenses.
  • While Doctoral students with disabilities are encouraged to apply for both the Google Doctoral Consortium and the IBM PsD Students Award, the two awards cannot be combined.

Chairs

Panel of Judges

  • Sile O’Modhrain, University of Michigan, United States
  • Yuhang Zhao, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
  • Yu Zhong, Google Research

Logistics and Schedule

  • Date: April 18, 2021 (Sunday)
  • Time: 4pm – 8pm Ljubljana Time (7 – 11am Pacific Time, 3-7pm Dublin Time, 4-8pm Spain Time, 9am -1pm US Central Time, 10am – 2pm US Eastern Time)

Participants

  • Andreas M. Klein, University of Seville, Spain – Toward a User Experience Tool Selector for Voice User Interfaces
  • Shiya Cao, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA – Exploring Information Systems for the Workplace Accommodation Process

Schedule

  • 4-4:30pm: Intro and open
  • 4:30-5:30pm: Andreas Klein (30 min presentation + 20 min discussion) + 10 min break
  • 5:30-6:30pm: Shiya Cao (30 min presentation + 20 min discussion) + 10 min break
  • 6:30-7:15pm: Panel discussion
  • 7:15-7:30pm: Closing
  • 7:30-8pm: Social event

Eligibility

This award is open to any Doctoral candidate at a University or other Higher Education institution, AND who is carrying out research that is directly relevant to the accessibility and usability of the Web, Mobiles, and Wearables. While early-stage doctoral students are prioritized, Masters students doing exceptional accessibility research and planning to go for a PhD in this area will be considered. We particularly encourage applicants from under-represented parts of the world.

Submission requirements

Your application should contain the following:

  • A two-page PDF file outlining your research, its novelty, originality, and its anticipated impact. The submission should follow the formatting requirements of the main track. It may include limited references.
  • Two supplementary files:
    • A PDF letter of support from your research supervisor, confirming your position and research area (to ensure that applications are from bonafide researchers)
    • A PDF file with the Doctoral Consortium Application Form, including personal details.

All the files should be submitted via e-mail to dc2021@w4a.info.

You will receive an acknowledgment email on successful receipt of your application. Accepted papers will be included in the W4A 2021 proceedings published at the ACM DL.

Evaluation criteria

Submissions will be carefully reviewed by a panel of judges. Submissions will be evaluated on the following quality factors:

  • Compliance with submission requirements and eligibility criteria.
  • Relevance of research to the W4A conference topics.
  • Awareness of the field and the state of technology.
  • Originality and potential impact of your research.

For the sake of openness, the judges will assess the submission using this review form.

Contact

If you have any questions relating to the submission process or the event itself, please email dc2021@w4a.info.