Doctoral Symposium

The call for the Doctoral Symposium is now closed. Further information on the event is provided here.

The Doctoral Symposium at the 22nd IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'14) brings together PhD students and academics working in all areas of requirements engineering. Students present their research projects and receive constructive feedback from a panel of senior internationally renowned researchers. The doctoral symposium is run in a highly interactive and collegial workshop-like format.

Who Should Participate

The Doctoral Symposium welcomes PhD students who have already settled on a dissertation topic in the Requirements Engineering domain and whose PhD dissertation will benefit from external feedback. Such students will typically be in the first half through their PhD work.

Submission Instructions

To apply as a student participant to the Doctoral Symposium you need to submit a package consisting of two parts: a research abstract and a recommendation letter.

Part 1: Research Abstract

Research abstracts must be formatted according to IEEE formatting instructions and must not exceed 6 pages, including all text, references, appendices, and figures.

The research abstract should include:

The title of your research
Your contact information (name, affiliation, postal address, personal webpage, and e-mail address)
A one paragraph summary in the style of an abstract for a regular paper
A motivation justifying the importance of the research problem
Research questions and hypotheses clearly formulating what you want to achieve, solve or demonstrate
Technical challenges associated with the research questions
A discussion of the state of the art showing what existing work your research builds upon, which existing solutions have been developed including an explanation why they do not solve the problem
A section sketching your contributions including technical and other aspects
A discussion on the originality of your contributions stating how your results go beyond existing approaches
A description of the research methods you will use including a strategy for evaluating your work to provide credible evidence of your results
A description of the progress you made towards completing the research
A list of references of accepted publications you have written, if any

Note: The sections of the research abstract do not have to follow the above structure, but must have similar content. Students at a relatively early stage of their research might have some difficulty addressing all of the content requirements, but should attempt to do so as well as they can.

Submissions should contain no proprietary or confidential material and should cite no proprietary or confidential publications.

Part 2: Recommendation Letter

Ask your (main) dissertation advisor for a letter of recommendation. This letter should include:

Your name
An assessment of the current status of your dissertation research
The expected date for defending the dissertation

The letter should be in PDF format and should be sent directly by your advisor via e-mail to both the RE'14 Doctoral Symposium Chairs Camille Salinesi and Mats Heimdahl. This letter will be held confidential. The e-mail should have the subject "RE14-DS-Recommendation" and your last name.

Submission Link

~~Click here to submit the research abstract.~~

Evaluation Criteria

The Doctoral Symposium Committee will select participants using the following three criteria:

The quality and potential of the research and its relevance to Requirements Engineering
The quality of the research abstract (see Section "Submission Instructions" above)
The stage of the research and its suitability for the Doctoral Symposium

Scholarships To Attend RE'14

If you are accepted as a student participant at the Doctoral Symposium, you should plan to attend the Requirements Engineering conference. The organizing committee offers scholarships allowing students to attend the conference. You can find the application criteria and procedure here.

Key Dates

Research Abstract Submission	Monday, April 14, 2014
Research Abstract Notification	Monday, May 26, 2014
Camera Ready Due	Friday, June 20, 2014

Submission