Doctoral Symposium

ETRA 2014 is proud to introduce the ETRA Doctoral Symposium, where graduate students get an opportunity to meet other students and experienced researchers to get feedback on their research in a friendly environment. The Doctoral Symposium will be held on March 25th, the day before the main conference program starts.

We invite doctoral students who have a defined topic in the area of eye tracking research and applications, but whose work is still in a phase where it can be influenced by the feedback received in the symposium. Excellent undergraduates who are directed towards PhD studies will be considered, too.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the doctoral symposium is to provide feedback on the students’ work and get fresh ideas from other researchers and students working on related topics.  The main symposium also offers an excellent opportunity to network with researchers with similar interests.

SUBMISSIONS

Participants will be selected based on a 2-page extended abstract describing the thesis work and its current status.   The abstracts will go through a submission process to get accepted for the symposium. The submission process is to make sure that the students have a defined topic, but they still are early enough in their studies so directions of their research can be influenced by the feedback and guidance they receive during the symposium.

The 2-page abstract should describe

• - Research objective
• - Hypothesis or problem statement
• - Approach and method
• - Results up to date
• - Current status and your situation (university and potential doctoral program or project)
• - Future work

The role of eye tracking should be clear from the abstract.

In addition, the submission should include

• - A concise CV
• - A brief letter of recommendation from the supervisor, stating the supervisor’s view of student’s current status and how the doctoral symposium should be beneficial for the student and vice versa (the student’s contribution to the symposium).
• - Optionally, the submission can also include a few lines describing the student’s expectations and wishes for the doctoral symposium.

FORMAT
The 2-page abstract should follow the same ACM SIGGRAPH Extended Abstracts format  as the demo/video session (see the section on Abstract Preparation Instructions).

IMPORTANT DATES

• - The abstracts should be sent by email to etra.conference [at] gmail.com by 6 Jan 2014, 12 Jan 2014.
• - The acceptance notes will be sent on 24 Jan 2013.
• - Camera ready papers are due on 31 Jan 2014.
• - The Doctoral Symposium will take place one day before the main conference, on Tuesday, 25 March 2014.

Instructions for finalizing the final camera ready abstract and information on the presentation and attendance at the doctoral symposium will be sent to the accepted participants. Accepted abstracts will be available in the ACM digital library as part of the ETRA 2014 proceedings.

DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM CO-CHAIRS

For more information, please contact:

• - Päivi Majaranta (paivi.majaranta [at] uta.fi), Univesity of Tampere, Finland
• - Jeff B. Pelz (pelz [at] cis.rit.edu), Rochester Institute of Technology, USA