SPLASH 2018 PL Mentoring Workshop (PLMW)

The SPLASH 2018 Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop is aimed at advanced undergraduates and first year graduate students. The workshop aims to attract students to research careers in programming languages and software engineering, to de-mystify the graduate school experience, and to offer first-hand perspectives on graduate study from recent Ph.D. graduates, young scholars, and senior researchers. Applicants from groups underrepresented in computing are especially welcome.

The workshop program will focus on important skills for beginning researchers and will offer mentoring opportunities with senior researchers attending the conference. Guy Steele will be the workshop keynote speaker; additional confirmed speakers include: Marsha Chechik, Kathleen Fisher, Kathi Fisler, Shriram Krishnamruthi, Mayur Naik, Julia Rubin, and Frank Tip plus a panel of newly graduated Ph.D.s in PL/SE. Panelists will include Michael Carbin, Shiyi Wei, Sarah Nadi and Ben Lerner. Topics to be discussed include:

• How to network effectively at a conference? How to find your cohort? How to find a mentor and what to look for?
• What communication skills are essential for a research career? To give a good presentation? A good poster session talk? To write an outstanding paper?
• How do people pick their research area of interest or your advisor/mentor?
• What are the new, emerging areas in PL/SE?
• What are the differences between a research career in industry and in academia?
• What are the important work/life issues researchers deal with?
• How did PL/SE researchers successfully navigate their training experiences?

Travel support for PLMW is made possible by generous contributions from the National Science Foundation, and from ACM SIGPLAN.

Mentoring Application

To ensure that students can benefit from the entire, full-day program, this workshop is not open, (i.e., you can not decide on your own to attend). All students who are interested in attending must apply to do so — and will also be eligible to receive travel support to attend the workshop. We will support students’ travel to the workshop and to SPLASH (from Tuesday-Friday) including airfare, hotel, and conference registration.