Accepted Papers

Xavier Franch

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Title: This crazy little thing called PhD

Abstract: Life is hard for a PhD student. Busy advisors, endless deadlines, unfair rejections, expensive coffee, how to handle all of it? It's a messy journey not always easy to navigate. Join for a session where we'll uncover some key principles that will inspire you to take charge of your everyday PhD routine, among them: strategic thinking, resilience, curiosity, and adaptability. The talk won't just be throwing theory at you; it will serve up a hearty plate of practical advice and real-life examples to illustrate how to put these principles into action. And… we want to hear from you! Bring your opinions and experiences to the table as we dive deep into these principles. Together, we'll uncover the hacks, share the struggles, and celebrate the victories of the PhD journey. Let’s conquer this crazy little thing called PhD!

Bio: Xavier Franch is full professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he leads the Software and Service Engineering research group (GESSI, https://gessi.upc.edu/en) at the UPC. His research lines include requirements engineering, green AI, software architecture, empirical software engineering and conceptual modeling. In relation to IEEE RE conference, he has played several organizational roles (remarkably, General Chair in 2008 and Program Chair in 2016) and has got the Most Influential Paper award (2022) and Lifetime Service award (2023). He is Full Member and Council Vice-President of the International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB), member of the Academia Europea, and member of the International Software Engineering Research Network.

The Doctoral Symposium primarily welcomes any Ph.D. student who has already settled on a dissertation topic in the Requirements Engineering area. We call for submission and participation from students typically in the first half of their research toward their Ph.D. dissertation.

Goal for Submission and Participation

The forum aims to offer participants personalized, helpful feedback on their current research while encouraging the exploration of new ideas.

Additionally, the event provides an opportunity for student participants to connect with experienced researchers and professionals in the field as well as with fellow students from around the world. This interaction allows for sharing knowledge and insights, as well as developing lasting professional connections with the entire community.

Submission and Participation Requirements

Each student’s Doctoral Symposium submission comprises two essential components:

• A letter of recommendation from the student’s dissertation advisor should be sent directly to the Doctoral Symposium Chairs via email (Dr Klaas-Jan Stol and Prof Andreas Vogelsang). This letter must provide an assessment of the current state of the student’s research and an anticipated date for dissertation completion.

• A concise paper detailing the student’s dissertation research. This paper must be solely authored by the student; supervisors are not allowed as co-authors.

The maximum paper length is 4 pages (with an additional page permitted for references only) and must address the following aspects, though not necessarily in this order:

1. The research problem to be resolved, its significance, and the justification that prior research has not yet resolved the issue.
2. The research goal or hypothesis.
3. A discussion of relevant related work and motivation for the work.
4. The anticipated contributions of the research.
5. The proposed method to achieve the research goal or test the hypothesis.
6. A summary of the results obtained thus far.
7. A timeline planned (or followed)

For early-stage Ph.D. submissions, the paper should be limited to two pages (with an additional page allowed for references only) and must include all items from (1) to (5) listed above, excluding items (6) and (7).

Papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format via the RE’24 EasyChair system following the formatting instructions described here: Select the Doctoral Symposium Track for submission.

Students accepted to the Doctoral Symposium must register at regular student rates and attend the Doctoral Symposium in person. Students are expected to attend the Doctoral Symposium for the whole day.

Evaluation Criteria

The submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• The quality and potential of the research and its relevance to Requirements Engineering,
• The quality of the Doctoral Symposium paper, and
• The stage of the research and its suitability for the Doctoral Symposium.

The Doctoral Symposium papers of the selected participants will be published in the conference proceedings.