Student Research CompetitionFSE 2026

Accepted Papers

FSE Student Research Competition 2026

FSE 2026 will host an ACM Student Research Competition (SRC). SRC is a unique forum reserved for undergraduate and graduate students who want to experience the world of software engineering research and present their results to the community.

The ACM Student Research Competition at FSE 2026 consists of three parts:

1. Research Abstract Submission
2. Poster Presentation during the conference
3. Research Talk during the conference

The first-place winners are invited to participate in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals, which includes all fields of computer science. Here is how you can participate.

Submit a Research Abstract

To participate, submit an extended research abstract within a 2-page limit (plus one only for references) related to the main themes of FSE 2026 (see the Research Track for a list of conference topics). The submission should include the following elements: the research problem and motivation, background and related work, approach and novelty, results, and contributions. Your submission must present original research contributions that have not been published elsewhere. Papers will be judged based on how well they cover the above aspects of the work.

All research abstracts must conform to the Submission Guidelines for Companion Proceedings. Note that the research abstracts will appear in the companion proceedings and thus follow a different format compared with the main track.

IMPORTANT: All abstracts should be single-authored (i.e., just by the student participating in the competition) and must not exceed the limit of 2 pages, including text, tables, appendices and figures. The abstract may expand into a third page only containing references (i.e., no text, tables, appendices, or figures are allowed on that page).

All submissions must be in English. Submissions must be in PDF format. Papers must be submitted electronically through the FSE SRC HotCRP submission site. A panel of experts will review the submissions and select the students to participate in the Student Research Competition, which will be held during FSE 2026. Accepted submissions will be published in the conference electronic proceedings and made available in the ACM Digital Library.

The review process is single-anonymous. There is no need to anonymize the submission. The submission will be handled using HotCRP.

First Round: Poster Presentation

The first round of the competition will take place during the FSE 2026 conference and will be a poster session. You will get to present your research to the conference attendees and leading experts in software engineering research, including the SRC committee.

The committee members will review the posters and talk to participants about their research. Subsequently, they will evaluate the research (in terms of quality, novelty, and significance) as well as the presentation of the research (poster and discussion), and choose the participants to advance to the second round of the competition.

Second Round: Give a Presentation

Selected participants will be invited to give a short presentation of their research before the SRC committee members in a special session during FSE 2026. Each presentation will be followed by a short Q&A session. Evaluations of presentations will be based on the presenter’s knowledge of their research area, contribution of the research, and the quality of the oral and visual presentation. Depending on the number of participants, one to three winners will be chosen in each category (i.e., graduate an undergraduate), and receive prizes.

Prizes

All winners in each category (undergraduate and graduate) will be recognized during the conference and will receive prizes. The first-place winners of the FSE SRC are also invited to compete with winners from other conferences in the ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals.

Requirements

Participants must be undergraduate or graduate students pursuing an academic degree at the time of initial submission. Participants must be current student members of ACM, and must provide their ACM member number. Supervisors of the work may not be listed as co-authors; you must submit a single-authored version of your work for the competition.

The SRC Grand Finals

The first-place winner in each category (undergraduate and graduate) from the SRC held at FSE 2026 will advance to the ACM SRC Grand Finals. A different panel of judges evaluates the winners of all SRCs held during the calendar year against each other via the web. During the SRC Grand Finals, three undergraduates and three graduates will be chosen as the winners.

Important Dates

All dates are 23:59:59 AoE (UTC-12h).

• Paper Submission: January 26, 2026
• Notification: March 9, 2026
• Camera-ready Version: April 2, 2026

NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

For additional information, visit the official ACM Student Research Competition website. For questions, please contact the SRC chairs, Fatemeh Fard and Nicolás E. Díaz Ferreyra.