The Student Mentoring Workshop (SMeW) at ICSE encourages and supports students who are entering the Software Engineering (SE) research community. The goal of the workshop is to attract students to research careers in SE, to demystify the graduate school experience, and to offer first-hand perspectives on the graduate study from recent Ph.D. graduates, young scholars, and senior researchers. SMeW’s core mission is to foster the development of the next generation of researchers in our community — supporting undergraduates and master’s degree students who are applying to Ph.D. programs, and early-career Ph.D. students who are just beginning their studies. SMeW aims to foster an inclusive community, promoting diversity and increasing the participation of students who are members of underrepresented groups in computing.

The workshop program will focus on important skills for beginning researchers and will offer mentoring opportunities with senior researchers attending the conference, discussing the topics such as the following.

• How to build a mentoring network and what to look for? What is the difference between mentorship and sponsorship?
• How to network effectively at a conference? How to find your cohort and support groups? How to find a mentor and what to look for?
• What non-technical skills are also essential for a research career? To give a good presentation? To write an outstanding paper? To find great collaborators?
• What are the possible research career trajectories (e.g., differences across academia, industry, startups, consulting)?
• What are the new, emerging areas in software engineering research?
• What are the best practices and common pitfalls in an early-stage research career?

Format

The workshop will be structured to encourage interaction and confidential small-group discussions. We aim to provide a supportive and friendly environment for students to share their personal experiences and seek advice from their mentors comfortably. We will match mentors and mentees into small groups based on their technical and non-technical interests.

Following ICSE 2024’s structure, the workshop will be in person. This is a one-day workshop at the same venue as ICSE (lunch included!). The workshop format will include presentations (a small portion of the workshop to warm up the discussions), skill practice (e.g., networking skill practice right before ICSE starts!), small-group mentoring pods based on the topics of your interest, and panel discussions on topics of common interests. The mentors will have diverse expertise and experiences to offer different perspectives, such as researchers at different stages with academic or industrial backgrounds.

More information on the workshop organization, date will be posted soon.

How to participate

Student Application

All students who are interested in attending the workshop in person must submit an application, which will help us match students with mentors and ensure that we can provide sufficient space to have productive discussions. To help support students to attend the workshop in person, we have funding set aside to defray travel costs, and also to cover the registration costs for ICSE. This support is subject to the availability of funds.

Apply for the workshop at: https://icse2025-smew.hotcrp.com

The application to the workshop will be reviewed in 2 rounds:

Round 1: Oct 18 2024 - applicants who will need a visa to visit Canada (You can find more about Canada Visa requirements here )

Round 2: Jan 27 2025 - applicants who do not need a visa to visit Canada.

We enforce the 2 rounds review to give more time to the applicants for visa application. If you need a visa to visit Canada, we strongly encourage you to apply for workshop attendance before the Round 1 deadline to allow sufficient time for your visa application process.

NOTE: If it is your first time using HotCRP, you may need to register a new account. When registering a new account, HotCRP will ask you to provide your ORCID. This field in optional in the registration.

SMeW vs. Doctoral Symposium?

A common question is about why someone would attend the student mentoring workshop or the doctoral symposium. These two events have different focuses. - SMeW’s primary goal is to demystify the graduate school process and provide mentoring on a wide range of topics. - The Doctoral Symposium’s primary goal is to help graduate students develop their research ideas.

Both of these events also give attendees a chance to network with SE students, faculty, and industry folks; ask questions; etc.

Sponsors

Travel support is made possible thanks to generous support by ACM SIGSOFT. More sponsors are to be announced!

Call for Student Applications

All students who are interested in attending the workshop in person must submit an application, which will help us match students with mentors and ensure that we can provide sufficient space to have productive discussions. To help support students to attend the workshop in person, we have funding set aside to defray travel costs, and also to cover the registration costs for ICSE. This support is subject to the availability of funds.

Apply for the workshop at: https://icse2025-smew.hotcrp.com

The application to the workshop will be reviewed in 2 rounds:

Round 1: Oct 18 2024 - applicants who will need a visa to visit Canada (You can find more about Canada Visa requirements here )

Round 2: Jan 27 2025 - applicants who do not need a visa to visit Canada.

We have 2 rounds to give more time to the applicants for visa application. If you need a visa to visit Canada, we strongly encourage you to apply for workshop attendance before the Round 1 deadline to allow sufficient time for your visa application process.

Applicants rejected from Round 1 are not eligible for consideration in Round 2.

NOTE: If it is your first time using HotCRP, you may need to register a new account. When registering a new account, HotCRP will ask you to provide your ORCID. This field in optional in the registration.

Tips for the application

The application includes a request for your CV. Here are three steps you can take to make it easier to review your application.

1. Make sure your CV is up-to-date, such that any CV-type activity (papers, enrollment in PhD programs) you mention in your application is present on your CV.
2. Make sure you use a style that is easy to read. For example, there are many nice templates on Overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/tagged/cv. This one is nice: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/a-customised-curve-cv/mvmbhkwsnmwv.
3. Be thoughtful about what you include in the CV. A CV for this kind of application should not cover your activities in high school, nor enumerate all classes you have ever taken.

Sponsors

Travel support is made possible thanks to generous support by ACM SIGSOFT. More sponsors are to be announced!

• Social event
• Mentoring pods
• Mentoring panel