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 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.

The one-day workshop will be held at the same venue as ICSE. 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 interest. The mentors will have diverse expertise and experiences to offer different perspectives, such as researchers at different stages with academic or industrial backgrounds.

Based on previous ICSEs, the workshop will likely be held on Tuesday, the day before the main conference starts. However, this date has yet to be confirmed.

More information on the workshop organization will be posted soon.

How to participate

Student Application

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

There will be two rounds of applications with respective deadlines in the Fall of 2025 (October) and Winter of 2026 (January). The first will be for applicants who require a visa to visit Brazil, and the second will be for applicants who do not require a visa. The dates of the deadlines are to be confirmed.

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

Application deadlines will be posted on the ICSE 2026 website in the first week of September.

SMeW vs. Doctoral Symposium?

A common question is 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 events also give attendees a chance to network with SE students, faculty, and industry folks, ask questions, and more.

Sponsors

Travel support is made possible thanks to the generous support of ACM SIGSOFT. We are looking into additional sponsors.

Call for Student Applications

All students who are interested in attending the workshop in person must submit an application. This will help us match students with mentors and ensure that we can provide sufficient space for productive discussions. Some funding is available to defray travel costs for some students, but this support is subject to the availability of funds.

Logistics

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

Round 1: Fall 2025. Deadline to be confirmed - applicants who need a visa to visit Brazil

Round 2: Winter 2026. Deadline to be confirmed - applicants who do not need a visa to visit Brazil

We have two rounds to give applicants more time to apply for visas. If you need a visa to visit Brazil, 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.

The application deadlines will be published on this website in the first week of September.

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 the generous support of ACM SIGSOFT. We are looking into additional sponsors.