Doctoral SymposiumICST 2025

Following the traditions of the previous years, the 18th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation (ICST 2025) hosts a Ph.D. symposium with the following key objectives:

1. To provide constructive feedback and guidance to doctoral students whose dissertation research is related to software testing, verification, and validation.

2. To develop a supportive community of researchers and identify potential collaborators.

3. To facilitate interaction between students and established researchers and practitioners in the field.

The symposium will include a session with distinguished panelists who will share their tips and advice on how to navigate challenges that may arise during the PhD journey.

Also the Symposium will include insightful keynote presentations from established researchers.

Supporters

Diamond

Platinum

Silver

Bronze+

Bronze

Accepted Papers

Call for Doctoral Symposium Submissions

Goal

The symposium will be a one-day event held in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation. The symposium has three goals: (1) to provide constructive feedback and guidance to doctoral students who are performing their dissertation research in the field of software testing, verification, and validation; (2) to develop a supportive community of researchers and potential collaborators; (3) to help students interact with established researchers and practitioners in the field.

Scope

The symposium invites Ph.D. students at all stages of their studies, from first-year students to those ready for their final dissertation defense. The symposium requires each student to write a short research summary describing the problem tackled in the Ph.D., some key results (if any), and a potential plan for the Ph.D. program. The students will present their work at the symposium and will receive feedback from the panel members. Students may also seek advice on challenging topics such as how to perform research in testing, how to design and execute empirical research, write scientific papers, and eventually prepare for the Ph.D. defense itself. Accepted research summaries will be published in the conference proceedings.

Submission Format

Submissions to the Ph.D. symposium must include the following:

1. The author of the submission must be the Ph.D student only.

2. A research summary of at most 2 pages, exclusive of references, formatted according to the ICST 2025 conference formatting instructions. 

3. All submissions must be in English and include the following information:

   • Student name, university, name of the research advisor, and project name. To clarify, the student is the author and the advisor is acknowledged

   • The problem to be addressed by the thesis (justify the importance and argue on its novelty, clarify that it has not yet been addressed) 

   • The research hypothesis, goals or questions

   • The expected contributions of the dissertation research

   • The proposed research approach

   • Summary of results to date

   • The plan to evaluate the results and a dissemination plan

4. A CV with research achievements including publications and presentations

5. A recommendation letter from the dissertation advisor. The letter should include:

   • Name of the student

   • Name of the advisor

   • A candid assessment of the current status of the student’s dissertation research

   • An approximate date for dissertation submission Submission must be in the form of a single PDF composed of the research summary, the CV, and the recommendation letter from the dissertation advisor and submitted via EasyChair.

Evaluation

The Ph.D. Symposium chairs will evaluate all submissions that meet the submission criteria based on their relevance to the ICST community, their originality, the quality of the summary, and their technical soundness.

Award

The best submission will be awarded during the Symposium.

Presentations

Presentations will be 10-12 minutes and limited to 10 slides. The time limit will be strictly enforced. Student presentations will be followed by 8-10 minutes of feedback from the panelists. The audience will be asked to hold questions until the end of each session.

Poster

Accepted papers will be able to bring a poster about the research conducted to get complementary feedback from the ICST community.

How to Give a Great Presentation—For Software Engineering Researchers

By Denys Poshyvanyk

Abstract: Communicating research effectively is just as important as conducting it. In this talk, I will break down how software engineering research students can craft and deliver compelling presentations that showcase their work with clarity and impact. From structuring technical content to engaging both expert and non-expert audiences, I will cover strategies for storytelling, slide design, and handling questions with confidence. I will also cover some actionable tips on disseminating your research and marketing yourself and your research as an academic.

Bio: Denys Poshyvanyk is a Chancellor Professor and a Graduate Director in the Computer Science Department at William & Mary. He currently serves as a Guest Editor-in-Chief of the AI-SE Continuous Special Section at the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) and a Program Co-Chair for FSE’25 and FORGE’25. He is a recipient of multiple ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished paper awards, most influential paper awards, and the NSF CAREER award (2013). He is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM distinguished member.