The academic path is full of technical and personal challenges. It is exciting but it can also be overwhelming. We need to come up with novel research ideas, learn how to deal with paper or proposal rejections, and build networks that can help our communities and personal careers.
This year, EWSN will hold a PhD School & Community Event particularly aimed at PhD students and junior Faculty to discuss technical and personal challenges in an open and supportive way. The program will include senior researchers who will share their experiences and participants who will present their current challenges (technical and non-technical) to get feedback and advice.
A special focus will be on non-technical challenges encountered by many early-stage researchers, such as dealing with paper/proposal rejections, handling stress induced by high expectations and deadlines, overcoming motivation crises when things don’t go as planned, or how to master cooperation in a team with different cultural/disciplinary backgrounds.
The venue also represents a unique opportunity for the community to network, receive constructive feedback, guidance, tips, and learn about innovative research problems being tackled by the community.
Participants will receive a certificate worth 1 ECTS credit, which they may get recognized at their home university for the education programs they are enrolled in. Several travel grants are foreseen for participants of the PhD School & Community event, for which a separate application is required, see here
The final call for the PhD School & Community Event is available here. PhD students have the opportunity to submit an abstract that will be published as part of the conference proceedings.
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 08:30 | Registration |
| 9:00 | Welcome & Keynote 1 (plenary) |
| 10:00 | Interactive session (plenary) |
| 10:30 | Coffee break |
| 11:00 | Technical Session 1: Junior PhDs |
| 12:00 | Technical Session 2: Senior PhDs |
| 13:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 | Technical Session 3 |
| 15:00 | Keynote 2 |
| 16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:30 | Community discussion (plenary) |
| 18:00 | End |
Program Description
Interactive session. There will be an interactive poll where attendees describe the challenges faced in their respective roles: PhDs, young faculty members, and the community.
Community discussion. The community discussion will be divided into two parts. First, all attendees will jointly discuss the results of the morning poll and define four main topics to cover in round tables. Second, each topic will be discussed with an expert panel.
Technical sessions. During the technical sessions, PhD students present their work and receive feedback from the audience and panel.
Simone Silvestri
Simone Silvestri is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2010 from the Department of Computer Science of the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Dr. Silvestri's research is funded by several national and international agencies such as NIFA, NATO, and the NSF, and he received the NSF CAREER award in 2020. He published more than 90 papers in international journals and conferences including IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grids, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, IEEE INFOCOM, and IEEE ICDCS. He served on the organizing committee of several international conferences including as General Co-Chair of IEEE ICNP, Technical Program Co-Chair of IEEE SECON, IEEE SmartComp, and IEEE DCOSS. He also served on the Technical Program Committee of more than 100 conferences. In 2023, Dr. Silvestri launched a YouTube channel, CSMentor, which now has over 1000 subscribers from all over the world and more than 47,000 views. On CSMentor, Dr. Silvestri provides mentoring advice to computer science and engineering students who are stepping into the world of research and education to guide them in more successfully navigating the world of academia.
Topic: TBA
Andra Lutu
Andra Lutu is a Senior Researcher at Telefónica Innovación Digital, in Madrid, Spain. Her main research interests lie in the areas of mobile network architecture design, internet measurements, and (network) knowledge representation. Andra’s work translated into impactful industrial innovation projects, and was published in top venues, including ACM MobiCom, ACM SIGCOMM and IEEE INFOCOM.
Topic: TBA