The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) established the Doctoral Dissertation Award program to recognize and encourage superior research and writing by doctoral candidates in computer science and engineering. The award is presented each June at the ACM Awards Banquet and is accompanied by a prize of $20,000 plus travel expenses to the banquet. All winning dissertations are published exclusively in print and electronic formats as part of the ACM Books Series, which includes distribution through the ACM Digital Library. Honorable Mention(s) may also be awarded, with a prize of $10,000 shared among recipients. Financial sponsorship of the award is provided by Google.
The nominated dissertation must have been successfully defended (not necessarily submitted) between October 2017 through (and including) September 2018. Only a PhD student’s supervisor may nominate a dissertation. Student’s thesis advisor should submit a draft of the nomination statement (200-300 words in length) addressing why the candidate should receive this award to the student’s graduate program. – The statement should address the significance of the dissertation, not simply repeat the information in the abstract. – Supervisors need to submit the nomination statement(s) via admissions@mech.ubc.ca by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 26 September 2018.
Depending on the interest, graduate programs who submit draft nomination statements will be contacted with further instructions.
Please note that final nominations (due next month) will need to include:
- Name, address, phone number, and email address of the nominator (the student’s thesis advisor)
- Name, address, and email address of the candidate (person being nominated). Affiliation should be the name of the school.
- Suggested citation if the candidate is selected. This should be a concise statement (maximum of 25 words) describing the key technical or professional accomplishment for which the candidate merits this award. Note that the final wording for awardees will be at the discretion of the Award Committee.
- Nomination statement (200-300 words in length) addressing why the candidate should receive this award. This should address the significance of the dissertation, not simply repeat the information in the abstract.
- Copy of the dissertation, together with a copyright transfer form filled out by the candidate and assigning exclusive publication rights to ACM (select either the copyright or license form). Copyright will revert to the author if it is not selected for publication.
- Endorsement letters. The nomination must include an endorsement letter from the department head. In addition, at least 3, and not more than 5, supporting letters should be included from experts in the field who can provide additional insights or evidence of the dissertation’s impact. (The nominator/advisor may not write a letter of support.) Each letter should include the name, address, and telephone number of the endorser. The nominator should collect the letters and bundle them for submission.
For further information, please visit: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/acm-doctoral-dissertation-award