Call for Doctoral Symposium

The Doctoral Symposium at the 27th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'19) brings together PhD students and academics working in all areas of requirements engineering. Each student presents his or her research project and receives constructive feedback from a panel of senior internationally renowned researchers in requirements engineering. The doctoral symposium is run in a highly interactive and collegial workshop-like format.

We are approaching several potential sponsors to provide financial support for students to attend the Doctoral Symposium and also the conference itself.

Travel Grants to Attend the Doctoral Symposium

The RE'19 Doctoral Symposium, with the sponsorship of the International Requirements Engineering Board - IREB e.V., will offer two need-based travel grants to RE'19 Doctoral Symposium students that have problems financing their trips to attend the Doctoral Symposium.

Each of the two travel grants provides a grant of 500€ that can be used to pay travel expenses such as the cost of transportation to and from Jeju Island, South Korea, and the hotel and conference fees. The submission of your research abstract and the application for the grant are separate processes, but share the same deadline.

The students that receive the travel grants shall write, together or individually, a short report about their RE'19 conference experience for the IREB RE Magazine. This short article will summarize what happened during their participation in RE'19 about the Doctoral Symposium, whom they met, what they learned concerning their PhDs and RE in general, etc.

Please apply for the travel grant by sending e-mail to the two RE'19 Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs Daniel Berry and Joerg Doerr, with the Subject: "RE DS Travel Grant Application", stating that you want to apply for the travel grant and stating the reason why you need the travel grant.

If more than two valid applications for the travel grants exist for accepted Doctoral Symposium students, which two students get the grants will be chosen at random by the co-chairs.

Who Should Participate

The Doctoral Symposium welcomes any PhD student who has already settled on a dissertation topic in the Requirements Engineering area and whose PhD research will benefit from external feedback. Such a student is typically in the first half of the research towards the PhD dissertation.

Submission Instructions

To apply as a student participant to the Doctoral Symposium, you need to submit by Saturday, June 22, 2019 Monday, May 27, 2019 (See the sidebar "Key Dates"), a package consisting of two parts: a research abstract and a recommendation letter.

Part 1: Research Abstract

Your research abstract must be formatted according to the IEEE formatting instructions and must not exceed 6 pages, including all text, references, appendices, and figures.

The research abstract should include:

  • The title of your research,
  • Your contact information (name, affiliation, postal address, personal webpage, and e-mail address),
  • A one paragraph summary in the style of an abstract for a regular paper,
  • A motivation justifying the importance of the research problem,
  • Research questions and hypotheses clearly formulating what you want to achieve, solve or demonstrate
  • Technical challenges associated with the research questions,
  • A discussion of the state of the art showing what existing work your research builds upon, which existing solutions of the state of the art have been developed including an explanation why they do not solve the problem,
  • A section sketching your current and planned contributions, including technical and other aspects,
  • A discussion on the originality of your contributions stating how your results go beyond existing approaches
  • A description of the research methods you will use including a strategy for evaluating your work to provide credible evidence of your results,
  • A description of the progress you made so far towards completing the research, and
  • A list of relevant accepted or published papers you have written, if any.

Note: The sections of your research abstract do not have to follow the outlined structure, but they must have similar content. If you are at a relatively early stage of your research, you might have some difficulty addressing all of the content requirements, but you should attempt to do so as well as you can. Your submission should contain no proprietary or confidential material and should cite no proprietary or confidential publications.

Part 2: Recommendation Letter

Ask your main or only dissertation advisor or supervisor for a letter of recommendation. This letter should include:

  • Your name,
  • An assessment of the current status of your dissertation research, and
  • The expected date for defending the dissertation.

The letter should be in PDF format and should be sent directly by your advisor or supervisor via e-mail to both RE'19 Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs Daniel Berry and Joerg Doerr. This letter will be held confidential. The e-mail should have the subject "RE19-DS- Recommendation" and your family name.

Please submit your Doctoral Symposium paper in PDF format via EasyChair. If you have multiple roles in RE'19, then first select "enter as an author". Otherwise or second, select "RE'19 Doctoral Symposium" for your submission.

Evaluation Criteria

The Doctoral Symposium co-chairs will select participants using the following three criteria:

  • The quality and potential of the research and its relevance to Requirements Engineering,
  • The quality of the research abstract (see section Submission Instructions above), and
  • The stage of the research and its suitability for the Doctoral Symposium.

Doctoral Symposium Panel

The membership of the panel will be determined after we know who is planning to attend RE'19. But the Panel will consist of renowned senior people in the field who have experience supervising research.

Doctoral Symposium Key Dates

Research Abstract Submission (Extended) Saturday, June 22, 2019 Monday, May 27, 2019
Research Abstract Notification Friday, July 05, 2019
Camera Ready Due Friday, July 19, 2019
Doctoral Symposium Tuesday, September 24, 2019

All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (Standard Time).

Doctoral Symposium Date

To be determined: either Monday or Tuesday, September 23 or 24, 2019

Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs

Any inquiries regarding Doctoral Symposium proposals can be directed to the Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs:

Doctoral Symposium Co-Chair

Daniel Berry
University of Waterloo, Canada

Doctoral Symposium Co-Chair

Joerg Doerr
Fraunhofer IESE, Germany