Mission

The first Undergraduate Architecture (uArch) Mentoring Workshop is designed to introduce late-stage undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students to research and career opportunities in the field of computer architecture in particular and graduate school lifestyle and survival skills in general. The program will include technical sessions that cover past, current and future research directions in computer architecture, mentoring sessions that cover how to apply to graduate school and how to navigate the architecture research landscape effectively, and networking sessions that create opportunities for students to interact with their peers and established architects in academia and industry.

Mechanics

The central theme of this workshop is to attract undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students who are interested in graduate school in computer architecture. To this end, uArch will likely include:

• The Route to Graduate School: Students will learn how to apply to graduate school, how to find their research interests, how to talk with a potential advisor, etc.
• Life at Graduate School: The workshop will include keynote talks from academic and industry leaders about how to thrive at graduate school.
• Computer Architecture Research Landscape: The workshop will include technical sessions covering history, current state-of-the-art research and challenging problems that are left unsolved.
• Meet an “Architect in Process’’: As part of the workshop, attendees will be paired with students who are pursuing a Ph.D. degree in computer architecture to hear their first-hand experience about research and life at graduate school and build a mentor-mentee relationship.
• Ask an Architect: The workshop will include a panel of established architects in the industry and academia from whom students can seek career advice.

Apply to the workshop

To apply to the workshop, fill out the Google form available here

We will aim to fund as many students as possible, but will not be able to fund all applicants. Students who are not accepted with funding may still attend if they find other funding sources. And students who do not need funding are welcome to directly register for the workshop during FCRC registration, without filling out the application above. **Applications are now closed, but do feel free to attend the workshop by registering for it directly. And if you are a faculty member, grad student, or researcher who would like to meet students and mentor them, shoot us an email.

Invited Speakers

• Mary Hall (University of Utah)
• Jason Mars (University of Michigan/ Startup founder)
• David Patterson (UC Berkley, Turing Award Laureate, Google Brain)
• Karin Strauss (Microsoft Research)

Invited Panelists

• Lisa Hsu (Researcher, Microsoft)
• Ben Zorn (Researcher, Microsoft)
• Adrian Sampson (Assistant Professor, Cornel University)
• Emma Tosch (Graduate student, Max Plank Institute)
• Caroline Trippel (Graduate Student, Princeton)

Program Schedule

Dinner @ Saturday June 22nd

Morning Session, June 23rd (Room #105B)(Joint with PLDI’s Mentoring Workshop)

9 - 9:30 How to Leverage communication and Social Network to Better Your Research

9:30 - 10:15 What I wish I knew my first few years of grad school (Jason Mars)

10:15 - 11 How to be a Great Researcher (Mary Hall)

11 - 11:20 Break

11:20 - 12:30 Discussion Panel (How you made decisions about your career?): (Adrian Sampson, Emma Tosch, Ben Zorn, Lisa Hsu, Swapnil Haria)

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch

Afternoon Session, June 23rd (Room #104A)

2:00 - 3:00 Computer Architecture Research and the Future Prospects (David Patterson)

3:00 - 3:45 Computer Architecture Research Meets Biology (Karin Strauss)

3:45 - 4:00 Break

4:00 - 4:30 Informal Networking Session

Advice for attending your first ISCA

We attempt to answer some frequently asked questions.

Application Submission

• Eligibility: Applicants must be undergraduate students in their last or second-to-last year or first-year graduate students in computer science or related fields as of fall 2019. Students from around the world are welcome to apply. Applications from underrepresented groups in computing are especially welcome.
• Required Documents:
  • A statement of purpose explaining why you want to attend this workshop.
• Optional:
  • A note from the student’s advisor (if any) or teacher recommending them for the workshop.

Applicants who are selected for the workshop will have travel, hotel, and conference registration costs covered for the workshop and the main program of the conference. Funded attendees are expected to stay from Sunday through Wednesday morning and to attend both the workshop and the conference main program.

Note for non-US applicants: It is possible that we will need to cap travel funding in order to reach the most students. We expect that travel funding will be sufficient to cover domestic flights, but may not be enough to fully cover some international flights and/or visa costs. Being accepted does not obligate attendence, so we encourage students to apply and if they are accepted but funding is insufficient, they may then decline.

Note for women undergraduate and graduate students for additional funding ACM-W provides support for women undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Science and related programs to attend research conferences. The application deadline is April 15 for conferences taking place in June—July, 2019. For more information and to apply visit here.

Important Dates

• Mar 1: Submission Opens
• April 1 April 15: Submission deadline
• April 15 May 1: Notify the recipients

Organizers

• Srilatha (Bobbie) Manne
• Newsha Ardalani
• Lena Olson

Selection Committee

• Adrian Sampson
• Swapnil Haria
• Newsha Ardalani
• Lena Olson

Questions?

Please contact isca2019.uarch@gmail.com

Sponsors