Guidance
- Talks will be 5-6 minutes in length
- Slides must be submitted to Programme Chairs by Noon on Monday 22 June.
Submit an abstract
Guidance
- Posters must be directly related to your postgraduate research.
- The content can be comprised of any aspect of your research output, ongoing work or completed work, including previously published work.
- Each postgraduate researcher is limited to submitting one poster.
- Submissions should include a 150-word abstract about their research area (references not necessary) and a PDF version of the Poster.
- You must bring your own poster to the Conference*
PDF requirements
- Posters must be submitted in portrait orientation
- File should be no larger than 100MB
- File should be able to be printed at A1 size
- Any pictures must be a minimum of 150 dpi at the size as if they are being printed
Late submissions
To organise the competition, poster files must be received by 11:59 on 7 June 2026. Submissions received after this date will be able to present at the session if space allows, but may not be eligible for consideration in the competition.
Printing support
Students are expected to print their own posters and bring them to the conference. If your School is unable to provide printing facilities or budget, please contact admin[at]sicsa.ac.uk for information about additional printing support.
Submit an abstract
Role of the Examiner (PhD students)
We are seeking 15 student volunteers to act as examiners. There will be 5 parallel vivas, with 3 student volunteers per session. Each session will focus on examining an academic colleague’s PhD thesis and lasts 1 hour, including a short, 15-minute presentation by the examinee.
- Evaluate the thesis – Read and critically assess the work presented in the thesis.
- Ask questions - Engage with the examinee by asking thoughtful questions to challenge and refine their ideas.
Time committment
The Reverse Viva schedule will be announced shortly. Examiners should prepare for the session by:
- Reading the PhD thesis of the examinee.
- Preparing a list of questions.
- Liaising with your co-examiner regarding your questions.
Role of the Examinee (academic/post doc)
We are seeking 5 colleagues from Scottish universities who have recently completed their PhD to be part of the Reverse Vivas as examinees. The idea of the workshop is to give PhD students a chance to be exposed to the kind of questions and answers they will face in their own Vivas when the time comes. To do this, an established academic colleague will have their own PhD thesis examined by PhD students.
Time commitment
The Reverse Viva schedule will be announced shortly. The session will run for 1 hour. You will be asked to provide a 10-15 minute overview of your thesis for the audience followed by a 40-minute examination by the student examiners, after which the examiners will convene privately to determine whether or not you have “passed”
Reverse Viva Explainer
Examiners and examinees should watch this short guide video that outlines the Reverse Viva format.
Eligibility
All doctoral dissertations with a focus on Computer Science and Informatics successfully completed in the period 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026 are eligible. The date of the viva or final thesis acceptance date can be treated as the completion date.
Selection criteria
The award is intended to recognise and honour outstanding research and exposition in Computer Science and Informatics. Specifically, to be considered for this award, the dissertation should “make an original and noteworthy technical contribution; and have a high-quality exposition accessible to a general computing science audience”.
Nominations should include
- Copy of dissertation
- Nominating statement from an advisor (2 pages max) addressing why the nominee’s dissertation should receive this award. This should address the significance of the dissertation, not simply repeat the information in the abstract. Nomination must come from the advisor; self-nomination is not allowed.
- One letter of support (2 pages max). The supporting letter should be from an expert in the field (for example, the external examiner) who can provide additional insights or evidence of the dissertation’s impact. (The nominator/advisor may not write a letter of support.) If a letter writer is supporting more than one nomination, they may be asked to rank those nominations.
- List of publications contributing to thesis.
- Suggested award citation if the candidate is selected. This should be a concise statement of no more than 200 words.
Review process
Submissions will be reviewed by a selection committee consisting of senior researchers in Computer Science and Informatics and chaired by the SICSA Education Director.
Deadline for nominations
Nominations with attachments should be submitted via email to admin[at]sicsa.ac.uk by 23:59 on Sunday, 17 May 2026. Letters of support and citations can be sent as attachments but dissertations should be sent as open-access links.
Nomination form
Nominations with should be submitted by 23:59 on Sunday, 31 May 2026.