Call for Doctoral Symposium
ICDCN 2027 will host a Doctoral Symposium to encourage Ph.D. students to present and discuss their research with peers in their fields. This symposium is best suited for students who already have a dissertation plan outlined in the broad areas of Distributed Computing and Computer Networking. The symposium will provide students with valuable feedback on their research from academics and practitioners from leading universities and industries.
Ph.D. students working in any area of the main conference track can submit their research proposal for this symposium. See the Main Conference Call for Papers for the full list of topics.
What to Expect
Expert Feedback
Receive constructive feedback from academics and industry practitioners from leading institutions worldwide.
Peer Networking
Connect with fellow Ph.D. students and researchers working on similar problems in distributed computing and networking.
Dedicated Session
Accepted authors present their work in a dedicated session at ICDCN 2027, with opportunities for in-depth discussion.
Best DS Award
A Doctoral Symposium Award will be presented based on the evaluation committee's feedback and presentation quality.
Eligibility
Ph.D. Students (Primary)
Those enrolled as a full-time student in a Ph.D. program at any university as on the date of submission of the proposal are eligible. Ph.D. students with a well-formulated problem and initial technical approach or results are particularly encouraged to apply, as they would benefit most from the symposium feedback.
BS & MS Students (Also Welcome)
Although this forum is primarily targeted toward Ph.D. students, BS (Undergraduate) and MS (Postgraduate) students who have formulated a research project and obtained preliminary good results will also be considered and are encouraged to apply.
Submission Guidelines
Each submission to the Doctoral Symposium must include the following two components:
Research Paper / Proposal
Maximum 2 pages, including references, tables, and figures.
- Clear problem statement
- Technical approaches for the problem
- Novelty of the problem and/or approach
- Results obtained so far
- Student author clearly indicated
- Advisor(s) listed as co-authors
Curriculum Vitae
Maximum 1 page.
- Participant's name & affiliation
- Advisor's name
- Theme of research
- Degrees obtained so far
- Current status in degree program
- Expected graduation date
All papers must be submitted in PDF format through EasyChair, selecting "Doctoral Symposium" as the track. The submission link will be updated here shortly.
Formatting Instructions
File Format
Submissions must be in PDF format with all fonts embedded. Submissions that do not meet the page limit, size, and formatting requirements will not be reviewed.
ACM Proceedings Format
All figures, appendices, and references must fit within the 2-page limit. Submissions must be formatted according to the official ACM Proceedings format. ACM uses 9-pt fonts in all conference proceedings, and the style (both LaTeX and Word) sets the font size to 9-pt by default. Word and LaTeX templates are available at acm.org/publications/proceedings-template .
Single-Blind Review
Paper reviewing is single-blind. Submissions should list author names on the front page — no anonymization is required.
Camera-Ready Limit
The page limit for camera-ready submission is also 2 pages. Accepted submissions will be included in the ICDCN proceedings as 2-page extended abstracts.
Symposium Details
Review Process
All submissions will be reviewed using a single-blind review mechanism.
Presentation
The primary student author of accepted proposals will have the opportunity to give a presentation at ICDCN. Specific details of how the session will be organized will be shared on this page.
No-Show Policy
No-shows without the chairs' prior approval are not allowed and will result in the submission being withdrawn from the proceedings.
Publication
Accepted submissions will be included in the ICDCN 2027 proceedings as 2-page extended abstracts, published in the ACM Digital Library.
Doctoral Symposium Award
There will be a Doctoral Symposium Award based on the evaluation committee's feedback and presentation quality.
Important Dates
All deadlines are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time.
Doctoral Symposium Chairs
For any questions, please contact the ICDCN 2027 Doctoral Symposium Co-Chairs:
Viviana Arrigoni
University of Rome, Italy
Soumyajit Chatterjee
Brave Software, UK
Submit your research proposal and CV in PDF format via EasyChair by October 15, 2026 (AoE). Select "Doctoral Symposium" as your submission track.
Submit via EasyChair