SIGIR offers the following opportunities to support student participation in the conference:
- Google female conference and travel grant
- SIGIR student travel grants (deadline has passed)
- Student housing
- Student volunteer positions (deadline of May 15th)
Google female conference and travel grant
We encourage all female computer science students interested in information retrieval to apply.
Two people will be chosen from the applicant pool to receive:
- free registration for the full conference (accommodation not included)
- 500 USD for travel costs (given to the recipients at or after the event)
To be eligible for a conference grant candidates must be:
- a female student enrolled and pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or technical field related to the conference subject
- maintaining a strong academic background with demonstrated leadership ability
- able to attend at least 2 full days of SIGIR
How To Apply
You will be required to create an account with the Google Scholarships & Awards Online Application in order to complete the online application process. Visit Google's Scholarships & Awards Application site to apply. Deadline is June 12, 2009.
Winners and Claim Process
The winners will be notified by e-mail on Friday, June 19, 2009. If you are a successful applicant, you will receive payment in person at SIGIR 2009 by presenting the letter from Google announcing your award to the travel award program coordinator. Pre-payment of the 500 USD travel grant will not be provided.
SIGIR student travel grants
A small number of student travel grants were also made available to student authors of papers, posters, and so on being presented at the conference. These grants support travel, living arrangements, and registration for the conference. This travel grant program is administered annually by the SIGIR organization.
More information and the application form are available here. Note, however, that the application deadline has passed. (Although students may apply to both travel grants, they will receive at most one.)
Student housing
Some dorm room at Northeastern University will be available, with priority given to students. The rates are substantially lower than those at the conference hotel. See the accommodations page for more information.
Student volunteer positions
Update. Notification has been delayed because some additional funding to support student volunteers has just appeared. We intend to let applicants know very soon. If you applied to be a student volunteer, please do not register for the conference yet. We will honor the early registration rate for (existing) applicants who are not selected, regardless of when the notification is made.
SIGIR 2009 is soliciting student volunteers during the conference. Volunteers will receive a full or partial registration waiver and all benefits of any other student conference registration. We cannot provide travel support, but will make an effort to help volunteers find reduced rates for lodging (for example, the student housing mentioned above).
Student volunteers will be expected to assist staff with tasks such as organizing conference material, handling attendee registration, supporting sessions to ensure they run smoothly, check badges, helping people get where they need to be, running errands, and the like. These tasks will typically consume part of a day of the conference (including the days for tutorials and workshops), allowing the student to spend the rest of the time attending the conference.
There are a limited number of these positions. Applicants will be notified if they are not needed by May 21st at the latest, sufficiently before the early registration deadline so that they can receive the lowest possible registration rate if they wish. Applicants must be enrolled as a student at the time of the conference. Graduate students will be given preference, but undergraduate students will also be considered. Students interested in volunteering should send the following information in an email message to volunteers@sigir2009.org:
- Name
- Email address (yes, even though it's probably in the From line)
- University/college where you are a student
- Advisor's name (or the name of someone who can confirm you are a student)
- Advisor's email address
- Advisor's phone number
- If you have a paper, poster, demonstration, or doctoral consortium presentation in the conference, indicate which and the title.
- If you have strong preferences for the type of volunteering, please indicate that. For example, if the thought of actually interacting with conference attendees makes you nervous, that would be useful to know.
- If you have any travel constraints that impact your availability, please let us know. Volunteer positions will run from Saturday, July 18, through Thursday, July 23.
- Anything else you think we should know.
Applications must be received by May 15th for full consideration. After that date, they will be considered only if there is unfilled need.
