Pursuing a PhD is an arduous journey. Since 2024, a dedicated Doctoral Symposium held in conjunction with the ACM CCS conference provides PhD students with feedback from the SIGSAC research community on their dissertation research.
The 3rd Doctoral Symposium will be held on Nov 17th, on the second day of the CCS ’26 main conference. Invited PhD students will present their in-progress PhD dissertation work to the Doctoral Symposium Committee. During and after each presentation, the student, the committee, and the rest of the audience will engage in constructive discussions with the goal of providing perspectives and suggestions to help the student refine and strengthen their dissertation work.
It is worth noting that a PhD dissertation has much more depth than a single peer-reviewed paper or simply a collection of results from several published papers. A PhD dissertation shall be based on a coherent postulate (i.e., a central research statement) that is subject to rigorous scientific reasoning and experimentation, and consists of a substantial amount of inquiry -- theoretically, experimentally, or both -- that demonstrates the validity and utility of the said postulate. An ideal candidate who can benefit from the Doctoral Symposium is one who can articulate this vision and explain to the committee 1) why it is worthwhile to conduct the research, 2) the rationale behind the approaches being contemplated/experimented, and 3) any existing data that demonstrates a feasible path forward. Based on this expectation, we believe that students towards the end of their second or third year of their PhD journey will benefit the most from the Doctoral Symposium. This is also a period when a PhD student is eager to acquire a wider perspective of their work, but may not have had the exposure (e.g., conference presentations) necessary to receive feedback from the broader research community.
To encourage participation in the Doctoral Symposium, ACM SIGSAC has provided generous financial support; each invited PhD student will receive a student travel grant to help defray the cost of attending the Doctoral Symposium. Invited students are expected to make an oral and poster presentation to the Doctoral Symposium Committee and are expected to attend the entire symposium.
We invite PhD students pursuing dissertation research in computer security (i.e., on any topic that is of interest to ACM CCS) to submit a short dissertation research description to be evaluated by the Doctoral Symposium Committee. The description should adhere to the ACM double-column format with 3-page maximum (i.e., including title, abstract, content, and any references). Submissions are not blinded, and must contain the PhD student’s name, advisor’s name, affiliations, and contact information. Submissions that are not formatted as described above are subject to rejection without review. Selection will be based on the importance of the problem the dissertation research addresses, how well the description articulates the vision of the research, the quality of the preliminary work done, and how likely and to what extent the PhD student can benefit from the exchanges in the Symposium. The Doctoral Symposium's main purpose is to help PhD students advance their dissertation research, as opposed to showcasing almost-done dissertation work that has little chance of being influenced by feedback from the Symposium. The three-page descriptions will be published post-conference as part of the CCS ’26 proceedings, and the authors decide which part of the descriptions are included in the proceedings.
Submission Site: https://acm-ccs-phdsym-2026.hotcrp.com
Email to Chairs: ccs26-phdsymposium-chairs@acm.org