CSC News

July 19, 2016

Theisen Places 3rd in ACM Student Research Competition Grand Finals

Christopher Theisen, a PhD student in the NC State Computer Science Department, recently placed third in the 2016 Grand Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)’s Student Research Competition (SRC). 
 
The SRC Grand Finals are a culmination of a yearlong competition that involved more than 200 computer science students presenting projects at 22 major ACM conferences.  The SRC program, sponsored by Microsoft, provides travel grants of up to $500 to allow tomorrow’s computing professionals the unique opportunity to present their work at major conferences. For many students, participation in the SRC is their first experience conducting research. Competition entrants exchange ideas with other students, judges and conference attendees, while gaining a new understanding of the practical applications of computer science scholarship.
 
Evaluations are based on the presenter’s demonstrated knowledge of his/her research area, research contribution, and quality of oral and visual presentation. The first round of the competition is the poster session. Judges review posters students develop to illustrate their ideas and, after speaking to the participants to learn more about their work, decide who will move on to the semifinals. Judging continues in the semifinals as participants give a short explanation and Power Point presentation of their research. Those selected to move on to the Grand Finals are required to include a written 4,000-word description of their work. A new panel of judges compares the final project submissions online before selecting the overall winners. SRC winners are invited to the annual ACM Awards Banquet, which was held this year on June 11 in San Francisco.
 
Theisen advanced to the Grand Finals after finishing first in the SRC at the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, held in Bergamo, Italy, in August 2015.  He is pictured at right with his advisor, Dr. Laurie Williams.
 
For more information on the 2016 Grand Finals and to see a complete list of winners, please click here.
 
~coates~

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