In 2021, ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim will once again sponsor the Ph.D. Colloquium for Ph.D. students that are within two years of graduation (planning to graduate by December 2023). Students close to graduation will be given an opportunity to showcase their work during a short presentation session during the Colloquium (apart from the regular tracks). Presenting your Ph.D. work to your peers and the larger simulation community will give you the opportunity to receive valuable feedback and ideas, as well as introduce you to a network that can be very helpful with your career once you graduate.
The Ph.D. Colloquium will be conducted on Wednesday, December 15, 9:00am-4:30pm MST within the virtual conference platform.
Ph.D. Colloquium Committee 2021
Chair
Chang-Han Rhee, Northwestern University
Members
Jose Padilla, Old Dominion University
Siyang Gao, City University of Hong Kong
Anatoli Djanatliev, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Important Dates
| October 10 | Submit a 2-page extended abstract using the WSC 2021 submission system. The abstract should be formatted using the poster template in the WSC 2021 author’s kit. |
| October 16 | Notification of acceptance to authors, including details about required revisions. |
| October 30 | Submit final version of the extended abstract. |
| November 30 | Upload slides for the Ph.D. Colloquium presentation in PPT or PDF format. The presentations should be 5 minutes pitches followed by a brief Q&A. |
| December 15 | PhD Colloquium will be conducted live through the GTR Conference platform, 9:00am-4:30pm MST via a Zoom link. |
Keynote Speaker
Jose Blanchet
William M. Keck Faculty Scholar Professor of Management Science and Engineering
Stanford University
New Trends in Simulation and Decision Making Under Uncertainty
Stochastic simulation comprises a powerful set of tools for decision-making under uncertainty. These tools are being rapidly absorbed in a wide range of data analytics applications. But as new technologies disseminate and open the door for widespread applicability of state-of-the-art solutions, also new challenges and opportunities arise for simulation. For example, application areas such as energy systems, finance, healthcare, pricing, sustainability, and transportation, provide instances in which modeling, simulation, and data analytics lie at key decision-making problems. Many of these problems share common characteristics. They are large scale, in many cases, they are ill-posed or poorly specified, they demand robust solutions, their natural formulation is computationally hard, and in many cases, they require interpretable solutions because a human is ultimately responsible for the impactful consequences of a policy. This talk will expose some of these challenges and some methodological ideas that are currently being developed to address these challenges.
Jose Blanchet is a faculty member in the Management Science and Engineering Department at Stanford University—where he earned his Ph.D. in 2004. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Jose was a professor in the IEOR and Statistics Departments at Columbia University (2008-2017) and before that he was faculty member in the Statistics Department at Harvard University (2004-2008). Jose is a recipient of the 2009 Best Publication Award given by the INFORMS Applied Probability Society and of the 2010 Erlang Prize. He also received a PECASE award given by NSF in 2010. He worked as an analyst in Protego Financial Advisors, a leading investment bank in Mexico. He has research interests in applied probability and Monte Carlo methods. He serves in the editorial board of ALEA, Advances in Applied Probability, Extremes, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Journal of Applied Probability, Mathematics of Operations Research, and Stochastic Systems.
Ph.D. Colloquium Participation Options
There are three options to participate in the Ph.D. Colloquium with different benefits:
- Poster Only: Submit a 2-page extended abstract and participate in the Ph.D. Colloquium poster session only.
Benefit 1: If accepted, both ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim provide a complimentary one-year membership. - Poster and Presentation: Submit a presentation in addition to your 2-page extended abstract.
Benefit 1: Both ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim provide a complimentary one-year membership.
Benefit 2: ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim will reimburse the conference registration fee. - Poster, Presentation, and Full Paper: Submit a 2-page extended abstract and a presentation for the Ph.D. Colloquium. In addition, you have submitted a full paper to a regular track (a contributed paper, not an invited paper) and it has been accepted.
Benefit 1: Both ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim provide a complimentary one-year membership.
Benefit 2: ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim will reimburse the conference registration fee.
Benefit 3: You will be eligible to compete for a best paper award, provided your full paper is accepted in a regular track.
ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim will each award a Best Ph.D. Student Paper prize among those students making a presentation at both the Ph.D. Colloquium and in a regular track at the conference.
Those students who have a contributed paper in a regular track will be eligible for the Best Paper awards. Note that invited papers cannot be considered for the Best Paper awards. Students interested in competing for a Best Paper award should include their contributed paper ID when completing the Ph.D. Colloquium submission. An email should also be sent to the chair of the Ph.D. Colloquium that includes the contributed paper ID and indicates intent to participate in the Best Paper competition.
Ph.D. Colloquium participants have to be present at all events (colloquium and poster sessions, WSC opening session, ACM-SIGSIM and INFORMS-Sim meetings) in order to be eligible for all benefits.
Note: Students who showcase their work as a poster in the regular WSC poster session are not eligible to participate in the Colloquium (and vice versa). Hence, one should select to participate in either the regular poster session or the Colloquium (not both).
Submission Requirements
Students interested in participating in the colloquium should submit a 2-page extended abstract by the deadline using the WSC submission system. Extended abstracts are used for designing the tracks and are included in the proceedings distributed to conference attendees, but they are not included in the archival version of the proceedings in IEEE and ACM repositories. The extended abstract is required for all three Colloquium participation options. The abstract should have a single author (the student) and must be formatted using the poster template in the WSC Author’s Kit. In addition, the advisor needs to send an email to the chair of the Ph.D. Colloquium Committee by October 10, 2021 that states:
- That the Ph.D. student is within two years of graduation
- That the Ph.D. student is the main author of the submission
- That the Ph.D. student will attend WSC 2021 and participate in the Ph.D. Colloquium
Students are only allowed to participate in a WSC Ph.D. Colloquium one time.
Additional Information about the Colloquium
Presentations:
If you submit a student paper for the conference, you can use your presentation for the Ph.D. colloquium as well as for the track presentation. You may need to edit the slides, as we may have more time constraints. This year, presentations will be around 5 minute pitches followed by a brief Q&A. You do not have to present something special in the Ph.D. colloquium that cannot be used in the regular sessions.
Student Papers:
Student papers are part of the regular conference and fall under the submission and review guidelines as documented on this WSC website. A full paper is not required to participate in the Ph.D. Colloquium. However, if you have an accepted paper at WSC 2021 and participate in the Ph.D. Colloquium, then you are also eligible to compete for a Best Paper award.