Rising Stars Workshop

Program Schedule

All times are listed in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), the local timezone of the conference's host city of Los Angeles. All events will be attended by both years' cohorts simultaneously unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, August 6
11:30 am – 12:00 pm	Opening remarks Adriana Schulz University of Washington Deepali Aneja Adobe Research
12:00–1:30 pm	Panel: Behind Closed Doors: Unraveling the Recruitment Process in Academia and Industry (& Lunch) Immerse yourself in a series of enlightening talks and a revealing Q&A session that offers an insider's view of the recruitment processes in academia and industry. Our distinguished panelists, who have years of experience in these sectors, will share intimate details of the hiring decision-making processes. They will discuss the core traits they look for in a candidate, nuances of the interview evaluation, and the key differences that distinguish academic and industrial research roles. This panel will provide a unique understanding of what happens behind the scenes of research recruitment Note: Everyone will be welcome to eat lunch during this time – boxed lunches will be served Kavita Bala Cornell University Hayley Iben Pixar Animation Studios Nathan Carr Adobe Research Marc Alexa TU Berlin
1:30–2:00 pm	Lightning talks by 2023 Rising Stars Cohort
2:00–3:30 pm	Panel: Mastering the Application: Practical Advice for Emerging Researchers (2022 Rising Stars Cohort Only) Join a dynamic panel of early-career professionals as they share their insights and tips on successfully navigating the application process in academia and industry. They will guide you through preparing impactful application materials, strategies for acing the interview, and how to seek and utilize support throughout your journey. This session will equip you with the practical tools you need to put your best foot forward in the competitive field of research. Lingjie Liu University of Pennsylvania Ann McNamara Texas A&M Yuting Ye Reality Labs Research @ Meta Maud Marchal Univ. Rennes, INSA/IRISA, France and Institut Universitaire de France
2:00–3:30 pm	Panel: Charting Your Path: A Comparative Analysis of Research Careers in Academia and Industry (2023 Rising Stars Cohort Only) Engage with our expert panel as they delve into the distinctions and overlaps between pursuing a research career in academia versus industry. This discussion aims to help you understand the different demands, rewards, and opportunities associated with each path. Through sharing personal experiences and discussing broad trends, the panelists will equip you with valuable insights to make an informed decision about the direction of your research career. Tamar Shinar UC Riverside Carol O'Sullivan Trinity College Dublin Masha Shugrina NVIDIA
3:30–4:00 pm	Coffee Break
4:00–5:30 pm	Lightning talks by 2022 Rising Stars Cohort
Monday, August 7
12:30–1:30 pm	Lunch with researchers in academia at a local restaurant
Tuesday, August 8
12:30–1:30 pm	Lunch with industry researchers at a local restaurant
Wednesday, August 9
12:30–2:00 pm	Berthouzoz Women in Research Lunch (independent of the Rising Stars program, but participants are encouraged to attend)
Individually Scheduled Events
	One-on-One get-together with your assigned mentor, to be planned individually. WiGRAPH will sponsor the cost of a meal or coffee break for each participant/mentor pair.

Health and Safety Guidelines

The Rising Stars program will follow the Health & Safety policies of SIGGRAPH 2023, which can be found here: https://s2023.siggraph.org/health-safety/. Please take a few minutes to review the information. We appreciate your cooperation to keep everyone safe and healthy!

Travel Support Information

WiGRAPH will provide financial support to cover the following costs for each participant up to a certain limit: travel, hotel, and conference registration. The meals at all our events will also be covered. Due to our limited funding, we have to cap the amounts we can reimburse and the details are as follows.

Hotel
- You will share a double-occupancy room with another Rising Star at the Sheraton Los Angeles during Aug 5-10, which is booked by WiGRAPH in advance (you will not need to front this, nor file for a reimbursement)
- A credit card is still needed at check-in for incidentals and the incidentals are not covered by WiGRAPH
- If you would like to book your own accommodations, please let us know as soon as possible and we will reimburse up to $450
Conference Registration

Needs to be arranged and purchased by each individual Rising Star up front, and later reimbursed by WiGRAPH; we will reimburse up to the discounted student registration rate ($325/$380 depending on when you registered)
To get the discounted registration for SIGGRAPH, you need to first register for the ACM (Student, if applicable) membership; the cost of ACM membership unfortunately cannot be reimbursed by WiGRAPH, but many labs will sponsor this registration

Travel Expenses

Needs to be arranged and purchased by each individual Rising Star up front, and later reimbursed by WiGRAPH
For flights in North America, the upper limit is $600; and for international flights, the upper limit is $1400 (exceptions will be made based on the actual itinerary)
Eligible expenses include: air or ground transportation to Los Angeles

Note: Round-trip travel to and from Los Angeles within the dates of Aug 5-11 are eligible for reimbursement. If your itinerary deviates from these dates, includes multiple destinations, or you will depart from and/or return to a location that differs from your university or permanent address, you will need to provide a comparable flight itinerary through Google Flight or a similar tool demonstrating the cost of a round trip flight from your primary residence on the dates immediately before (August 5) and immediately after the workshop (August 11). We will reimburse the lesser amount of (1) the comparable flight, or (2) your actual flight. Ground transportation by your own car will be reimbursed based on actual mileage traveled and the specific policy can be found here.

Reimbursements

Eligible expenses can be reimbursed after the conference, by submitting your itemized receipts to the WiGRAPH team through email; we will reach out if additional information is needed for processing the reimbursement.
Please note that the reimbursement will be in USD and any currency conversion will happen when the receipts are being processed. The exchange rate could be different from when you pay, but we expect that this should only cause a slight difference in the final amount.

Individualized Accomodations

WiGRAPH strives to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. In this spirit, WiGRAPH sent a survey to each participant in June (via Google Forms), to inquire about individual preferences for e.g. meals, lodging, mentors, and any additional accomodation requests. If you need to amend this information at any point, or have other questions for the WiGRAPH team, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Over the course of the two-year Rising Stars program, WiGRAPH aims to provide mentorship and support to help our recipients become research leaders in computer graphics. The goal of the first year is to encourage participants to explore different career trajectories within graphics research (academia or industry) and empower them to dream “big”. The goal of the second year is to help them successfully navigate the research job market.

A critical piece of this mission is the one-on-one mentorship with an established member of the research community in Computer Graphics!

Mentor Responsibilities

Each mentor is asked to support their mentee throughout the full Rising Stars program. Thus, mentoring is a 2-year commitment with the following expectations:

Year 1

Meet with the participant during SIGGRAPH and discuss possible career trajectories. If you will be there in person, WiGRAPH will reimburse a meal or coffee/snack for both of you; otherwise, you can schedule a virtual meeting.
Check-in at some point during the following year

Year 2

Meet with the participant during SIGGRAPH and discuss a plan for navigating the job market. Again, if you will be there in person, WiGRAPH will reimburse a meal or coffee/snack for both of you; otherwise, you can schedule a virtual meeting.
Provide feedback on the candidate’s research statement (at least 1 iteration)
Watch and provide feedback on the candidate’s job talk (at least 1 iteration)
Be reasonably responsive to questions
Make introductions as you see fit

Mentor Selection

The mentor pairings will be made based on a variety of factors such as mutual research interests, career trajectories, and any other elements that have been deemed important by either the mentor or the mentee, such as availability for in-person vs. virtual meetings, or preferred background/identity characteristics. Although we cannot guarantee a perfect match in all cases, we are committed to finding the best matches possible to ensure a productive and enjoyable mentoring experience for all involved.