Rising Stars Workshop

Program Schedule

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

All events are hosted at Vancouver Convention Centre, Room East 12.

Sunday, August 10 - Workshop
1 – 1:15pm	Introduction to the Rising Stars Program
1:15 – 2:15pm	Panel (both cohorts): What Makes a Strong Candidate? Evolving Expectations in Graphics Research What does it take to succeed as a researcher in today’s graphics community and how are those expectations changing? This panel brings together leaders from academia and industry to discuss how they define research strength, what they look for in collaborators and hires, and how evolving priorities are shaping the future of the field. Panelists will share perspectives on essential qualities such as technical depth, originality, interdisciplinary thinking, and the ability to work on both foundational and applied problems. The discussion will include insights into how hiring processes differ across academic and industry settings, what distinguishes strong candidates, and how shifts in the research landscape driven by AI, large-scale models, and responsible innovation are influencing recruitment and evaluation. This session is designed for both junior researchers exploring career directions and senior participants preparing for the job market, offering valuable guidance on how to grow as a researcher and navigate hiring with clarity and confidence. Jessica Hodgins Carnegie Mellon University Maud Marchal Université de Rennes - INSA/IRISA Sylvain Paris Adobe Sanja Fidler NVIDIA
2:15 – 3pm	2025 Cohort (Junior Cohort) Talks
3 – 3:10pm	Break
3:10 – 4:10pm	Panel (Junior Cohort only): Navigating the Road Ahead: Emerging Directions in Research Careers What do research careers in academia and industry look like now? How will they look like in five years? This panel gives the junior cohort a "behind-the-scenes" look at the career of accomplished women in the field, delving into their approach to build up a successful and meaningful work environment and body of research, both within graphics and at the frontier with adjacent fields such as generative AI, computer vision, and HCI. Looking forward, panelists will discuss how to position yourself for long-term impact, identify promising research directions, and build a flexible skill set that can serve you throughout your career. Aimed at the junior cohort and those considering their next steps, this session offers inspiration and practical guidance for shaping a future-ready research path. Emily Whiting Boston University Or Patashnik Tel Aviv University Lingjie Liu University of Pennsylvania Yuting Ye Meta
3:10 – 4:10pm	Panel (Senior Cohort only): Owning Your Story: Communicating Your Research, Vision, and Value How do you articulate your research identity in a way that resonates? This panel will focus on how to present your unique research contributions with clarity and conviction across CVs, research statements, interviews, and networking. Speakers will share practical insights on crafting a cohesive narrative, aligning your message with different audiences, and embracing authenticity and confidence, particularly in the face of imposter syndrome. Ideal for those actively navigating the job market, this session will empower you to take ownership of your story and communicate your value as a researcher and leader. Ruizhen Hu Shenzhen University Mina Konakovic Lukovic MIT Eakta Jain University of Florida Shalini De Mello NVIDIA
4:10 – 4:20pm	Break
4:20 – 5:20pm	2024 Cohort (Senior Cohort) Talks
5:20 – 5:30pm	Closing Remarks
Tuesday, August 12 - Coffee Chats
4:30 – 4:40pm	Welcome & Round-Robin Introductions
4:40 – 5:20pm	Quick-Connect Rotations
5:20 - 6pm	Poster Session
Individually Scheduled Events
	One-on-One get-together with your assigned mentor, to be planned individually.

Health and Safety Guidelines

The Rising Stars program will follow the Health & Safety policies of SIGGRAPH 2024, which can be found here: https://s2024.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.