Rising Stars Workshop

July 19

at SIGGRAPH 2026

Posted on 2026-07-10

Launched in 2022, the Rising Stars in Computer Graphics program is designed to encourage people of underrepresented genders to become research leaders in computer graphics.

For full details about the Rising Stars program – including eligibility requirements, application guidelines, and an archive of past events and awardees – please visit our Rising Stars Program page.

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.

All events are hosted at Los Angeles Convention Centre, Rooms 512 and 513.

Sunday, July 19 - Workshop
12:00 – 12:45pm (room 512)	Lunch and mingling
12:45 – 1:00pm (room 512)	Introduction to the Rising Stars Program
1:00 – 2:00pm (room 512)	Panel (both cohorts): Why choose a research career? Chenxi Liu Victoria University Rana Hanocka University of Chicago Jenny Han Lin University of Utah
2:00 – 2:45pm (room 512)	2026 Cohort (Junior Cohort) Talks
2:45 – 3:00pm (room 512)	Break
3:00 – 4:00pm (room 512)	Panel (Junior Cohort only): How do you build a research career that lasts? Mina Konakovic Lukovic MIT Daniel Ritchie Brown University Ruben Wiersma Adobe Masha Shugrina NVIDIA
3:00 – 4:00pm (room 513)	Panel (Senior Cohort only): How do you land your first research position? Sylvia Sellán Columbia University Nick Sharp NVIDIA Mark Gillepsie University of Utah
4:00 – 5:00pm (room 513)	2024 Cohort (Senior Cohort) Talks
5:00 – 5:15pm (room 513)	Closing Remarks
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.