Session details: Doctoral symposium

The SPLASH Doctoral Symposium provides students with guidance for completing their dissertation research and beginning their research careers. Doctoral students who attend the symposium are in one of two phases:

• Apprentices, who are just beginning their research, are not ready to actually make a research proposal, but are interested in learning about structuring research and getting some research ideas; and,

• Proposers, who have progressed far enough in their research to have a structured proposal, but will not be defending their dissertation in the next 12 months.

At the workshop, all students give a two-minute overview of their research describing the most critical issues (the "elevator talk"). Proposers also give a 20-minute description of their research, including its purpose, goals, and technical approach. The doctoral symposium committee then provides each student with constructive feedback on his or her research.

This year, I reviewed the 8 proposer and 2 apprentice submissions to the doctoral symposium in advance of selecting the doctoral symposium committee. As the topics discussed in the doctoral symposium are often quite diverse, this allowed me to ensure that the committee covered all areas in which students were working. After reading each submission, I decided to accept all 10 submissions.

I hope you enjoy their papers in this volume. In my view, they showcase the broad range of topics in the area of SPLASH, and the energy and creativity that students bring to the conference!