PLMW@PLDI 2020

The Programming Language Mentoring Workshop is designed to broaden the exposure of late-stage undergraduate students and early-stage graduate students to research and career opportunities in programming languages. The workshop program will include technical sessions that cover both the history and current practice of core subfields within programming languages, mentoring sessions that cover effective habits for navigating the research landscape, and social sessions that create opportunities for students to interact with researchers in the field. Applications from underrepresented groups in computing are especially welcome.

PLMW @ PLDI 2020

Based on the success of previous PLMW @ PLDIs in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, we are delighted to announce that PLMW @ PLDI 2020 will be co-located with the conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, and will be held the full day of June 16th, 2020. The workshop program will cover important topics such as,

• How to choose a research topic.
• How to navigate the ups and downs of a research career.
• How to leverage communication and your social network to better your research.

Attending

PLMW is virtual this year! Please join us on YouTube for live-streams of the days’ events.

Day one will be live-streamed here.

Day two will be live-streamed here.

Scholarships

PLMW @ PLDI has scholarships available for students who – without these scholarships – would otherwise be unable to participate. Scholarships will cover full registration fees for both PLMW @ PLDI and the PLDI conference. Scholarships will also cover reasonable travel expenses, including airfare and accommodations.

Scholarship applications are now open! Apply here.

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PLMW Talks and Panels

Scholarships

PLMW @ PLDI has scholarships available for students who – without these scholarships – would otherwise be unable to participate. Scholarships will cover full registration fees for both PLMW @ PLDI and the PLDI conference. Scholarships will also cover reasonable travel expenses, including airfare and accommodations.

Applications to attend that request scholarship support and are received by March 13, 2020 11:59pm AoE will receive notification of acceptance, rejection, or waitlisting by April 6th. Pending availability of funding and registration commitments by accepted applicants, we will continue to offer scholarships to waitlisted applicants and new applications until April 29th, 2020.

Scholarship applications are now open! Apply here.

The last few weeks has seen an outpouring of anger, activism, and protest in North America and around the world in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis coming close on the heels of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. We recognize that the anger surrounding issues of police violence and racial discrimination, especially anti-Black racism, did not emerge recently, but instead reflects conditions that have existed for decades. The events of the past month are just a flashpoint.

Part of PLMW’s mission is fostering diversity and inclusion in the PL community, and it has placed a special emphasis on reaching out to, and mentoring, students from underrepresented groups. The events of the past few weeks have been particularly stressful to minorities, and especially the Black members of our community. To make matters worse, all of this is happening in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, whose effects have fallen disproportionately hard on the Black community and other minority groups, and when we are isolated from our usual support structures. We hope that the virtual network that we build during this workshop can bring some comfort and support. Amidst the life-and-death issues at the forefront of our minds, things such as formal semantics may feel silly or trivial; nevertheless, we hope that the activities of this workshop can act as a tiny refuge.

We, the organizers of PLMW, want the members of our community, especially the Black members, to know this. Black lives matter. Diversity of all kinds has always been PLMW’s goal. It’s also important that we recognize that Black students face unique forms of discrimination that other minorities do not have to deal with. PLMW, and our community more broadly, needs to evolve to address these systemic issues. We are committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive, diverse environment that stands by the principles of anti-racism and provides space for all to thrive and breathe.

We would like to bring our attendees’ attention to a few initiatives that we hope can help. SIGPLAN has established a committee called SIGPLAN CARES. This group of distinguished, senior researchers is available as a confidential resource for anyone who faces discrimination or harassment. In addition, we, the organizers of PLMW@PLDI, want to offer individual mentoring to any student who is coping with issues of racism and discrimination, or who would like to have a one-on-one confidential discussion about other topics. Please feel free to reach out to us at any time if you would like to talk privately. You can email one of the organizers directly, or you can email plmw-pldi-cares@googlegroups.com and we will connect you to someone to talk to.