The International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) is a premier forum for presenting, discussing and debating new and innovative architectural ideas and techniques for advanced computing and communication systems. This symposium brings together researchers in fields related to processor architecture, compilers, chips, and systems. This proposal aims to support this highly regarded conference by obtaining travel support for students in order to defray the costs of attending and participating in the ISCA conference in June, 2013 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Priority will be given to US citizens and permanent residents, students from under-represented groups, and students that will be presenting their research at ISCA or its joint workshops. The ISCA conference will be strengthened as a result of the greater attendance that this travel support will enable. Students receiving travel support will personally benefit from the opportunity to interact with peers and experts, as well as establish connections that will help their professional careers. More broadly, we expect additional indirect impacts. First, we plan to widely advertise the available support in order to attract women and under-represented minority groups (through postings on computer architecture web-sites and mailing lists). Second, by focusing on students, the grant will help foster the mentoring of subsequent generations of computer architects.
ISCA 2013 was held June 23-27 in Tel Aviv, Israel. ISCA is the premier venue for computer architecture research and this was the 40th edition of the conference. This was one of the most successful ISCA conferences in recent years with a strong collection of talks, keynotes, workshops, tutorials, and social events that encouraged extensive interactions. The NSF funds were used to fund 10 applicants, who each received a grant of $1,500. All of these recipients currently attend US universities. Some of the recipients belong to under-represented groups. For example, the recipients include three females, one Hispanic, one undergraduate, one student from an under-represented school, and a couple of students that would not have the means to attend without a travel grant. Applications were solicited via the conference web-site and via emails to authors and mailing lists. Students were asked to provide relevant information along with a confirmatory email from their advisors. Every applicant received a travel grant from one of the available sources (NSF, IEEE TCCA, ACM SIGARCH, Google, VMWare). The NSF travel grant awardees were selected with a focus on increasing participation from under-represented groups. All travel grant awardees were asked to send a few paragraphs summarizing their experiences and observations. The Travel Grant Chair has summarized these opinions in a blog post that is accessible at the following URL: http://utaharch.blogspot.com/2013/08/student-reports-for-isca-2013.html
