UbiComp 2025 was my first ever conference and it fully exceeded my expectations. At the conference, I was able to attend three workshops in addition to the conference paper sessions across five days. At the conference, I presented my demo paper and was actually awarded the Best Demo during the closing ceremony! It was amazing to have the platform to share my work with my academic community and meet people working on similar projects. I also served as a Student Volunteer, which gave me the opportunity to meet and work with students from across the world to help make the conference experience run smoothly.

This experience has emphasized to me the importance of networking and attending conferences during your PhD and academic career. It’s a very unique experience to have researchers across experience level gather in the same place: watching undergraduate students, PhD students, assistant professors, distinguished professors, industry professionals, etc. all engage in the same presentations and discussion sessions was invaluable. I learned from absolutely everyone in the room and this diversity made advice giving and constructive feedback even more powerful. I am so thankful for the ACM-W scholarship in funding my ability to attend this conference and meet so many amazing researchers in the ubiquitous computing field.