ACM-W Scholarships for Attendance at Research Computer Science Conferences
ACM-W provides support for women undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Science and related programs to attend research Computer Science conferences. Students who are not from a traditional CS/CE/SE department but working on Computer Science-related projects are also encouraged to apply.
This exposure to the CS research world can encourage a student to continue on to the next level (Undergraduate to Graduate, Masters to Ph.D., Ph.D. to an industry or academic position). The student does not have to present a paper at the conference she attends.
The ACM-W scholarships are divided between scholarships of up to $600 for intra-continental conference travel, and scholarships of up to $1200 for intercontinental conference travel. Scholarship applications are evaluated in 6 groups each year, in order to distribute awards across a range of conferences.
ACM-W encourages the student’s home department to match the scholarship award and recognize the student’s achievement locally within their department. In addition, if the award is for attendance at one of several ACM special interest group conferences (SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGARCH, SIGCOMM, SIGCHI, SIGCSE, SIGDA, SIGECOM, SIGEVO, SIGGRAPH, SIGHPC, SIGIR, SIGITE, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, and SIGSOFT) the SIG may provide complementary conference registration and a mentor during the conference. The number of free registrations available varies from SIG to SIG.
We remark that we encourage also attendance to non-ACM-related research CS conferences.
Please note that this is a one-time award. Therefore, students who have already received this scholarship in the past are no longer eligible to apply.
Please note also that we do not provide scholarships to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing or the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing.
For scholarships to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing apply here.
For scholarships to attend the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing apply here.
For all other conferences in CS follow these instructions.
IMPORTANT! Scholarships during the COVID-19 pandemic
We decided to keep the deadlines as they are listed below, so as to make a smaller disruption. However, if the conference is postponed or cancelled, the scholar will retain their scholarship for the same conference, or for another later conference. In both cases, the scholar must inform the ACM-W scholarship committee. Moreover, in the latter case, the ACM-W committee will decide if the new conference is equally suitable. In any case, the scholarship will not be lost.
Application and notification dates are as follows:
| Application Due By | Notification By | For Conference Dates |
| Feb 15 | Feb 28 | April 1 – May 31 |
| April 15 | April 30 | June 1 – July 31 |
| June 15 | June 30 | Aug 1 – Sep 31 |
| Aug 15 | Aug 30 | Oct 1 – Nov 30 |
| Oct 15 | Oct 30 | Dec 1 – Jan 30 |
| Dec 15 | Dec 30 | Feb 1 – Mar 31 |
Then you will need to submit the following:
- your information,
- details of the conference you want to attend,
- a statement of why you want to attend the conference and what you hope to gain from doing so, and
- a support letter from your advisor.
It is simple. Each applicant must have an ACM web account in order to fill the application in – but the account is free to set up (go to https://accounts.acm.org/signin.cfm). Complete the online application form. In order for an application to be considered, it is necessary that all sections be completed. The support letter is essential to your application. Applications without recommendation letters submitted by the corresponding application deadline will not be reviewed. Make sure with your advisor that your support letter is uploaded within the deadline, too, otherwise your application will result incomplete, even if submitted in time.
If you have any questions on the ACM-W Scholarship program that are not addressed through this page, please email ACM-W Scholarship Committee chair Professor Viviana Bono for any additional information.
The committee members are listed here.