Call for Workshop Proposals

Ubicomp 2010 invites proposals for the workshop program of the 12th International ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. Workshops provide a forum for attendees to discuss topics of special interest. The day-long workshops will be held on Sunday, September 26th, 2010, prior to the main conference.

Important Dates

  • Mar 26, 2010 - Submission deadline for Workshop Proposals
  • Apr 26, 2010 - Notification of Workshop acceptance 
  • May 10, 2010 - Distribution of all accepted Workshop CFPs
  • Sep 26, 2010 - Ubicomp 2010 Workshop Program        

Pre-Proposal Submission Inquiries

Should you wish to discuss ideas for a workshop proposal prior to the submission deadline, feel free to contact the chairs of the Workshops Program at workshops2010@ubicomp.org.

Proposal Content

We are soliciting workshop proposals in all areas related to Ubiquitous Computing. We are aiming for a balanced workshop program that avoids overlapping themes. Workshop organizers are expected to be active in the area of their workshop proposal.This year, we would especially encourage more ambitious workshops of two types.  

The first type is academic in nature and can be viewed as mini-tracks to the main conference. These workshops should have the potential to be sustainable and re-occur in the coming years. Hence, we are looking to host workshops with the ambition of setting up a program committee and aim for publication for improved versions of the workshop papers.

The second type of workshops aims at building ubiquitous systems or applications at the day of the workshop. Hence, this type of workshops is a place for people to meet and design, build, or integrate ubiquitous systems.  This may range from physical design mock-ups containing no technology, to a video prototype, to building an application on a hardware toolkit provided by the organizers. Such a workshop should feed directly into the other parts of the conference by producing a demo or a video for the demo and video program.

The workshops should include a proposal of how to transfer results from the workshop to the main conference. It is important that the workshop activities can be transplanted to other conference activities and we therefore ask proposals to specifically address a way in which workshops can provide input and contribute to the main conference. The workshop organizers will be give 10 minutes for each workshop early on at the main conference to present results and activities from the workshops, and additionally will be urged to present demos, posters, or videos as a result of the workshop. 

Workshop proposals should include a main document and an appendix. The main document should introduce the area, describe related literature and proposed results of the workshop. It should state the title of the workshop and list the organizers as the authors. The format should be SIGCHI archival format, up to 4 pages (see the Ubicomp 2010 web site for links to these templates). This document will be made available to conference attendees on the proceedings DVD.

The appendix should describe more process oriented parts of the workshop, in a format that the authors deem appropriate. The appendix should:

  • Include a summary (no more than 150 words) describing the theme(s) of the workshop
  • Describe the workshop format, activities, and goals (e.g., traditional workshop format with publishable papers, oral presentations only, posters, prototyping, etc.) 
  • List the specific topics of interest
  • Provide names, affiliations, and research interests of the organizers. International teams of organizers from different institutions for each workshop are encouraged. 
  • Address who do the organizers expect will attend the workshop.
  • Explain how the organizers plan to attract submissions and/or participants.  
  • Provide an estimate of how many workshop participants the organizers expect.
  • Describe how the organizers will facilitate discussion among workshop participants.
  • Clearly define the expected outcome of the workshop.
  • Outline the planning of the workshop (e.g., participant selection, time line, type of contributions) 
  • Propose an expected agenda for the workshop.

Proposals for academic-type workshops should also state the plans, if any, that the organizers have for publishing the (possibly revised) workshop papers.

Proposals for hands-on workshops should list the resources that the organizers provide in order to build prototypes (e.g. video cameras, software, frameworks, toolkits, hardware components, etc.). In addition, the appendix should clarify any technical requirements, e.g., for building prototypes during the workshop.

Workshop Organizers’ responsibilities

The organizers of each workshop are expected to:

  • Publicize the workshop with a call for participation via the Ubicomp Web and email
  • Setup a web site for the workshop containing more details on the workshop, including CFP, workshop format, strategies for publication (if any), participants, program, etc. In particular, the CFP should clearly specify if accepted papers will be published in the Ubicomp 2010 supplemental proceedings, anywhere else in the future, or none.
  • Encourage potential participants to submit papers
  • Work with the Ubicomp Publication Co-Chairs to include papers of workshops that opted for the publication option, in the supplementary proceedings
  • Work with the Ubicomp Workshop chairs to arrange the workshop.
  • Actively run the workshop. 

Note that workshops are an integral part of the Ubicomp conference. Hence, workshop organisers and attendees are expected to register for the workshop as well as the conference.

Submitting your proposal

Please email your proposal, as two separate PDF attachments, directly to the workshop chairs at workshops2010@ubicomp.org. The deadline for submission of workshop proposals is March 26, 2010 at 23:59 PST.

Workshop proposals should be no longer than 4 pages for the main document. There is no limit for the appendix. Please download and use the required templates to prepare your submission.

Workshop Chairs

  • Louise Barkhuus, University of California, San Diego, USA
  • Vassilis Kostakos, University of Madeira, Portugal
  • Email: workshops2010@ubicomp.org