Call for Doctoral Symposium

ACM Multimedia is the premier international conference in the area of multimedia within the field of computer science. The 2026 ACM Multimedia Conference takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 10-14 November 2026. Multimedia research focuses on technologies that enable the use and exchange of content integrating the multiple perspectives of different digital modalities, including images, text, video, audio, speech, music, and sensor data.

The ACM Multimedia 2026 Doctoral Symposium will provide PhD students working in all areas of multimedia with a unique opportunity to share their ongoing research work and ideas with, and get suggestions and feedback from renowned and experienced researchers in the field. The Doctoral Symposium also aims at establishing a supportive worldwide community of doctoral students working on multimedia and promoting social and intellectual interactions among students and researchers from academia, industry and government.

PhD students are invited to send a short paper (up to 4 pages for technical content and 1 page for references) summarizing their dissertation research. A program committee will review the submissions. Accepted papers will be presented by the student and discussed in an oral or poster session. To encourage participation in the Doctoral Symposium, students of accepted papers will also be considered for student travel grants and/or be recruited as student volunteers (Students must apply for the travel grant to be considered).

Description of the Event

The Doctoral Symposium will take place during the main conference in oral and poster presentation formats. For each accepted oral paper, a panel of senior experts (chosen by the Doctoral Symposium co-chairs) will interact with the student and the audience during the presentation, providing constructive advice and suggestions. The students will also present their work during a conference Poster Session, to enable interaction with a broader audience. A networking session will also be arranged for students to meet their mentors.

Eligibility

Prospective student authors should already have a clear research direction and possibly have published some results. Preference will be given to students who are about halfway through their PhD work. Students who have just started their doctoral program are advised to consult with their local advisor/supervisor before submitting to the doctoral symposium.

Students who are approaching the end of their PhD should rather strive for submitting a paper at the main conference, rather than to the doctoral symposium. The Doctoral Symposium should not be used as a venue for another regular publication.

Submission Guidelines

Each doctoral student who wants to submit a paper for the Doctoral Symposium should prepare:

Research Abstract:
- A short paper (up to 4 pages for technical content and 1 page for references) summarizing their dissertation research, singly authored by themselves. The use of figures, diagrams or illustrations is encouraged.
- The main content should explicitly state:
  1. The motivation and significance of the research
  2. The rationale for the proposed approaches
  3. Flexible studies supporting the proposed work
  4. Specific issues for discussion at the symposium
- The suggested format is:
  - Motivation, problem description
  - Background and related work
  - Novelty and significance relative to the state of the art
  - Proposed approach and rationale
  - Flexible studies and results obtained
  - Work in progress and experimental results
  - Discussion of legal, ethical and privacy implications of the work
  - Discussion of the measures taken to ensure the reproducibility of the work
  - Keywords and key references of the presented work
- The submission must comply with the two-column ACM proceedings format.
Recommendation Letter:
- A letter of recommendation from the student’s PhD advisor, verifying:
  - The student status of the applicant
  - Date of advancement to PhD candidacy
  - The expected date of thesis defence or graduation
Personal Document:
- A short CV, including the list of all publications.
- A short (~200 words) statement from the student on why they are interested in participating in the Doctoral Symposium. At the end of the statement, the student should state suggestions of multimedia experts that they would be interested in discussing their work with and elements of their dissertation research that they would like to get feedback on.

All three documents must be written in English.

Review Process and Publication

The review is single-blind. Selections will be based on the research abstract, singly authored by the student wishing to participate. The evaluation will consider:

Originality of the work
Importance of the work with respect to fundamental challenges in multimedia
Potential impact of the work for future research and development of multimedia
The benefit for a student to participate in the doctoral symposium

Selected abstracts will be published in the ACM Multimedia Conference Proceedings. Doctoral students who submit to the Doctoral Symposium are encouraged to submit a paper on their research to the main conference. Acceptance for participation in the Symposium will be based solely on the abstract written for the event.

Important Note for the Authors

The Doctoral Symposium is primarily an in-person event. The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

Registration

All accepted students are required to register for the conference to participate in the conference. Please note that the student registration is sufficient to cover a doctoral symposium accepted article.

Submission

Paper Submission: ~~April 23, 2026 (AoE)~~ Extended to May 6, 2026 (AoE)
Notification and Invitation: June 4, 2026
Camera Ready Deadline: August 20, 2026

Please submit your Doctoral Symposium (DS) paper via OpenReview following this link.

Contacts

For any questions, please contact the Doctoral Symposium Chairs at doctoral-mm26@acmmm.org:

Herman Engelbrecht (Stellenbosch University)
Chong-Wah Ngo (Singapore Management University)
Yutong Ban (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)