ACM KDD 2025 (August 03-07, 2025, Toronto, Canada)
Undergraduate and Master's Consortium (KDD-UMC): Call for Submission

https://kdd2025.kdd.org/undergraduate-and-masters-consortium-call-for-submission/
Email: KDD25-undergraduate-consortium-chairs@acm.org
Papers submission: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/KDDUMC2025

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: May 15, 2025
Decisions announced: June 01, 2025
Undergraduate and Master's Consortium (exact dates TBA): August 03-07, 2025

KDD is the premier Data Science conference, which will take place in Toronto, Canada, from Sunday, August 3, 2025 to Thursday, August 7, 2025. The Undergraduate and Master's Consortium at KDD 2025 (KDD-UMC) is an initiative that endeavors to expand and enhance the participation of undergraduate and master's students of diverse backgrounds in research pertaining to knowledge discovery from data. Towards that goal, the KDD-UMC will:
* provide an undergraduate and master's research paper submission track which will be used to both provide critical feedback to students on their ongoing research projects and select a subset of students that will be provided financial assistance to attend and present their work at KDD 2025.
* organize student paper and poster presentations at KDD 2025, along with participating reviewers that will provide additional feedback on talks.
* match participating students with academic and industry mentors who can provide them feedback on current or future research project ideas, along with overall career advice.
* organize a panel focused on rewards and potential challenges of different research career pathways, including graduate school/PhD, research labs, and industry.
The KDD-UMC will accept paper submissions from only undergraduate and master's students (they should be the primary author of the paper; other authors and their advisors can be co-authors; only the first author of the paper can be given support). Students exploring a career in data science research are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to students who identify with groups traditionally underrepresented in the field of computing and/or students who have limited resources related to graduate school at their home institutions.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The aim of the KDD-UMC is to broaden the participation of undergraduate and master's students from different backgrounds in research pertaining to knowledge discovery from data by providing mentorship and support for the conference experience. We especially invite students who self-identify as underrepresented groups in computing, students from primarily undergraduate institutions, and students who have limited resources for research and graduate school at their home institutions.

The target audience for the KDD-UMC is current undergraduate and master's students who:
* have worked on a data science research project in one aspect of the data science lifecycle including but not limited to: data cleaning and preparation, data transformation, mining, inference, learning, explainability, data privacy, and dissemination of results.
* have genuine interest in pursuing graduate studies involving data science research.
* are in need of support and feedback from a mentor and the data science community for their interest in pursuing data science research after graduation.
Students who were not enrolled in an undergraduate or master's program in the 2024-2025 academic year are not eligible for the Undergraduate and Master's Consortium.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
Applications must be submitted in full via the submission portal by 23:59:59 UTC-12 (Anywhere on Earth) on the stated deadline date. Application materials should not be anonymized.

Submit the following materials using the following Web site: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/KDDUMC2025

1. Research Paper
The research paper MUST be 4-6 pages, excluding references, using the ACM Conference Proceeding templates (two-column format). References are limited to 1 page. Template guidelines are available here: https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. In addition, authors can provide an optional one (1) page supplement at the end of their submitted paper (it needs to be in the same PDF file and start after the last page of the paper) focused on reproducibility (including details for how someone can reproduce your work). An undergraduate or master's student must be the leading author of the paper. Once the paper has been submitted, the set of authors cannot be changed.

2. Personal Statement
The student's personal statement will be submitted at the same time as the research paper using the CMT submission system. It should help readers understand the student's interests, research experiences and contributions, and future goals for data science research. In their statement, they should
Personal statements must be written using the NSF GRFP statement formatting guidelines (https://www.nsfgrfp.org/applicants/faqs), which require standard 8.5"x 11" page size, Times New Roman font for all text, no smaller than 11-point (except text that is part of an image), 1" margins on all sides, and no less than single spacing (approximately 6 lines per inch). Please use the provided template of the personal statement as follows.
Template for personal statement: https://kdd2025.kdd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/kdd2025-UMC_Personal_Stmt_Templete.docx

2.1 Answer the following questions:
* How did they start data science research, and how did they join the presented research project in particular?
* Did they have difficulties in their pursuit of data science research and how did they overcome these?
* What excites them about their research area that would drive them to continue working on those problems after graduation?
* What is their expectation from participating in the KDD-UMC and receiving mentorship?

2.2 Discuss their specific role and contributions in the data science project presented in their submitted research paper. They should:
* Write a short summary (2-3 sentences) describing the data science project presented in the submitted research paper in a way that can be understood by a broad audience within data science.
* Discuss whether project work was done as part of a team and/or independently.
* Discuss their specific contributions to the submitted research project, including:
+ Did they design or implement algorithms?
+ Did they design or implement the evaluation protocol?
+ Did they contribute to the analysis of results?
+ Did they contribute any other specific ideas of the project?

2.3 Provide contact information for the student's advisor. The advisor will be asked to submit a reference letter for the student (see Item 3 "Reference Letter from Advisor" below). The advisor's name, institution, position, and email should be included.

3. Reference Letter from Advisor
A request will be emailed to an advisor of the student's choice (not necessarily a co-author of the paper) who can speak towards the student's data science research interests and abilities. The advisor will be asked to provide some details about the student's contribution to the submitted research project; the student's progress through their current undergraduate or master's program; and how they believe the student can contribute to, and benefit from, participating in the KDD-UMC. The advisor should be a faculty member, post-doc, or professional researcher with a graduate degree who can speak to all of these points.
Advisor questionnaires will be sent out shortly after the application submission deadline, and they are expected to be completed within a week. No letters of recommendation will be accepted.

REVIEW CRITERIA
Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria:
* Clarity and completeness of the submission packet;
* Level of progress in the student's undergraduate or master's degree program;
* Significance of the student's research contribution in the submitted research paper;
* Overall participation of the student in research projects;
* Utility of the KDD-UMC participation and mentorship in support of the student's continuing in post-graduate data science research; and
* Assessment of how the student can contribute to others participating in the KDD-UMC.
Accepted applicants who also attend the KDD-UMC will have their papers published by KDD (online only). Additionally, a subset of the students will be invited to present their papers orally during the KDD-UMC, while the rest will be invited to present their work in the form of a poster.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
All accepted applicants will receive some financial support towards attending the conference, in exchange for volunteering a few hours of their time at the conference. The maximum amount of support provided to each grantee is set by the sponsors (ACM SIGKDD, NSF), and they are intended to partially cover the grantee's expenses. Travel may or may not be partially covered depending on the total availability of funds and the number of awards given. Conference registration will be waived for all students with accepted KDD-UMC papers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Support for the 2025 Undergraduate and Master's Consortium is graciously provided by ACM SIGKDD and the National Science Foundation.

UNDERGRADUATE AND MASTER'S CONSORTIUM CHAIRS
* David Anastasiu, Santa Clara University, USA
* Carson Leung, University of Manitoba, Canada

KDD 2025 | Toronto, Canada