Guidelines for Minisymposia

The PASC Conference series is an international and interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of knowledge in scientific computing and computational science with a strong focus on methods, tools, algorithms, application challenges, and novel techniques and usage of high performance computing.

The Conference is co-sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the PASC structuring project and it is managed by the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). The local host of PASC23 is the Congress Center Davos.

The technical program of PASC23 is organized around the following scientific domains:

  • Chemistry and Materials (incl. ceramics, metals, and polymers)
  • Climate, Weather, and Earth Sciences (incl. solid earth dynamics)
  • Computer Science, Machine Learning, and Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Social Sciences and Humanities (incl. behavioral, economic, legal, political and business sciences, research software engineering and science, philosophy, languages, and the arts)
  • Engineering (incl. CFD, computational mechanics, computational engineering and materials, turbulent flow)
  • Life Sciences (incl. biophysics, genomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, neuroscience, and computational biology)
  • Physics (incl. astrophysics, cosmology, plasma modelling, and QCD)

Proposals that emphasize the theme of PASC23 – “Computing Across Scales, Domains, and Communities” – are particularly welcome.

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW PROCESS

A minisymposium is a two-hour session of four 30-minute slots on a topic of current importance in computational science that showcases research related to domain science, applied mathematics, computer science and software engineering, and is an ideal platform for promoting interdisciplinary communication.

The minisymposium submission for PASC23 is a two-stage process. The first stage is an expression of interest, which includes a description of the proposed minisymposium (abstract) and suggestions for possible speakers who are experts in their field(s). The expressions of interest will be reviewed by the Minisymposia and Posters Program Committee. A selection of expressions of interest will be invited to submit a full proposal.

The review process will consider the relevance and timeliness of the proposal topic, as well as overall program balance.

The second stage, the full proposal, should include an extended abstract along with the names of possible speakers and presentation titles for four 30-minute presentation slots (typically, these slots are 25-minute talks with 5 minutes for questions). The minisymposium organizer is permitted to give one of the four presentations themself. If desired, the fourth 30-minute slot could be a panel discussion or open discussion forum.

The organizer of a minisymposium takes an “active chair” role in their session – that is, they should present a brief overview of the themes of the minisymposium and the state of the art, introduce the speakers and their topics, and facilitate a lively and interactive discussion amongst the speakers and audience throughout the session.

In order to be allowed to submit a full proposal, minisymposium organizers must first submit an expression of interest.

The expression of interest consists of the following:

  • Title
  • Scientific domain(s): A primary domain and (preferably) additional domains.
  • Organizer details: Names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
  • Abstract: Description of the minisymposium (up to 500 words), including suggestions for topics and speakers.
  • Diversity and Inclusivity: A statement on how you have addressed issues of diversity and inclusivity in proposing speakers

Following the evaluation of the expressions of interest, organizers may be invited to submit a full proposal. The full proposal consists of the following:

  • Title
  • Scientific domain(s): A primary domain and optionally additional domains.
  • Organizer details: Names and contact details of organizers (up to three).
  • Presenter details: Names and contact details of four proposed speakers (three if the minisymposium proposal includes a discussion panel) and proposed titles for their presentations.
  • Extended abstract: A description of the minisymposium that outlines the scope, describes the problems being addressed and their importance, and discusses current directions of research and methods being developed to solve these problems (up to 800 words).
  • Abstract for publication: A short abstract for publication in the conference program (no more than 200 words).
  • Diversity and Inclusivity: A statement on how you have addressed issues of diversity and inclusivity in proposing speakers.

If the proposal is accepted then presentation titles and abstracts (200 words) will be requested from each speaker, and necessary revisions can be made to the minisymposium abstract for publication in the conference program.

Domain experts from the Minisymposia and Posters Committee will assess the expressions of interest and full proposals based on the following criteria:

  • The work should be of significant current interest to the given scientific domain, and ideally, have potential application to other scientific domains
  • Research should be based on state-of-the-art numerical methods
  • The proposal should include speakers from multiple institutions and/or countries, and be designed such that the speakers bring a range of different perspectives and views to the topic
  • The proposal should consider diversity – including women and other underrepresented groups

Proposals must be submitted through the PASC23 online submission portal.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

  • 13 November 2022: Deadline for expressions of interest (NO EXTENSIONS!)
  • 30 November 2022: Deadline for Special Call for Minisymposia (expressions of interest)
  • 12 December 2022: Decision notifications (invitations to submit full proposals)
  • 15 January 2023: Deadline for full submissions (NO EXTENSIONS!)
  • 15 February 2023: Acceptance notifications
  • 15 March 2023: Deadline for abstracts from presenting speakers

Deadlines correspond to anywhere on earth (‘AoE’ or ‘UTC-12’).

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION TERMS

The designated presenters may be changed closer to the event according to circumstances.

Please note that PASC23 is unable to reimburse the expenses or waive the registration fees of organizers and speakers. All organizers and speakers must register for the conference and are subject to the corresponding registration fees.

The PASC Conference reserves the right to remove contributions that are considered outside the scope of the conference at any time.