The ACM Dissertation Award is given annually by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) to honor the year's most outstanding doctoral dissertation. The ACM Dissertation Award is considered one of the most prestigious honors in the computer science and engineering field.
The deadline for ACM dissertation award entries is October 15. Eligible dissertations must have been completed and approved by their degree-granting institutions within the twelve prior months. Only one dissertation per university can be submitted to the ACM Dissertation Award competition, unless the university grants more than ten doctorates in a year. In this case, two ACM Dissertation Award submissions can be made. A one-page summary outlining the dissertation's significance must be submitted by the doctoral student's advisor along with the dissertation. The winner is determined and announced by the ACM by the following December 15, and the ACM Dissertation Award is presented at the annual banquet.
The ACM Dissertation Award consists of a cash prize and publication in Springer. All entries must include assignment of publication rights to the ACM.
The purpose of the ACM Dissertation Award is to encourage and recognize outstanding research and scholarship in the field of Computer Science and Engineering. Entries must be of the highest quality and caliber to be considered. Once all entries are received, they are screened by a committee of five judges. Dissertations which survive the screening process are then evaluated in-depth and the highest quality entry is chosen for the ACM Dissertation Award.
The hallmarks of a successful, ACM Dissertation Award-winning entry are technical depth and relevance of research, significance of the topic and research to the field at large, potential impact on existing paradigms within the computer science and engineering field, and quality and style of writing and presentation. ACM dissertations follow the standard dissertation format, including introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion sections. The ACM Dissertation Award committee allows for any stylistic or formatting variations required by a student's university or advisory committee. Entries in the ACM Dissertation Award competition are judged on content and quality of presentation alone.
