Call for Student Scholarship Applications

SOSP 2013, through generous donations from conference sponsors, will offer scholarships to assist students attending the conference.

Each scholarship covers the SOSP conference registration, which includes meals and a shared hotel room during the conference. Additional funding will be awarded toward the cost of travel, but these funds are limited. Due to the high variability in travel costs, awardees are asked for their due diligence in finding reasonably priced fares. Applicants must submit an estimate of these travel costs with the scholarship application.

Scholarship students are expected to assist the conference organizers in some way. For example, scholarship students may be asked to scribe a technical session, staff the registration desk, or help set up or tear down the poster session. These services are greatly appreciated, and provide additional networking opportunities with other conference participants. Actual duties will be assigned as the conference nears, but students should identify any time constraints in their application forms. Scholarship students are also encouraged to participate in the poster session and work-in-progress presentations. Scholarship recipient contact information will be made available to scholarship sponsoring organizations.

Who should apply

Funding is available to students from any educational institution in the world. Members of groups historically under-represented at SOSP are especially encouraged to apply.

Although most applicants in past years have been graduate students, undergraduates who are actively involved in systems research projects are also welcome to apply.

Applicants must be members of the ACM. See the ACM site for a student membership application. Note that ACM provides reduced rates for students residing in economically developing countries.

How to apply

To apply you should submit the following:

  1. An SOSP student scholarship application and supporting materials. The student should visit the scholarship website and submit the following information:
    • A complete SOSP student scholarship application. The application form must be submitted online at the scholarship website.
    • A short position statement. This position statement should explain the expected benefit of attending the conference. The statement should describe any research that the student has done, and list any published papers. This statement should be no longer than 600 words (one page).
    • A copy of the student's CV.
  2. A letter of recommendation from the student's advisor. This letter must describe the technical appropriateness of the student's participation, and any partial support from other sources (e.g., the student's institution) available to cover the costs of the student's attendance at SOSP. Advisors writing letters for multiple students should include an explicit comparison of how each student would benefit from a scholarship. The advisor should submit the plaintext letter separately, by emailing sospstudenttravel@gmail.com with the student's name in the subject line.

Important Dates

Applications due:August 23, 2013
Award notifications:September 4, 2013

Student Scholarship Committee

  • Atul Adya, Google
  • Angela Demke Brown, University of Toronto
  • Edouard Bugnion, EPFL
  • Steve Gribble, University of Washington
  • Kimberly Keeton, HP Labs
  • Derek Murray, MSR-Silicon Valley
  • George Porter, University of California, San Diego


SIGOPS Professional Travel Scholarships

ACM SIGOPS is pleased to announce the availability of a limited number of professional travel scholarships in addition to student travel scholarships. These scholarships are intended to increase the diversity of professional attendees at SOSP. We would like to encourage the attendance of faculty who are teaching operating systems who can incorporate cutting edge operating systems results into their curricula. We would also like to encourage the attendance of professionals from areas of the world currently under-represented at operating systems conferences.

We are especially interested in supporting individuals with concrete plans to share the benefits of their attendance with others through curricular materials, local reading groups organized in advance of the conference, talks given to a local community after your return, etc.

A typical professional travel scholarship will cover conference registration and some support towards airfare and hotel accommodations.

Each application must include:

  • A letter addressing your motivation for attending SOSP13 and the ways in which you attendance will benefit others. If you are organizing local events related to SOSP13 (a local reading group, a group that will watch videos after the event, a talk in which you share your experiences, etc.), please describe these events and give specific estimates of the number of people (number of other faculty, number of undergraduates, number of graduate students, number of local professionals) reached with these events. If you plan to produce curricular materials, please describe these materials, as well as a timeline for their production and dissemination
  • Letters of support ideally both from your home institution and from researchers in the OS community familiar with you and your work. Please ask your recommenders to send their letters to sospprotravel@gmail.com with your name in the subject line.
  • An estimate of your travel costs. A typical professional travel scholarship will cover conference registration and substantial support towards airfare and hotel accommodations. We like to see individuals or their home institutions contribute to the travel costs where possible, but do not intend to create a hardship for applicants. If your participation would require full support, please provide a statement of need in your application materials.

Important Dates

DeadlineAugust 23, 2013

Submission Form: available here

Questions: sospprotravel@gmail.com

Professional Scholarship Committee

  • Dilma Da Silva, Qualcomm
  • Cary Gary, Wheaton College
  • Geoff Kuenning, Harvey Mudd College
  • Jeanna Matthews, Clarkson University


  • Platinum Sponsors

    • The Murty
      Family Foundation
  • Gold Sponsors

    • Apple
  • Silver Sponsors

  • Bronze Sponsors