Doctoral Symposium & Dissertation Digests

As part of IEEE ISORC 2026, which will be held May 27-29, 2026, in Hamilton, Canada, we invite submissions to the combined Doctoral Symposium and Dissertation Digest, two focused events dedicated to Ph.D. students and early-career researchers working in areas related to the real-time domain, with an emphasis on object-, component- and service-oriented systems and solutions.

The event provides a supportive and interactive forum for doctoral candidates at different stages of their Ph.D. as well as recently graduated researchers to present their research ideas, plans, ongoing or recently completed work, or results. Participants will have the opportunity to receive constructive feedback from experienced researchers, engage in discussions with peers, and participate in one-to-one mentoring sessions with senior members of the community.

Objectives

The Doctoral Symposium & Dissertation Digest aims to:

• Foster interaction between junior researchers and established experts in the ISORC community
• Provide early feedback on research directions, methodologies, and results
• Support students in refining their research vision and communication skills
• Encourage reproducible, replicable, and open research practices

Important Dates

• Abstract deadline (required): March 14, 2026, 11:59 PM AoE
• Submission deadline: March 21, 2026, 11:59 p.m. anywhere on earth
• Acceptance notification: April 4, 2026
• Camera-ready submission: April 19, 2026, 11:59 p.m. anywhere on earth
• Conference date: May 27-29, 2026

Scope and Topics

We welcome submissions related to all topics within the scope of ISORC, including but not limited to:

• Hardware & Software Architectures for Real-Time Distributed Computing
• Distributed Real-Time Computing and Communication Infrastructures
• Dependability, Fault tolerance, and Resilience of Distributed and Real-Time Computing
• Algorithms for Distributed and/or Real-Time Analytics
• Formal methods and verification
• System software
• Distributed and Real-Time Applications
• System evaluation

Submission Categories

Submissions should fall into one of the following three categories.

1. Early-stage Research (Position Papers)

For Ph.D. students at the beginning of their doctoral studies. Submissions should focus on:

• Problem motivation and relevance
• Research questions and objectives
• Planned methodology and expected contributions

2. Mid- to Late-stage Research (Reproducible / Replication Papers)

For students with substantial progress in their Ph.D. Submissions may include:

• Ongoing research results
• Reproducible or replicated studies
• Open-source implementations, datasets, and experimental artifacts Authors are strongly encouraged to make implementations, datasets, and experimental material publicly available to support reproducibility.

3. Dissertation Digest Papers

For researchers who have recently completed their Ph.D. (January 2025 to January 2026) the submission can be considered an extended abstract of the thesis and must be limited to 6 pages and structured very similarly to a regular paper. Submissions should summarize:

• The main contributions of the dissertation
• Key results and impact
• Lessons learned and future research directions

Submission Guidelines and Format

• Submissions must follow the IEEE Template: https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates
• Papers may be up to six (6) pages, including references.
• Only papers in English are accepted.
• All papers should be submitted in PDF format, and their title must bear a “DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM” prefix for position papers and replication papers or a “DISSERTATION DIGEST” prefix for recently completed Ph.D. dissertations. The prefix will be removed in the camera-ready version.
• Papers are to be submitted through the HotCRP system: https://isorc2026.hotcrp.com/
• Note that the authors of a paper will be only the (former) student and his/her supervisor(s).
• Evaluation criteria include clarity, relevance, originality, and potential for constructive discussion.
• Only for digest papers:
  • Add in the text and in the reference section a reference to a Web link for the full Ph.D. thesis. The co-chairs may also request evidence of the defense or approval of the thesis for each submission before it can be accepted finally.

Presentation and Publication

• All accepted papers will be presented in the dedicated doctoral session(s) during the conference.
• The session will allow participants to quickly familiarize themselves with each other’s work and to engage with the broader conference audience.