Special Events

Early Career Data Mining Research Award

This annual award recognizes one individual in the field of data science who has made outstanding, influential, and lasting contributions to the field within 10 years of having received a PhD.

Details will be posted here when available.

Doctoral Student Forum Participants and Student Travel Scholarship Applications

The SDM Doctoral Forum is a unique opportunity for PhD students in data science (including data mining, machine learning, databases, and pattern recognition) to present their doctoral dissertation in poster format and get feedback from SDM participants and senior leaders in the field. The SDM doctoral forum will be held in a plenary poster session alongside posters from the main conference, allowing for an interesting cross fertilization of ideas. Past participants have benefited significantly from this plenary session.

We invite doctoral students in data science to present their doctoral dissertation (including ongoing and future work) in poster format at the Doctoral Forum of the 2026 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM26), which will be held in Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. on November 19–20, 2026, concurrently with The forum is held in a plenary poster session alongside posters from the main conference, allowing for an interesting cross-fertilization of ideas.

The forum is a unique opportunity for Ph.D. students to get feedback from SDM participants and senior leaders in the field. It is also an exciting opportunity for networking and creating future collaborations. Past participants have benefited significantly from this plenary session. A Doctoral Forum Best Poster Award and Runner-up Awards will be given to selected outstanding posters. 

We welcome submissions both from senior doctoral students who have a more concrete idea of their dissertation, as well as junior doctoral students who may not have a full plan for their dissertation yet but have a direction and can benefit from the feedback by the forum participants. 

Key Dates

Application deadline extended: July 15, 2026

Notification deadline: (tentatively) late July

Doctoral Forum: (tentatively) Nov 19, 2026

Application: 

Please apply by filling out the application through Google Form. 

Travel Support

Limited support for students at U.S. based institutions who are accepted to the Doctoral Forum is available. Information about applying for the Doctoral Forum travel award will be updated later.

Contacts

For additional information, please email the Doctoral Forum Co-chairs:

Dr. Bijaya Adhikari, University of Iowa, U.S. 

Dr. Li Zhang, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, U.S.