Revamping the ACM Student Research Competition: A Focus on Feedback

While the programming languages community boasts mentoring initiatives like PLMW, SIGPLAN-M, and PLTea, a crucial piece is missing: guidance on presenting research. The authors argue that the ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), while intending to help, suffers from a competition-focused approach that overshadows its feedback mechanisms. This leaves junior researchers lacking the crucial skills of presenting their work effectively. The proposed solution is to refocus the SRC on providing high-quality feedback from experts, including increased expert reviewers, detailed feedback, and archiving extended abstracts. This aims to improve student presentation skills and increase the visibility of their research.