DSN Rising Star in Dependability Award

Past winners of the Rising Star in Dependability Award

Starting from 2020, a new award called the Rising Star in Dependability Award is presented annually at the IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN) to recognize a junior researcher, from academia or industry, who demonstrates outstanding potential for creative ideas and innovative research in the field of dependable and resilient computer systems and networks.

The IEEE TC on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (TCFT) and IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (WG 10.4) jointly sponsor the DSN Rising star in Dependability Award.

The award takes the form of a plaque presented to the award recipient at the conference. The award recipient is required to attend DSN to receive the award and is invited to give a presentation to DSN attendees. His/her conference registration is borne by the conference.

Eligibility and Nomination

To be eligible for the award, the candidate must have graduated no more than 10 years before the nomination deadline (considering the year as a reference). Career disruptions or delays (e.g. Parental leaves) that may have been experienced by the candidates will be taken into consideration by the selection committee.

Previous recipients of the Award are not eligible. Self nominations and nominations by the Rising Star award committee members are not allowed.

The nomination should include (in a single PDF file):

  1. A nomination letter summarizing the candidate’s research accomplishments and justification for the nomination (2 pages, 6000 characters max).
  2. Curriculum vitae of the nominee, including list of publications.
  3. Two endorsement letters from researchers in the field supporting the nomination.
  4. A list of three of the candidate’s most significant papers.
  5. A concise statement (one sentence) of the citation for the award.

While not a requirement for consideration, publications in the Dependable Systems andNetworks conference (DSN) are encouraged.

Selection committee: Selection will be done by a committee of 5 members, referred to as Rising Star Award Committee. The committee should be representative of all research and geographical areas with one member appointed as chair. The DSN Steering Committee Chair will name the chair of this committee. The other members of the committee will be selected by the IEEE TCFT Chair, the IFIP WG 10.4 Chair, and the current DSN TPC chairs. The role of the chair of the Rising Star Award Committee is to coordinate the selection process.

The committee Chair and the committee members will be appointed by the DSN Steering Committee Chair after the nomination deadline to avoid potential conflicts of interest. The committee chair and members will be published at the DSN and www.dependability.org web pages.

Conflict of Interest: Persons having a conflict of interest with a nominated candidate cannot be members of the award committee.

In particular, a person must declare a conflict of interest under any of the conditions below—if he/she:

  • Was involved in writing a paper with the candidate in the last 2 years.
  • Is currently from the same institution as the candidate.
  • Was the PhD advisor or advisee of the candidate.
  • Is a relative or close personal friend of the candidate.

Criteria: The committee should define the criteria according to the best practices in scholarly evaluation: impact of research publications, broadly in dependability areas. The impact will be measured by a combination of evidence deemed appropriate to the papers’ context, such as number of citations, downloads, user base, concrete industrial usage, etc. Relevant impact for the award can also be achieved through industrial accomplishments (provided it has had broader adoption outside of the nominee’s company) and high-impact systems software artefacts. The impact must be evidenced through research conducted independently of the candidate’s PhD advisor, if applicable.

DSN 2023 Call for nomination

Nominations for the award to be presented at the 2023 edition of DSN should be mailed to the DSN SC Chair (SC_chair@dsn.org), no later than 11:59pm CET on December 19, 2022. Make sure the words Rising Star in Dependability Award are in the subject line. You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt (try again if you don’t). If you have difficulties with the size of the file including the nomination package, you may provide a URL link for retrieval in your email. The winner will be announced by Mid-April, 2023.

Past Rising Star Award Winners

  • 2023: Siva Hari
  • 2022: Roberto Natella
  • 2021: Devesh Tiwari
  • 2020: Karthik Pattabiraman