For Students

Why come to GECCO as a student?

GECCO offers a unique opportunity to increase your career profile by learning, competing, and publishing. Tutorials provided at no cost to conference attendees and competitions are unique to GECCO.

If you need help in finding your place at GECCO or on student related activities and opportunities, do not hesitate to contact the Student Chairs (see contact information at the bottom of the page), to support you on the way. Please specify [Student GECCO 2017] in the subject line.

Room Sharing

If you wish to cut down the lodging price by sharing a room with other students attending the conference (and split the room price accordingly), please join this Google group to find other students who are also looking to share a room.

In case you share a room, fill in the student travel grant application form only after you will have a good estimate of the lodging cost.

Student Travel Grants

All full-time students are welcome to apply.

Important Dates

Applications accepted from March 25th
Applications due by April 24th
Notifications by April 29th

Important Information

Priority will be assigned based on participation at the conference (for example, students with full papers will have precedence over students with posters, which will have precedence over students with workshop papers). Therefore we advise to proceed with the registration only after receiving the notification of acceptance for your submissions. Note that only a part of the expenses will be covered (the amount depends on several factors and will be known only at notification time).

How to Apply

To apply for a student travel award:

• Submit an online application by the deadline (applications are now closed);
• Input estimated travel and lodging expenses in your application;
• Submit proof of full-time student status (a clear, readable photocopy of a valid student ID).

You will not be allowed to save your application without uploading your proof of student status. Proof of full time student status can be a scan of your student ID, or a letter or other document from your professor or university that states you are a full time student. A copy of your class schedule is not a valid form of proof.

Covered Expenses

Acceptable reimbursable expenses are the expenses of travelling, which include:

• Transportation: air travel, other transportation to and/or from the conference, such as taxi, train, bus, car rental;
• Lodging: hotel/hostel/guest house or student dorm;
• Food.

Conference expenses which are not reimbursed by student travel awards include the conference registration fee.

Claiming an Award

As a condition of acceptance, travel award recipients will be required to submit (after the conference) a report of the expenses, with the original receipts included, to ACM. Detailed information will be sent by ACM to travel recipients after the notification. Please note it can take 3-6 weeks for you to receive your check from ACM headquarters.

About Original Receipts

• Air travel receipts: The easiest way to supply original receipts is to provide the receipt for your airline travel. If you purchased your airline ticket over the Internet, you must submit the printout of your email receipt and your original boarding pass from the city where your travel begins.
• Types of receipts: Acceptable receipts, other than for airline travel, include food, lodging, and other transportation (taxi, bus). No copies are accepted.
• Dates on receipts: Receipts other than for your airline tickets must have a date that coincides with travelling to or from the conference, or on conference days. For example, since GECCO 2017 will be held from July 15 through July 19, 2017, receipts other than for airline travel must be dated between July 14 and July 20, 2017. For students also attending the summer school, receipts other than for airline travel should be dated between July 13 and July 21.
• Invalid receipts: Your conference registration fee is not reimbursable.

Please take the time to understand the following: The ACM will not, under any circumstances, release a cheque without proper original receipts. There are absolutely no exceptions to this ACM rule.

ACM-W Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences

Target audience

ACM-W provides support for women undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Science and related programs to attend research conferences. This exposure to the CS research world can encourage a student to continue on to the next level (Undergraduate to Graduate, Masters to Ph.D., Ph.D. to an industry or academic position). The student does not have to present a paper at the conference she attends.

Offered Support

The ACM-W scholarships are divided between scholarships of up to $600 for intra-continental conference travel, and scholarships of up to $1200 for intercontinental conference travel.

Important Dates

Applications due by Saturday, April 15
Notifications by Sunday, April 30

Application and selection

In order for an application to be considered for an award, each applicant must set up a free ACM web account in order to complete the application. During the application process, GECCO should be selected as conference choice. For further details on the scholarships, please refer to the ACM-W Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences page. Applications are submitted online at http://acm-w.acm.org/scholarA.cfm.

In order to get a glimpse of the ACM-W scholarship experience, you may refer to the testimonial of the ACM-W/Wipro Scholar, attending GECCO in 2012.

Student Workshop

Students have the possibility to present their work on a dedicated Student Workshop. Visit the student workshop website for more information.

Women@GECCO Workshop

The Women@GECCO Workshop is a venue where students and junior researchers from different under-represented cohorts in Evolutionary Computation (EC) interact in an informal setting with more established women researchers on various issues related to fostering and balancing one’s professional and social life, as well as on inserting oneself in the EC community.

This year, the workshop expands its focus from “by women for women” to “GECCO women welcome EC newcomers”. Students of any gender are therefore encouraged to attend the Women@GECCO Workshop on Saturday, July 15, 2017 after the regular workshop/tutorial slots. See here for more information on the program and keynote speakers (Vanessa Volz, Justyna Petke and Anna I Esparcia-Alcázar).

SIGEVO Summer School

A Summer School will be organized for the first time this year around GECCO. See more details here.

Student Housing 

The following youth hostels are easy to reach from the conference hotel (please note that the listed prices are approximate).

Close to the conference hotel:
Generator Hostel Prenzlauer Berg 
Address: Storkower Str. 160, 10407 Berlin
Telephone: +49 (0)30 4081 89000
Private room starting at: €13.50

Easy to reach using S-Bahn (local railway):
ONE80° Hostel Berlin
Address: St 65, Otto-Braun-Straße, 10178 Berlin
Telephone: +49 (0)30 28044620
Only double rooms, but can be booked for single use starting at: €60

Pegasus Hostel Berlin 
Address: Str. der Pariser Kommune 35, 10243 Berlin
Telephone: +49 (0)30 2977360
Only double rooms, but can be booked for single use for a surcharge.
Price range: €30,00 - €69,00

Smaller hostels:
U inn Berlin Hostel
Address: Finowstraße 36, 10247 Berlin
Telephone: +49 (0)30 33024410
Single room: €55

The Pirate Hostel
Address: Proskauer Str. 20, 10247 Berlin
Telephone: +49 (0) 30 21807162
Single room starting at: €48

Contact

Student Chairs:
Khulood Alyahya
Nadarajen Veerapen