FAQ

Please see this page for Attendee information including Accommodation, Registration, Visas, Transportation and Local information (food, sightseeing, internet, money, etc.)

We will be continuously adding to the FAQ here. If the question you have is not listed, the Steering Committee Chair, Brett Becker, is happy to answer any questions you may have. You can contact him here. 

The FAQ below is broken down into five sections:

  1. a General section for questions that any delegate may have
  2. a Travel section for those who will be coming from outside China
  3. a Working Groups section for those considering submitting a working group proposal
  4. a Submissions and acceptance section for authors / potential authors
  5. a Reviewers section for reviewers and potential reviewers.

1. General

  1. When and Where is CompEd 2019? CompEd 2019 will be held from May 17 to May 19, 2019 in Chengdu, China. The venue is here.
  2. Can I attend CompEd if I am not an author/presenter? Absolutely! Any member of the community can register and attend CompEd. 
  3. Is there information on accommodation? See this page. 
  4. Who is CompEd sponsored by? CompEd is sponsored by the ACM, through the  ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). The corporate conference sponsors are listed on the main page. For more general information about CompEd, see the About page.
  5. Who are the CompEd keynotes? See this page.
  6. I hear that CompEd is co-located with TURC. What is TURC? See this page. 
  7. When does registration open? Registration is now open here. 

2. Travel to Chengdu

Please see this page for more travel information. 

  1. Do I need a visa to travel to China? Non-Chinese nationals will need a visa from a Chinese embassy or consulate in your area. In some countries visas may be arranged by mail/post, but not in all countries. See visa information here. 
  2. What if I need a letter to apply for a visa? If you require a letter to apply for a visa we will provide you with one. See visa information here. 
  3. I heard that foreigners have to register their accommodation with the police when they arrive in China. Is that right? Yes. However if you are staying in a regular hotel, the hotel will take care of this for you. If you are not staying in a hotel (for instance staying with friends/relatives or an AirBnB style accommodation, you need to do this. See here for more information. 
  4. How expensive is it to travel to China? Probably not as expensive as you think! Food, hotels, and local transport are cheaper in China than in many European and North American countries. Here are the cheapest flights available to Chengdu (return) from skyscanner.com. This is by no means an exhaustive list – these are just a sample of the cheapest options available on September 28. Note that some of these fares may be on non-US carriers. Those who are in receipt of federal funding (such as NSF) should consult the Fly America Act before booking flights.
    • London: 6 options < £400 (1 stop)
    • Frankfurt: 33 options < €525 (1 stop)
    • New York: 7 options < 700 USD (1 stop)
    • Chicago: 8 options < 700 USD (1 stop)
    • Los Angeles: 11 options < 700 USD (non-stop)
    • Auckland: 17 options < 825 NZD (1 stop)
    • Sydney: 9 options < 500 AUD (1 stop and non-stop)
  5. Will there be any funding available for travel to CompEd 2019? We have secured NSF funding to help with travel for those at U.S. Institutions to travel to Chengdu. The awards would be $1,000 travel assistance on a U.S. Carrier. See this page. 
  6.  What is the weather like in Chengdu in May? Wikitravel says: Spring and autumn are pleasant periods and the best times of the year to visit the city. High 28C (82F), Low 17C (63F), Rain 79 mm (3.11 in).
  7. Where is my local Chinese embassy or consulate? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a handy and comprehensive list of all Chinese embassies and consulates around the world. Make sure you explore all of the ‘more’ options and ‘next pages’ when looking for your location.

3. Working Groups

  1. What are working groups and when do they take place? Working group descriptions and dates are in the call for participation.
  2. Do I need to have a group already formed to propose a working group? No. All a proposal needs at the time of submission is a leader or leaders (generally 1-3 people). If accepted, you will then begin recruiting working group members.
  3. How do I participate in a working group? If you have not proposed a working group but would like to participate in one, that is what working groups are for! Browse the working group proposals on the Working Groups page,  and if you would like to apply to one, email the leaders directly. In your application please state your interest in the working group and how you could contribute to the Working Group, and provide a short bio including previous Working Group experience and any other relevant experience (less than 500 words in total). They will make decisions on who to accept as per the timeline below. Feel free to ask the leaders any questions you may have. They may also ask you to provide some information to help them make their decisions.
  4. Do I have to attend CompEd to participate in a working group? Yes. All members of working groups must work remotely before (and after) CompEd, but attendance at CompEd for the working groups and conference (evening of May 13 to evening of May 19) to be included in the working group and the report.
  5. What is the timeline for the working group process? An approximate timeline, from proposal to completion is given below. Please note that dates may vary slightly.
    • October 23, 2018: Leader(s) submit proposals.
    • Late November, 2018: Working group notification.
    • Late November, 2018: Abstracts of accepted working group proposals are  advertised on CompEd website. Accepted working groups begin recruiting members. Working groups typically have 5-10 members, including leader(s).
    • January 4, 2019: Working groups formed, and begin remote work.
    • Evening May 13 – Midday May 16, 2019: Working groups work in person in Chengdu, prior to CompEd.
    • May 17-19: Working group members attend CompEd conference and present preliminary results to conference attendees at a special working group presentation session.
    • Friday 12 July 2019: Working Group reports due.
    • TBD: If accepted, final reports are published in the ACM Digital Library.
  6. How are CompEd working groups different to ITiCSE working groups? CompEd working groups are modelled on ITiCSE working groups and are very similar. The main difference is that the in-person work for CompEd working groups takes place prior to the conference, and working group members then attend the main CompEd conference along with other attendees. At ITiCSE the working groups begin before the main conference, but then overlap. At CompEd they do not overlap.
  7. Can I ask someone a question about working groups? Yes. You can contact the Working Group chair, Judy Sheard, at comped2019wg@easychair.org.

4. Submissions and Acceptance

Please see the call for participation for additional information.

  1. What time of day are the deadlines? What time zone? All deadlines are in the Anywhere on Earth time zone. This is equivalent to -12 UTC. You can use this page to convert AoE to your time zone. For example, 23:59 on Tuesday, October 16 AoE (the CompEd paper abstract deadline) corresponds to the following times on Wednesday, October 17: New York, 07:59; London, 12:59; Beijing, 19:59; Sydney, 22:59. As you can see, in most parts of the world, a deadline at 23:59 AoE on Tuesday actually falls on Wednesday in other time zones. This is because AoE is behind all other time zones.
  2. Should submissions be anonymous? Paper and poster submissions should be anonymous.  Author names and affiliations should be left out or generic placeholders should be used. Camera-ready versions of accepted should contain all author and affiliation information.  
  3. What template should papers and poster proposals use? The call for participation has a link to the official ACM template, under the Submission and Review Process section.
  4. Where do I submit? The link to the Easychair conference organization system is https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=comped2019.
  5. I want to submit a paper. Do I need to submit an abstract? Yes. Abstract submissions are required, by the abstract deadline (October 16, 23:59, AoE).
  6. How do I submit an abstract?
    • Go to Easychair at this link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=comped2019 before 23:50, Tuesday, October 16, AoE.
    • Fill in the required information, including the title and abstract fields. Please note that you do not have to submit (upload) a paper pdf until 23:50, Tuesday, October 23, AoE – you can just leave the paper status as ‘no file chosen’ if you are only submitting an abstract. When you are ready to submit your full paper, just return to Easychair and update your submission by uploading a pdf.
  7. What does it mean that my paper has been ‘provisionally accepted’? It means that your paper has effectively been accepted, but that the program chairs wish to confirm that you have revised the paper satisfactorily in response to the reviews and metareview. There is more explanation of this on the ‘Information for authors’ page.
  8. When will I be invited to complete a rightsreview form and add the correct bibstrip (copyright information, doi, etc) to my paper? This will happen once the revised paper and the review response have been checked by the program chairs. There is more explanation of this on the ‘Information for authors’ page.

5. Reviewing

  1. Can I sign up to be a reviewer for CompEd? Yes – please see the call for reviewers.
  2. If I already review for ITiCSE, SIGCSE, or some other conference, will I be automatically ‘transferred’ over to CompEd? No. Please sign to review for CompEd as per the call for reviewers.