The Undergraduate Architecture Mentoring (uArch) Workshop co-located with the International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO) was hosted in Austin, Texas. This year marked a significant milestone, as uArch was held twice in the same calendar year – reflecting our excitement and commitment to expanding the workshop’s reach and supporting more students.
Similar to its summer edition co-located with ISCA, this uArch workshop aimed to introduce undergraduate and early master’s students to research and career opportunities in computer architecture. Despite being a half-day event compared to its ISCA counterpart, the workshop successfully covered a wide range of topics. These included insights into graduate school life and technical sessions exploring past, present, and future research directions. Additionally, the workshop featured mentoring sessions focused on applying to graduate school and navigating the evolving architecture research landscape. Beyond the sessions, uArch fosters valuable networking opportunities, enabling students to connect with their peers as well as established architects from academia and industry.
The workshop was a resounding success, bringing together undergraduate students, Ph.D. mentors, and professors from diverse backgrounds. Seeing the students engage with the workshop and conference has been incredibly rewarding for us.
Outreach and Application:
As in previous editions, the uArch workshop at MICRO aimed to attract undergraduate and master’s students worldwide, with a particular focus on regions relevant to the conference’s location. This year, efforts centered on schools in North America and around Austin, Texas, where the conference was held. uArch is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in computer architecture and strongly encourages participation from underrepresented groups, including women, students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic communities, LGBTQ+ students, and those with disabilities. This year, more than 50% of the supported students were women. The organizers collectively reached out to 300 professors at various institutions. For this edition, we offered partial matching grants, with professors and universities covering part of the travel and expenditure for the participating students.
Pie chart shows the represented countries in selected in-person applicants in uArch 2024
Pie chart shows the represented schools in selected in-person applicants in uArch 2024
This cycle’s uArch workshop received many impressive applications. Ultimately, we supported 15 students from across the globe, and the workshop hosted a total of 25 student attendees. Applicants were required to submit a statement of interest, which was reviewed to assess their enthusiasm for graduate education and what they hoped to gain from participating in uArch.
uArch @ MICRO 2024
The uArch workshop at MICRO, though shorter, was packed with valuable insights into research and graduate school. In particular, highlights included a keynote by Professor Todd Austin titled “The Zen of Research,” which addressed fundamental questions for new researchers, particularly, “What is research, and how do you get started?” The workshop also featured panels on “The Route to Graduate School” and “Life in Graduate School.” For more details, visit the workshop program page.
This year’s workshop keynote
The workshop concluded with office hours, where students participated in 15-minute round-robin meetings with faculty. These sessions offered students a chance to explore faculty research areas and recruitment processes while allowing faculty to connect with potential students. We extend our gratitude to the faculty members who joined the office hours and the workshop as a whole, enriching the experience with their diverse perspectives and expertise.
uArch Office Hours
Support from the Community
uArch thrives on the incredible support from our community. The workshop would not be possible without the time, effort, and interest of the keynote speakers, panelists, faculty hosting office hours, student mentors, and conference General Chairs. We deeply appreciate everyone who contributed to making this edition a success.
However, there’s more to achieve, particularly in expanding global representation. Support from the entire community is crucial, and here’s how you can help:
Sponsor Students: Please consider supporting and encouraging talented undergraduates and master’s students to join uArch through the matching grant program.
Mentor Students: Many attendees would benefit from guidance on graduate applications, shaping research interests, and finding collaborative opportunities. To mentor, fill out this form or send an email to uarchworkshop@gmail.com.
Support Through Sponsorship: Industry sponsors and professors in the matching grant program have been vital. Despite generous support from ACM SIGARCH, ACM SIGMICRO, Google, Meta Reality Labs, AMD, and Microsoft, we could only sponsor 16% of applicants for in-person participation. Increased sponsorship will help us support more fantastic students and expand the workshop’s reach.
Join the Organizing Team: uArch always welcomes undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and industry professionals to help plan, review applications, and mentor participants.
About the Author:
Irene Wang is a PhD student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests focus on designing computing systems for large-scale data center workloads with an emphasis on enabling sustainable computing.
Disclaimer: These posts are written by individual contributors to share their thoughts on the Computer Architecture Today blog for the benefit of the community. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal, belong solely to the blog author and do not represent those of ACM SIGARCH or its parent organization, ACM.
