Graduate Student Symposium
The Graduate Student Symposium will be held during the main conference between May 25th and May 29th (exact date to be confirmed shortly). It will provide an opportunity for Master’s and PhD students to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with their peers and with a panel of established researchers in Artificial Intelligence. The symposium will allow the attendees to develop a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research.
This year's graduate symposium will have the following sessions:
- A selection of four (4) oral presentations from the accepted submissions.
- A poster session during the main conference for all accepted submissions.
Call for abstracts
The 39th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence invites graduate students to submit their research on ongoing thesis work from all areas of Artificial Intelligence for possible inclusion in the AI 2026 Graduate Student Symposium (GSS) and the AI 2026 proceedings published in PMLR open access online format. We welcome the following types of submissions based on unpublished or previously published work related to your thesis.
- Abstract (2 pages)
- Extended abstracts (4 pages)
Important dates
Paper submission deadline: March 3rd, 2026 (11:59 pm PT)
Author notification: April 6th, 2026
Final papers due: April 20th, 2026
Graduate Student Symposium: Date to be announced shortly
Submission guidelines
All submissions must be written in English and should clearly state the research problem, the proposed solution and approach and the description of the progress to date, including significant results. Program committee members will review each submission. Extended abstract submissions will be considered for oral presentations and will be selected based on clarity of the submission, difficulty of the problem, novelty of the solution, and quality of the research.
We welcome the following types of submissions based on unpublished or previously published work related to your thesis.
- Abstract (2 pages) – poster presentation
- Extended abstracts (4 pages) – considered for an oral presentation
The references can use an additional 2 pages. Only extended abstracts will be considered for an oral presentation. The authors should use the provided proceedings template for LaTeX to prepare their submissions. The “abstract” section can be omitted for the two-page abstract submission. All submissions should be anonymized.
The lead author of each accepted submission is required to present the work in-person at the symposium. The authors must agree to this requirement prior to submitting their work for review. Upon acceptance, the authors and their thesis supervisor(s) should sign a copyright form to publish the work in the Canadian AI proceedings. Program committee members will review each submission. Acceptance to symposium is based on clarity of the submission, significance of the problem, novelty of the solution, and quality of the research, and evidence of promise such as peer-reviewed papers or technical reports.
All students are encouraged to attend and participate in the Symposium, whether or not they are the first author or if they have accepted papers in the symposium.
The link to submit your paper is https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/CanadianAI2026/Track/3/Submission/Create
CMT acknowledgment: The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.
Program chairs
Tara Azin
Department of Cognitive Science, Carleton University
Ritu Chaturvedi
School of Computer Science, University of Guelph
FAQ
Q1. Do I have to be a graduate student to submit an abstract?
A1. The first author, or a solo author, has to be a graduate student. An undergraduate student can be a co-author if he/she has helped with experiments. Note that the abstract has to be presented by the graduate student.
Q2. Can I submit an abstract of my completed dissertation?
A2. Yes, this is an acceptable submission. The symposium aims to help students to define and make progress on their thesis. Therefore, work-in-progress with experimental validations can also be submitted.
Q3. We are two graduate students and want to submit one abstract for our two research projects. Is this OK?
A3. We encourage you to submit separate abstracts. If a joint project is better explained via one abstract, then you can try to make the case in your cover letter.
Q4. I have an abstract accepted by GSS. Can I have some financial support to attend GSS?
A4. We encourage you to apply for GSS funding in your cover letter. Presenting students will compete for (partial) funding of their GSS expenses. You can also apply for financial support for the conference volunteers. Depending on how much funding we can secure, we will try to provide (partial) travel funding for selected accepted abstracts. There is no need to apply for this directly and all accepted abstract will be automatically considered. You can also apply for financial support to serve as Canadian AI volunteers.
Q5. I do not have an abstract accepted by GSS. Can I apply for financial support to attend?
A5. We are working to keep the cost of attending the GSS as low as possible (see the Canadian AI conference website). Financial support is designed for students whose abstracts have been accepted. You can also apply for financial support for the conference volunteers.
