Travel: Student Support for the 2026 ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD 2026)

This project provides support for 25 United States (U.S.)-based graduate students to participate in the 2026 ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD 2026), to be held in Jeju, Korea, during August 9-13, 2026. KDD is one of the premier conferences in data mining, data science, and knowledge discovery in the world. It is a prestigious interdisciplinary conference that brings together researchers and practitioners every year. KDD covers topics in the data mining lifecycle (including algorithms, software, systems, and applications), as well as artificial intelligence, machine learning, data management, and information retrieval. Students participating in the conference are exposed to the latest research developments and can attend hands-on workshops, tutorials, eye-opening keynotes, and presentations. A strong representation of U.S. students and researchers is essential for maintaining U.S. competitiveness in these important areas. This project provides support for 25 U.S.-based graduate students to participate in the 2026 ACM SIGKDD Data Mining workshop. The selection committee will select recipients of the support based on merit in the selection process. As an interdisciplinary conference, KDD attracts researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and governments who work on all aspects of data mining and data science problems. It includes a highly competitive technical program, with regular peer-reviewed papers in the form of oral and poster presentations, as well as panel discussions and invited talks by leading experts in academia and industry. The conference places special emphasis on supporting students through training and mentoring by offering both undergraduate and doctoral student consortiums. These will provide a comprehensive multi-facet learning experience for students at all levels. This grant aims to help U.S.-based students overcome financial barriers that may prevent them from attending the conference. The award will be advertised on different sites and social media platforms, and the results will be announced on the KDD 2026 website (https://www.kdd.org). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.