TCSE2026: 2026 IEEE CS TCSE Awards Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 12-17, 2026 |
Conference website | https://tc.computer.org/tcse/awards/ |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tcse2026 |
Abstract registration deadline | October 6, 2025 |
Submission deadline | October 20, 2025 |
2026 TCSE Awards – Call For Nominations
The IEEE Technical Community on Software Engineering (TCSE) requests nominations of distinguished individuals and teams for its annual international awards. Each award includes an award plaque that will be presented at the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) along with a public citation for the award on the IEEE TCSE website.
Awards Website
https://tc.computer.org/tcse/2026-tcse-awards-call-for-nominations/
Awards Submissions
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=tcse2026
Important Dates
Nomination Registration Deadline (Mandatory): October 6, 2025
Nomination Deadline (Firm): October 20, 2025
Notification of Awards: Mid December 2025
Award Presentation at ICSE 2026
TCSE Distinguished Service Award
Award Committee:Tom Zimmerman (Chair), University of California Irvine, USA; David Lo, Singapore Management University, SGP; Kenji Tei, Institute of Science Tokyo, JPN.
TCSE Distinguished Service Award is presented annually to an individual for outstanding and/or sustained contributions and service to the software engineering community, to TCSE, to the IEEE Computer Society, and to the IEEE. The ideal nominee will have provided service to TCSE and its conferences, but nominations of individuals who have provided service to the software engineering community in general will also be considered.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE Service Award Criteria
TCSE Distinguished Education Award
Award Committee:Vandana Singh (Chair), University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA; Bernd Breugge, Technical University of Munich, DEU; David Garland, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
TCSE Distinguished Education Award is presented annually to an individual for outstanding and/or sustained contributions to software engineering education.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE Education Award Criteria
TCSE Distinguished Synergy Award
Award Committee:Zhi Jin (Chair), Peking University, CHN; Jan Bosch, Chalmers University of Technology, SWE; Sherlock Licorish, University of Otago, NZL.
TCSE Distinguished Synergy Award is presented annually to a Research Center or Institute for outstanding contributions that stand as an exemplar in the software engineering community of an effective partnership between industry and universities.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE Synergy Award Criteria
TCSE WISE Barbora Bühnová Distinguished Leadership Award
Award Committee: Julia Rubin (Chair), IBM, ISR; Kathryn Stolee, North Carolina State University, USA; Myra Cohen, Iowa State University, USA.
TCSE WISE Barbora Bühnová Distinguished Leadership Award is presented annually to an individual for outstanding and/or sustained leadership in the software engineering community to encourage broadened participation in the exploration of science and engineering career paths.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE WISE Award Criteria
TCSE Rising Star Award
Award Committee:Karl Reed (Chair), La Trobe University, AUS; Li Li, Monash University, AUS; Mike Papadakis, University of Luxembourg, LUX.
TCSE Rising Star Award is presented annually to an academic researcher or an industry professional in the early stages of their post PhD career who has made contributions above and beyond those considered normal for a person at such an early stage. Nomination packages should specifically address contributions to Software Engineering and Software Development.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE Rising Star Award Criteria
TCSE Lifetime Achievement Award
Award Committee:Laurie Williams (Chair), North Carolina State University, USA; Anthony Wasserman, Software Methods and Tools, USA; Ladan Tahvildari, University of Waterloo, CAN.
TCSE Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual who has contributed a lifetime of outstanding and sustained contributions to the Software Engineering community. These contributions have had a practical impact on the way Software Engineering is currently practiced or taught. Nomination packages should specifically address the nominee’s lifetime of contributions to Software Engineering and Software Development and the impact of these contributions on current Software Engineering and Software Development practice or education.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE Lifetime Achievement Award Criteria
TCSE New Directions Award
Award Committee: Abhik Roychoudhury (Chair), National University of Singapore, SGP; Lei Ma, University of Tokyo, JPN and University of Alberta, CAN; Sonia Haiduc, Florida State University, USA.
TCSE New Directions Award is presented annually to an individual or team whose pioneering software engineering research or practice have moved the field in a new direction. The nominee(s) will have actively influenced other researchers and organizations who build on their contribution to advance the state of the art and practice. Results stemming from the new area will have been shown to be measurably superior to, and positively influencing, existing practice.
2026 IEEE CS TCSE New Directions Award Criteria
Solicitation
- The Committee reserves the right to solicit nominations for the awards either personally or through mailing lists such as SEWORLD and TCSE, and including from past nominators to re-submit nominations from the previous year, if appropriate.
- The Committee also reserves the right to make no award in the current year, for example if none of the nominees satisfies the criteria for a given award.
2026 Promotion Committee: Tao Xie, Peking University, CHN; Mehdi Jazayeri, University of Lugano, CHE; Hausi Müller, University of Victoria, CAN; Rick Kazman, University of Hawaii, USA.
Eligibility
- A nominee must be an IEEE Computer Society and TCSE member at the time of nomination (unless the nominee is an institution).
- Self-nominations are not allowed.
- If a nominee was previously recognized by an award in a similar category by this or another society of similar stature to TCSE, their achievements in the time after receiving the previous award should be sufficient to merit a new one.
- Nominations not awarded may be resubmitted in any subsequent year.
- The same person cannot be nominated for different TCSE awards in the same year.
- The nominee should satisfy the criteria for the specific award (see details at the link below each award description).
Nomination Package
Before proceeding with a nomination the nominator should read the eligibility criteria and the criteria of the specific award.
The nomination package should be constituted by one pdf file containing the following registration information:
Registration information (1 page A4):
- Nominator: name, address, phone number, email address, and IEEE number of the person making the nomination.
- Nominee(s): name, address, phone number, email address, and IEEE number of the individual(s) or the name of the institution for whom an award is recommended.
- Referees: names, affiliations, and email addresses for two referees who agree to provide supporting letters and who have no conflict of interest (CoI) with the nominee(s). At least one of the referees should also not have a CoI with the nominator. Please see the bottom of this page for what constitutes a CoI.
- CoIs with the TCSE Chair/Awards Co-Chairs/Selection Committee Members: the chairs and committee members that have a known CoI with the nominator, nominee(s) and/or referee(s).
Nomination information:
- A paragraph (200-500 words) explaining why the nominee deserves the recommended award.
- A letter from the nominee saying “I accept this nomination and declare to adhere to the IEEE Code of Ethics. My IEEE membership number is <number>.”
- Letters from the two referees explaining why the nominee deserves the recommended award.
- The vitae or detailed biographical summary of the nominee, or a document highlighting the story of the institution, mission/goals, and what its impact has been on software engineering.
It is at the discretion of the Committee member to evaluate any additional information included in the package.
Submission of Intent to Submit and Nomination Package
To register an intent to submit a nomination, the nominator (who will act as the corresponding author) creates a submission to the appropriate track using this EasyChair Submission Link.
- In Title, enter “Nomination for <nominee name(s)> for the <award name> Award”—e.g., “Nomination for Jane Doe and Juan Sanchez for the TCSE Rising Star Award.”
- To allow for managing Conflicts of Interest (CoI) in Easychair, enter information for the nominator, nominee(s), and referees as ‘Authors’ of the submission. The nominator should be ‘Author 1’. Indicate the role (i.e., nominator, nominee, or referee) of each person with a dash after their last name—e.g., “Doe-nominee” in the ‘Last name’ field for ‘Author 2’ and e.g. “Bloggs-referee” in the ‘Last name’ field for ‘Author 3’. (The referees can be changed, if necessary, anytime prior to the final Nomination Deadline.) Check the ‘corresponding author’ box for the nominator only and uncheck it for all others.
- Keywords are unnecessary but regretfully required by Easychair. Please enter three words on separate lines.
- Specify any known Conflicts of Interest for the nominator, nominee(s), and referees with the current TCSE Char, TCSE Awards Co-Chairs and/or any of this year’s TCSE Awards Selection Committee members. (All are entered as PC members on Easychair. They are also listed on the 2026 TCSE Awards Call for Nominations.)
- For “New Directions” submissions, if there are multiple nominees, enter a semicolon-separated list of nominee and IEEE Number-pairs in the ‘IEEE Number’ field—e.g. “JD 10000000; JS 10000001”. (If different nominees have the same initials, differentiate them in some other manner and notify the TCSE Awards Chairs how you have done so.)
- For “Synergy” submissions, designate a person who can represent the team, e.g. the head of the lab, as the nominee.
- Upload any .pdf; it is just a placeholder, so any .pdf is fine.
To finalise the submission of the nomination, the nominator (as the corresponding author on the Easychair site) should:
- Upload a complete nomination package (see above) as a single PDF file to the submission created at registration.
- Update details of the nominee and of the two referees, if necessary.
- Add known CoI for new referees, if any.
General inquiries about the TCSE Awards can be directed to the 2026 TCSE Awards Co-Chairs, Laura Dillon <ldillon@msu.edu> and John Grundy <john.grundy@monash.edu>.
TCSE Awards Selection Process
- TCSE Chair appoints the TCSE Awards Co-Chairs annually who serve at most two consecutive years.
- The TCSE Awards Co-Chairs in consultation with the TCSE Chair appoint an Award Selection Committee Chair and several Award Selection Committee Members for each award. Please see the criteria for each award.
- Each Award Selection Committee member evaluates the nominations according to the selection criteria for that award. The Award Selection Committee Chair submits the committee recommendation to the TCSE Awards Co-Chairs.
- There is flexibility in the process and criteria (e.g., a nominee might be moved to a more suitable category).
- The Committee reserves the right to solicit nominations, and, if appropriate, may make no award in the current year—e.g., if none of the nominees satisfies the criteria for a given award.
- The TCSE Awards Co-Chairs review the selection process and approve or disapprove the recommendation based on conformance with the selection process and criteria.
- The TCSE Awards Co-Chairs submit their final recommendations for approval to the TCSE Chair.
- The TCSE Chair submits their final recommendations for approval to IEEE.
Constitutes a Conflict of Interest (CoI)
- The lifelong relationship between PhD student and PhD supervisor
- Personal or family relationships that would reasonably cause others to doubt impartiality
- Notable personal or professional rivalry/animosity (publicly known or not)
- Working closely together (e.g., at the same institution, company, or organization; or within the same organizational team)
- In the last five years (or pending in the near future):
- Funder or program manager/awardee relationship exists
- Recipients of joint funding or significant professional collaboration
- Joint authorship of an archival publication
If in doubt, please contact the awards chairs.