PitchD: Call for Contributions 2025

Are you a PhD candidate? Don’t miss the chance to participate in the new edition of PitchD: the PhD’s Pitch!

PitchD is your platform to showcase your research to a broad audience, including students, fellow PhD candidates, and academic staff. It’s more than just a presentation—it’s an opportunity to:

• Share your work and spark interest in your research.
• Connect with potential collaborators and expand your network.
• Prepare for future conferences with a friendly and engaging pitch.

Who can participate as speaker
All PhD candidates are welcome, including external candidates from companies or other universities. At the end of the event, participants will receive an official IEEE certificate of attendance.

Each PitchD seminar is scheduled as follows:

• A brief introduction to the IEEE student branch and the PitchD seminars.
• Brief introduction of the first speaker.
• First speaker speech (15 minutes)
• First speaker question time (5 minutes)
• Brief introduction of the second speaker
• Second speaker speech (15 minutes)
• Second speaker question time (5 minutes)
• Brief introduction of the third speaker
• Third speaker speech (15 minutes)
• Third speaker question time (5 minutes)
• Acknowledge and certificate presentation
• Social buffet and networking time

IMPORTANT: the seminars are recorded and published on YouTube. If you have any problem with disclosing your speech or you just don’t want to be published on YouTube, you MUST communicate it in advance. The PitchD will be open to everybody, and you will be in any case on the flyer (title, abstract, picture), yet the video will not be available on YouTube nor recorded.

How to apply

The application can be done at any moment by writing an email to sb.polito@ieee.org or filling the contact form.

Waiting list

The seminars will be held for the entire year, therefore there is no official deadline for the application. After submitting a request to be a speaker at the PitchD event, the name of the candidate will be added to a waiting list. The order of the list is determined based on the following priorities:

• IEEE Membership: Candidates with IEEE membership are given priority. Not a member yet? Find all the details to join here: <link>.
• Topic Diversity: Preference is given to candidates from different departments to ensure a wide range of topics.
• Gender Diversity: Preference is given to ensure a balanced gender representation.
• Time of Submission: Earlier requests are prioritized when other factors are equal.

Required material

What to send us:

• Speaker’s name and surname
• IEEE membership number (if possessed)
• Title of the speech
• Picture of the speaker
• A brief abstract of the speech (around 50 words)
• An extended abstract of the speech (150-200 words)
• Keywords
• A brief description of the speaker (who you are and what you do)

The deadline for sending us the material is set to 15 working days before the date of the event.

For any doubt or question do not hesitate to contact us! We are looking forward to your participation! The participation in the event, either as a speaker or in the audience, is free of charge.