McCluskey Thesis Contest
The TTTC’s E. J. McCluskey Best Doctoral Thesis Award serves the purpose of promoting the most impactful doctoral student work, providing the students with exposure to the community and prospective employers, and supporting interaction between academia and industry in the field of test technology. The award is named after Prof. E. J. McCluskey, a key contributor to test technology. The 2026 TTTC’s E. J. McCluskey Best Doctoral Thesis Award will be given to the winning student of the doctoral student contest and their advisor.
The contest is held in two stages: semi-finals and finals. Semi-finals will be held at the IEEE Asian Test Symposium (ATS), IEEE VLSI Test Symposium (VTS), the IEEE European Test Symposium (ETS), and the IEEE Latin American Test Symposium (LATS). At each semi-final, a jury composed of industrial and academic experts will determine the winner. The four semi-final winners will compete against each other in the finals, held at the International Test Conference (ITC) 2026.
Eligibility
- Doctoral students working on test-related topics are eligible for the award.
- Eligible students are those who graduated starting from April 2024 up to 2026.
- An individual can only participate in the contest once in a lifetime (participation is encouraged when the thesis is close to completion).
- Submissions to multiple regional sites are prohibited.
Procedure
Submissions will undergo a selection process. Accepted contestants will give a presentation (about 15 minutes, including Q&A) in a designated session during ETS 2026. In addition, each candidate must prepare and present a poster on their work. The ETS’26 semi-final winner will be determined by the jury and announced during ETS 2026 closing session.
Guidelines for authors
By submitting a contribution, the authors agree to register and present at ETS 2026 in case of acceptance. Interested PhD students are invited to submit electronically a single PDF file consisting of:
- A cover letter filled with the PhD information given in the template.
- A paper of 10 pages (Conference paper style with a minimum font size of 10pt including tables) summarizing the thesis work.
Key Dates
Submission
Deadline: 15 December 2025Notification of acceptance
Deadline: 12 January 2026Camera-ready manuscript
Deadline: 20 February 2026Contact Information
McCluskey PhD Thesis Contest Chairs
- Tara Ghasempouri (EE), tara.ghasempouri@taltech.ee
- Stelios Neophytou (CY), neophytou.s@unic.ac.cy