Call For Papers

The Thirteenth Annual Conference on Undergraduate Research on Applied Computing (ZURC 2021) aims to provide a forum for undergraduate students to present their ideas and interact with other young researchers from educational institutions in the UAE, other GCC countries, and the rest of the Arab world, as well as expert faculty and leaders from the IT industry. So, if you are an undergraduate student working on a final year project, or doing research in any computing field, you are encouraged to submit an abstract for a live demo, lightning talk, or poster presentation. There are four types of submissions (for live demo, lightning talk or oral presentation, poster presentation, and Special Tracks), and all submissions will be reviewed by expert faculty and feedback will be provided to all submissions. Full paper submissions to Special Tracks related to secure intelligent systems and applications are open for all, including researchers at all levels, graduate students, and faculty members.


Download the call for research project abstracts in PDF format. For submissions to Special Tracks, please see Special Tracks.


Lightning presentations, live demos, or poster presentations

Abtsract submissions should report on a novel application (live demo), or research project work (for lightning presentation or poster presentation) done by undergraduate students, and the first author should be an undergraduate student. Your research project can be in progress at this point but results should be available and presented at the conference. ZURC2021 welcomes three types of submissions:

  1. Live demos: for students who are interested in presenting a live demo of an application/system/tool they have fully developed; they will be presented in front of conference participants and a judging panel.
  2. Lightning presentations: students will be given 5 to 7 minutes to present their research projects in front of conference participants and a judging panel.
  3. Poster presentations: students will present their research projects in a poster format that will be displayed at the conference and presented by students during special periods of time during the conference. A panel of judges will be evaluating poster presentations.

Submission Guidelines for lightning presentations, live demos, or poster presentations

  • The submission deadline for all abstracts is March 25, 2021 April 10, 2021
  • All submissions must be written in English
  • You may have one or more co-authors, but the first author must be an undergraduate student
  • You may have more than one submission
  • Use this template in MS Word format for your submission. For your information, here are some sample abstracts (please follow the same style) - sample-abstract1.doc, sample-abstract2.doc, sample-abstract3.doc
  • Make sure you specify whether you want to present your work in a live demo, lightining presentation or a poster presentation format

All submissions must be made online at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=zurc2021 Note: If you don't already have an account, sign up for one (click on create an account)...it is free and it only takes 2 minutes. Once you login, create a new submission and fill out the necessary information. Please make sure you upload your MS Word (.doc or .docx) file containing the abstract. Please use this template for abstract submission.


Special Tracks

The following special tracks related to secure intelligent systems and applications are open full papers for full paper submissions from undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty members. Submissions to the following Special Tracks must be full papers (4 - 6 pages) formatted using the IEEE template. Accepted papers in the special tracks will be submitted for inclusion in IEEE Xplore digital library. The special tracks are:

  • Internet of Things and Big Data: inviting full paper submissions related, but not limited, to: IoT architectures and systems, smart homes, smart cities, security and privacy of IoT, data management, networking, sensor data, data analytics, etc.
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: inviting full paper submissions related, but not limited, to: artificial intelligence, neural networks, deep learning, supervised and unsupervised learning, machine learning applications, etc.
  • Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies: inviting full paper submissions related, but not limited, to: blockchain, cryptocurrencies, consensus protocols, blockchain applications, legal and regulatory issues, bitcoin and altcoins, ethereum, smart contracts, etc.
  • Security and privacy: inviting full paper submissions related, but not limited, to: network and systems security, hardware security, access control and authorization, authentication, privacy mechanisms, AI security, etc.

Submission Guidelines for Full Papers to Special Tracks

  • The submission deadline for Special Tracks is April 5, 2021 April 10, 2021
  • All submissions must be written in English
  • Please use this IEEE template in MS Word format for your submission. Your submission must be a full paper of 4 - 6 pages using the IEEE template.

All submissions must be made online at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=zurc2021 Note: If you don't already have an account, sign up for one (click on create an account)...it is free and it only takes 2 minutes. Once you login, create a new submission and fill out the necessary information. Please make sure you upload your MS Word (.doc or .docx) file containing the abstract. Please use this template for abstract submission.


Conference Proceedings

  • Authors of accepted abstracts will have the opportunity to finalize their abstracts before final submission for inclusion in the ebook of abstracts (for your information, here is the book of abstracts from URC2020).
  • Authors of accepted full papers for the Special Tracks will have the opportunity to address reviewers comments and finalize for papers before submission to IEEE Xplore.