We are continuing our commitment to promote diversity and inclusivity at WASPAA and plan to offer substantial support for grants to our students and young professional community members at WASPAA 2027. Our funding is in partnership with the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) and SPS Student and Young Professionals (SYP) Fund.
Details on how to apply for travel grants will be provided in due time.
Forms of Support
We plan to offer various forms of financial support, in the form of travel grants, registration waivers, diversity & inclusion grants, and child care grants. To be eligible for any of these grants, applicants should be a student or young professional (SYP) author, meaning that they are either enrolled in a degree-granting academic program in the 2025-2026 and/or 2026-2027 academic year(s); or they are young professionals that finished their first degree (undergraduate degree) at most 15 years ago. Priority will be given to first-authors of accepted papers.
Participants can apply to more than one grant and accumulate awards as long as they are eligible. See the eligibility criteria below.
Registration waivers
Any author of an accepted paper or demo can apply to a registration waiver award as long as they are a student author or a young professional according to the criteria explained above. Waivers will be granted based on availability of funds and merit. Priority will be given to first-authors.
Travel grants
These grants are available for authors of an accepted paper or demo who are student authors or young professionals according to the criteria explained above. The grants consist of awards of US$500 when traveling within the same continent, and up to US$1000 when travel between continents is involved. These grants are towards covering the travel expenses upon presentation of receipts. The grants are awarded based on the quality of the submission, the degree of financial need, the applicant’s newness to the community, and the applicant’s geographical diversity. Priority will be given to first-authors.
Diversity & Inclusion Grants
Additional support is available to those authors that are students or young professionals (SYP) identifying as women, Black, African, African-American or an ethnic/racial minority (of the author’s region); SYP authors coming from low- or middle-income countries; SYP authors identifying as LGBTQIA; and SYP authors who are unaffiliated researchers. These grants consist of awards of US$500 up to US$1000 towards covering expenses related to the conference upon presentation of receipts. Priority will be given to first-authors.
Child Care Grants
There are a limited number of child care grants (US$200-US$500) upon presentation of receipts for SYP authors who are bringing small children to the workshop or who incur on extra expenses for in-home child care while attending the conference. Child care grants will be awarded prioritizing mother-authors, and those who express financial need. To be eligible for this grant applicants should be student authors or young professionals as specified in the criteria above. Priority will be given to first-authors.