Henry Walker Travel Grant Program

SIGCSE awards travel grants throughout the year to help defray expenses of members attending SIGCSE-sponsored conferences. The Henry Walker Travel Grant Program award winners will receive up to $1000 towards travel expenses, not including conference registration. We are particularly interested in encouraging attendance by members who have never been able to attend a SIGCSE-sponsored conference previously.

The list of travel grant winners shows the individuals who have benefited from this fund.

Background

The SIGCSE Board gratefully acknowledges former Board chair Henry Walker for his efforts in establishing this grant program and for his generous donation which served as the impetus to get the program started. Since its beginning the SIGCSE Board has contributed additional support to expand this program, and further contributions by SIGCSE members have expanded the funding available for additional grants. In 2026, the SIGCSE Board expanded the scope of the Henry Walker Travel Grant program to include support for attendees at the full range of SIGCSE-sponsored conference.

 

Application Process

To be eligible for this travel grant program, an individual

• should not have physically attended the conference requested,
• should not have access to travel funds from their local institution, and
• must be a SIGCSE member.

Note SIGCSE Board members are not eligible to apply for a travel grant.

A formal application consists of the following items and is completed through this travel grant form:

• The conference you are requesting travel support to attend
• Name
• Address
• Email address
• Institution and type (primary, secondary, post-secondary, industry)
• Position at the institution
• Country of residence
• SIGCSE member number
• A two-part question that includes:
  • Part 1 (600 characters maximum): How do you think attendance will benefit you?
  • Part 2 (600 characters maximum): How do you plan to share what you learn with your community?

Priority for awards are given to groups that historically have been underrepresented among attendees at the conference. This may include but is not limited to students, women, people of color, those from low-resource institutions such as primary and secondary schools or community colleges, and SIGCSE members from Low or Middle Income as defined by the World Bank. Applications demonstrating a strong engagement in computing education and describing a solid plan for positively impacting the local computing education community over the long term will be viewed more favorably by the committee.

Travel grants are awarded on a rolling basis for SIGCSE sponsored conferences throughout the year. The number grants available for each conference is determined based on the relative conference size annually along with the total available funding to award. The number of grants to be awarded each year will be advertised in early April.

Conference	# Travel Grants Available	Application Deadline	Notification By
2026 RESPECT	2	May 8, 2026	May 15, 2026
2026 ITiCSE	5	May 8, 2026	May 22, 2026
2026 ICER	2	June 1, 2026	July 1, 2026
2026 SIGCSE Virtual	n/a (virtual event)	—	—
2027 SIGCSE Technical Symposium	20	November 15, 2026	December 15, 2026

Submit this travel grant form to apply.

Grant Details

Each grant is subject to these rules:

• Awardees must have an active SIGCSE membership at the time of the award.
• Registration for the conference cannot be waived or reimbursed as part of the travel grant. Attendees are expected to cover their conference registration expenses independently.
• The grant will cover documented travel, hotel, and meal expenses up to $1000 USD.
• Allowable expenses are subject to ACM Volunteer Reimbursement Policies.
• If a grant is awarded, receipts will be submitted via an online system. Information about using that system will be communicated with award recipients via email.

Donations Encouraged

The SIGCSE Board gratefully acknowledges former Board chair Henry Walker for his efforts in establishing this grant program and for his generous donation which served as the impetus to get the program started. This program depends upon donations for continued operation and possible expansion. Already, several SIGCSE members and friends have contributed, and we strongly encourage further donations to help support this ongoing program. Donations may be sent to:

ACM, Office of Financial Services
1601 Broadway, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10019-7434

Please make checks payable to ACM/SIGCSE and please mark on memo “The SIGCSE Travel Grant Program”. ACM is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As such, your contribution to SIGCSE is deductible to the extent provided by law.