Important Meeting and PI Project Preparation Guidance

We are pleased to announce the NSF 2024 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Principal Investigators’ Meeting. The meeting will be held Wednesday, March 20, 2024, and Thursday, March 21, 2024, with an arrival day of Tuesday, March 19, 2024. 

The meeting will be held in person on the campus of Vanderbilt University in the Student Life Center (SLC) located at the Student Life Center (SLC) located at 310 25th Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37212. Meeting information can be found here at the 2024 CPS PI Meeting website which provides access to the meeting registration, program agenda, program material submissions pages, venue/lodging, and other important information. 


1. PI Meeting Registration and Attendance Requirements (Meeting Registration Deadline: Tuesday, February 20, 2024)


  • At least one PI or Co-PI of each active CPS project is required to attend the entire program on both days of every annual CPS PI meeting held throughout the duration of a given CPS grant, including during no-cost extensions. All project personnel attending in person must complete the PI registration webform at 2024 CPS PI Meeting Registration. The registration code is CPS2024PIMTG

  • If you are the PI of a project and cannot attend this year's PI meeting, you are responsible for identifying the name of at least one person to serve as the project representative. In this case, please send an email message to David Corman (NSF) at (dcorman@nsf.gov) or Linda Bushnell (lbushnel@nsf.gov) and copy Frankie King at (frankie.king@vanderbilt.edu) to provide the name of the person who will be attending. Then inform your alternate to register for the meeting at 2024 CPS PI Meeting Registration. The registration code will be provided in the official invitation letter sent to project PIs.

  • In addition to the in-person project personnel participating in collaborative research projects, at least one PI from each of the collaborating institutions should plan to attend the entire meeting remotely. 

  • If more than one PI or Co-PI would like to attend in person, then they should register on the Waitlist at 2024 CPS PI Meeting Alternate Requests / Waitlist. The registration code will be provided in the official invitation letter sent to project PIs.

  • Wait-listed individuals will be informed up to one month but no later than two weeks prior to the meeting dates if space is made available.

  • A PI can be the in-person representative for more than one project. 

  • Each PI is responsible for communicating the above information to the respective project personnel.

  • There is no registration fee to attend the meeting.

  • When registering, please be sure to accurately enter the seven-digit NSF award number and the award project title for the CPS project that the attendee will represent if such a project exists. 

  • The number of participants at the meeting is limited by the available space. (Since NSF requires the participation of PIs or co-PIs of CPS projects at the annual National PI meeting, priority will be given to their registration.) The remaining space will be made available for the registration of guests. All guests will receive confirmation regarding the acceptance of their registration.

  • On the evening of Tuesday, March 19, 2024, the registration check-in desk will be open from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for persons who wish to register and pick up registration check-in materials early. On both full days of the meeting, the registration check-in desk will open starting at 7:00 a.m.


2. Room Reservations (Deadline: Monday, February 5, 2024)


The organizers have negotiated courtesy room blocks at U.S. Government per diem rates or better at three hotels that are in close walking proximity to the VU SLC for your convenience. Hotel reservations can be made by choosing from one of the three courtesy room blocks at either the Vanderbilt Marriott, Hyatt House, and Homewood Suites listed on the 2024 CPS PI Meeting website. The reservation deadline is February 5, 2024. For questions, please contact the CPS PI Meeting organizers at cps-pimtg@cps-vo.org.

The deadline to make reservations at the following hotels is:    
Monday, February 18, 2024 by Midnight

The following blocks of rooms were selected based on the 0.8 miles or less walking distance to the meeting location, Student Life Center (SLC). For your convenience, there will also be a dedicated charter bus service to the meeting locations to get attendees to and from these hotels during the PI Meeting.

 Please make your reservations online at one of the three following options:

  • Hyatt House Nashville at Vanderbilt: ($169/night – 0.8 miles from the SLC, 15-min walk, 3-min drive).    
    Book Your Group/Corporate Rate or by calling the hotel at 615-320-9000. When calling, please mention the 2024 2024 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) PI Meeting group block (code: G-NCS1) to receive the reduced rate. The cut-off date has been extended to Tuesday, February 27, 2024. For more information about the venue, please visit the hotel website.

  • Marriott at Vanderbilt: ($234/night – 0.3 miles from the SLC, 6-min walk, 3-min drive).     
    Click this link: Book Your Group/Corporate Rate or call the Marriott at Vanderbilt at 615-321-1300 to book your room nights. When calling, please mention the 2024 2024 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) PI Meeting group block to receive the reduced rate. The cut-off date has been extended to Tuesday, February 27, 2024. For more information about the venue, please visit the hotel website.

  • The Homewood Suites by Hilton courtesy block at $189/night is SOLD OUT. Rooms still might be available outside of our block at a higher rate. (0.3 miles from the SLC, 6-min walk, 2-min drive). To find out, call the Homewood Suites by Hilton directly at 615-340-8000 to reserve your room nights. You may try (Group Code: DE2) to ask if they might still honor the reduced rate. 

Travelers who wish to reserve rooms outside of these blocks will incur increased room rates and will not be able to register online but will need to call the hotels directly. Please be advised that reservations made for days outside of the block might incur higher or lower room rates, depending on the day. When calling, please reference the event name: “2024 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) PI Meeting”

Reservations must be made no later than Monday, February 5, 2024, by midnight. Reservations made after that time will be based on availability at the hotels' prevailing rates. Make your reservations early to secure a room. Breakfast, lunch, and light refreshments will be provided at the meeting. Participants will be responsible for their own dinners.   


3. PI Project Preparation Guidance 

* All project materials are due by CoB Tuesday, February 27, 2024


As in the past, a major goal of CPS PI Meetings is to highlight achievements in the CPS program. NSF needs your help to provide compelling materials from your project that cover both the intellectual merit and broader impacts of your work. Content from PI presentations, posters, lightning talks, and videos may be used in Congressional testimony and by NSF officials when justifying or expanding the scope and scale of the CPS program. Please prepare your materials for this PI meeting with this reuse in mind  

  • Lightning Talks:     
    PIs of active CPS projects are required to submit Lightning Talks slides in a 90-second pre-recorded video format. Lightning talks will not be presented “live” at the PI Meeting but will be posted to the 2024 CPS PI Meeting website for public viewing before the opening of the PI Meeting. Please submit Lightning Talks at the link 2024 CPS PI Meeting - Lightning Talks by CoB Tuesday, February 27, 2024. Templates have been created for your convenience to prepare Lightning Talks content a the link below. 

Download LT Template  

  • Posters and Poster Sessions:   
    PIs (or alternates) of active CPS projects are required to submit project posters and abstracts and are encouraged to submit poster videos. Posters will be presented “live” during poster sessions. PPTX Templates for preparing posters can be found below. Please use the templates for preparing your poster.

    Download Horizontal Poster Template    Download Vertical Poster Template

    Posters should provide an overview of the research topics and results and convey the research objectives and scientific directions of the project. It would be particularly helpful if you include the scientific challenge questions being addressed in the project context that will contribute to innovative approaches for CPS systems science and engineering. Collaborative projects (multi-institution, each with unique award numbers) can submit a single joint poster, abstract, and video covering the entire project if desired. The PI of the lead institution is responsible for ensuring that each aspect of the research is covered. Please inform the meeting organizers if you plan to submit one team project. Please submit the Poster/Abstracts/Videos here: 2024 CPS PI Meeting: Poster Collection Form by the deadline of Tuesday, February 27, 2024. Once poster content is collected, the organizers will send out a poster session presentation map and list to project representatives. If a poster presenter has a valid reason for presenting on the opposite day assigned, please contact the organizers as soon as possible at cps-pimtg@cps-vo.org.

    PIs (or alternate) are responsible for the following:

    • Printing poster content
    • Bringing and/or arranging for posters to be delivered and set up by early registration on the arrival night or by 8 a.m. on the first meeting day
    • Presenting or identifying at least one person to present the poster during the assigned poster session
    • Dismantling and discarding the poster at the end of the meeting

Poster Sessions will be held on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, and Thursday, March 21, 2024. There is anticipated to be more than two hundred project posters presented at this year's meeting. The posters will NOT stay up for both full days, so Day One presenters will need to take their posters with them at the end of the Day One session. Day Two presenters will need to put their posters up the morning of their presentation. 

Half of the PIs will be presenting their posters during the scheduled session on Day One: Wed, March 20th from 4:30pm-6:30pm, and the other half on Day Two: Thurs, March 21st from 10am-12pm. Projects will be assigned a location number and schedule announced via e-mail to the lead PI or designated presenter after the rest of the program has been determined. Requests for a specific location number and/or specific day to be scheduled for show and tell should be made known to the meeting organizers as soon as possible.

The poster display stands have a cushioned backing panel and are 4 feet tall by 8 feet wide. Each poster stand will accommodate a total of four posters (two on the front and two on the back). Thus, each individual poster should be no more than 4 feet tall x 4 feet wide in size. Printed versions of posters may be in any format that fits within that space. However, the electronic copy submitted must be in PDF file format. There will not be any table space or electrical outlets. If you are participating in a demonstration, you can request your project posters to be co-located alongside your demonstration.

Local Printing Info

FedEx Office Print & Ship Center
2308 West End Ave, Nashville, TN 37203
 
  • Demonstrations (Optional):   
    It is optional for interested PIs to prepare project demonstrations. Due to space limitations, a limited number of projects will be confirmed on a first-come, first-served basis. Interest in presenting a demonstration can be indicated on the meeting registration webform. 

     

  • Project Presentations

Program presentations will be in the form of:

  • Keynotes
  • Invited Panel Talks
  • Breakout Session Talks

PIs who are invited to present panel or breakout session presentations will be contacted directly by members of the program committee. Presentations should be uploaded at the 2024 CPS PI Meeting: Presentation Collection Form by Tuesday, February 6, 2024. Please complete this presentation webform with your most updated bio and snapshot. For PIs who are invited to speak, a PPTX presentation template can be downloaded at the link below.

Download Presentation Template


A presentation laptop will be provided, but please let the organizers know in advance if you plan to use your personal laptop and if there are movies (with sound) in your presentation. It is expected that all presentations will be from computers and displayed via projector, which will be available. If you require additional specific audio-visual needs for your presentation, please contact Frankie King at (frankie.king@vanderbilt.edu) or Jason Gigax (Jason.w.gigax@vanderbilt.edu). 


4. Breakout Sessions


Up to four (4) breakout sessions on innovative topics in CPS will take place during the PI Meeting. Please check the Program Agenda as the meeting approaches for the breakout session topics.  


5. Program Agenda


As in the past, a major goal of CPS PI Meetings is to highlight achievements in the CPS program. A preliminary draft agenda will be posted to the PI Meeting website soon and will be updated continuously as we approach the meeting dates. Please intermittently check the website for updates. Start times are 8:00 am CST, closing remarks conclude by 4:00 pm CST on Day Two.  

For this year's meeting, we are excited to report on the following changes in programmed activities that are designed to maximize the PI community's active participation and input. The 2024 CPS PI Meeting will incorporate a limited number of panel and breakout sessions into the program on innovative topics in CPS. We invite the submission of breakout proposals from the CPS community that can define the future of CPS research vision and introduce recent research advances to interested PIs and graduate students. Breakouts should include a mix of invited presentations and panel discussions that encourage active participation from attendees.

For general PI Meeting questions or technical support with accessing any links, please contact Frankie King (frankie.king@vanderbilt.edu) and Jason Gigax (jason.w.gigax@vanderbilt.edu) directly or the meeting organizers at cps-pimtg@cps-vo.org.