We assembled the technical program to give Ph.D. students an opportunity to present their research ideas in a premier international research venue. The resulting program, consisting of 15 papers accepted for presentation over 23 submissions we received, presents a clear sample of emerging topics in database research that included contributions from young researchers across the world. The workshop indeed provides a forum that facilitates interactions among Ph.D. students and stimulates feedback from more experienced researchers. The program this year also included two keynote talks from prestigious industries. The first one, entitled “Database Systems 2.0”, was presented by Johannes Gehrke (Microsoft), whereas the second one, entitled “Structured Data Meets News”, was presented by Cong Yu (Google). The two keynotes were able to inspire and provide directions to Ph.D. students, discussing novel issues and challenges. We are very grateful to Fatma Özcan and Lei Chen, the VLDB PC chairs, who trusted us this important and honouring role. Our heartfelt acknowledgement goes to Shahram Ghandeharizadeh, the General Chair, as well as the whole local organizing team, for the support and help. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewers who did a wonderful job in writing constructive comments and selecting the papers. We believe the event had given excellent opportunities to share and exchange research ideas between the Ph.D. students and the more experienced researchers and promoted synergistic collaborations. We wish all the participants the very best with their research!