The ICCBR-11 Doctoral Consortium

http://www.iccbr.org/iccbr11/doctoral.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~dwaha/research/meetings/iccbr11-dc
12 September 2011 | Greenwich, London, UK

Description

ICCBR-11's Third Annual Doctoral Consortium (DC) is designed to nurture PhD candidates by providing opportunities to explore and obtain mutual feedback on their research, future work plans, and career objectives with senior CBR researchers and peers. We invite submissions from students, as described below. Selected students will be asked to prepare and present an oral presentation at the DC.

The ideal student participant is one who is at the midpoint of their candidacy, and has not yet received substantial feedback from the greater research community. However, all students are encouraged to apply, even if they have not yet identified their dissertation focus by the submission deadline. (We also encourage other researchers and practitioners, who have few opportunities to interact with the community, to contact us concerning options for participation.)

Each selected student will be assigned a mentor who will advise them on their research trajectory, writing, and presentation skills. We will facilitate student-mentor communications prior to and during the ICCBR conference. Each student-mentor pair will meet individually at the start of the DC event. Then, each student will give a 15-minute presentation on their proposal, or a facet that relates to it. This will be followed by a 10-minute question/answer feedback period from the audience (i.e., of mentors and fellow students), led by their mentor. Additional social arrangements will be made to encourage conversation.

Student Participants and Assigned Mentors

Commonsense Case-Based Reasoning via Structure Mapping: An Application to Mediation
Atilim Günes Baydin (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain)
Mentors: Kevin Ashley (University of Pittsburgh, USA) and TBD
Case-Based Learning by Observation
Michael W. Floyd (Carleton University, Canada)
Mentor: Ian Watson (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Case-Based Reasoning in Biomedicine: Development of a Flexible System that Exploits Ontologies and Scientific Literature
Matteo Gabetta (University of Pavia, Italy)
Mentor: Beatriz López Ibáñez (University of Girona, Spain)
Innovative Construction Procurement Selection through Artificial Intelligence
John A. Lewis (University of Ulster, Northern Ireland)
Mentor: Cindy Marling (Ohio University, USA)
Case-Based Strategies for Power Restoration in Distribution Networks
Youssef Oualmakran (University of Girona, Spain)
Mentor: Mehmet Göker (Salesforce.com, USA)
Deliberative Agreement in Multiagent Systems
Sergio Manzano Perez (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain)
Mentor: Derek Bridge (University of Cork, Ireland)
On the Construction, Maintenance and Analysis of Case-Based Strategies in Computer Poker
Jonathan Rubin (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Mentor: Stefania Montani (Universita del Piemonte Orientale, Italy)
Reusing Video-Game Development Techniques to Create CBR-based Context-Aware and Context-Sensitive Systems
Christian Sauer (University of Hildesheim, Germany)
Mentor: Juan Antonio Recio-Garcia (U. Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
Content Relations Mining: A Novel Approach to Textual Case-Based Reasoning
Gleb Sizov (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)
Mentor: Susan Craw (The Robert Gordon University, Scotland)
Trace-Based Reasoning for User Assistance
Raafat Zarka (University of Lyon, France)
Mentor: Klaus-Dieter Althoff (University of Hildesheim, Germany)

Student Submission Process

We welcome submissions from PhD candidates worldwide. To apply, please submit the following materials (preferably in 1 PDF file!) by email to the DC Chair (David W. Aha, david.aha at nrl.navy.mil) by 15 May 2011. (Early submissions are encouraged!)

Research Summary (max 3 pages) A summary that outlines the problem(s) being addressed, the proposed plan for research, and a description of the progress to date. This MUST be in ICCBR-11's Springer format, with references.
Curriculum Vita (max 1 page) This should describe the student's most relevant background, experience (research, education, employment), and list their publication references (if any). Please also include the estimated graduation date.
Expectations (max 1 page) This should include questions the student may wish to discuss with their mentor, their goals for participating in the DC, and what they can offer to other DC student participants.
Letter of Recommendation (1 page) A letter of recommendation from the student's dissertation advisor (it need not be signed; the DC Chair will verify this with the advisor). It should include an assessment on the status of the research, and an expected date of completion. In addition, your advisor should indicate what they hope you would gain from participation in the ICCBR DC.

Students will be notified on whether their Research Summary has been accepted for oral presentation at the DC and the identity of their mentors by 15 June 2011. A final version of the Research Summary paper to be presented will be due on 1 July 2011. Students are expected to commit to attending all DC activities at the conference. ICCBR anticipates providing some limited support for all DC students.

Please contact the DC Chair if you have any questions.

Mentor Invitation

ICCBR-11 invites senior CBR researchers to serve as mentors for the 2011 Doctoral Consortium. Mentor responsibilities will include (1) providing brief informal reviews on one or a few student submissions (if needed), (2) corresponding with an assigned DC student prior to ICCBR-11 (e.g., writing to them, providing feedback on a few iterations of their presentation), (3) meeting with the student at the start of the DC, and (4) attending at least two DC presentations, including their assigned student's presentation, thus leaving them ample time to attend co-scheduled events. Mentors will also lead their student's question/answering session.

We encourage mentors and all other ICCBR-11 registrants to attend the DC student presentations, participate in providing them feedback, and to attend the DC's associated social events.

Interested mentors should submit notify the DC Chair (David W. Aha, david.aha at nrl.navy.mil) before 15 May 2011. Please include your (1) contact information, (2) a brief, one-paragraph description of your career and research interests, and (3) some CBR research areas that would best match your mentoring interests.

Dates

15 May 2011: Student submissions
15 May 2011: Mentor submissions
15 June 2011: Responses to student submissions
1 July 2011: Due dates for accepted Research Summaries
12 September 2011: Doctoral Consortium

Organizers

Chair: David W. Aha, Naval Research Laboratory (USA) (david.aha at nrl.navy.mil)

Mentors (Current List)

Klaus-Dieter Althoff, University of Hildesheim (Germany)
Kevin Ashley, University of Pittsburgh (USA)
Derek Bridge, University College Cork (Ireland)
Susan Craw, Robert Gordon University (Scotland)
Mehmet Göker, Salesforce.com (USA)
Luc Lamontagne, U. Laval (Canada)
Jean Lieber, University Henri Poincaré Nancy 1 (France)
Beatriz Lopez, University of Girona (Spain)
Cindy Marling, Ohio University (USA)
Stefania Montani, Universita del Piemonte Orientale (Italy)
Luigi Portinale, Universita del Piemonte Orientale (Italy)
Juan Antonio Recio-Garcia, U. Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
Ian Watson, Auckland U. (New Zealand)

Testimonials

"The ICCBR Doctoral Consortium is where my recently-begun research became real to me. It transformed, in my mind, from a somewhat artificial construction, held together by little more than my advisor's and my own interest in it, into something that knowledgeable people outside our lab microcosm might want to hear more about, point out the flaws of, suggest unexpected uses for, and, above all, graciously help improve. It takes greatness of heart to offer patience and guidance to a beginner who has read you name in countless reference sections; it has been my great fortune to meet such people at the Doctoral Consortium."
- Alexandra Coman, Lehigh University (ICCBR-10 DC participant)
"I participated in the first ICCBR Doctoral Consortium in 2009 and found it to be very helpful. I was able to present my work to a large group of people in a relaxed environment. The feedback I received from my presentation was especially useful. I was able to incorporate the advice into my thesis proposal and defense, leading to much stronger presentations. The advice I was given on how to clarify certain points in my technical paper also helped greatly while writing my doctoral dissertation."
- Jay Powell, Indiana University (ICCBR-09 DC participant)
"I took part in the first DC held at the ICCBR 2009 and it was the first time I had the possibility to talk about my PhD thesis with CBR researchers outside our own research group. Writing the application material was the first time I had to describe the scope of my thesis, which is good, because it eases the question about the topic of you theses. During the DC, discussing my proposal was extremely helpful for getting a feeling how much context I should to explain, so other researchers can follow my approaches. Also, my mentor gave me useful advices on how to continue my work and additional sources I should take a look at. I really enjoyed the discussion about my work with all the mentors after the talk and it was quite impressive that so many CBR researchers were in the audience listening to the DC participants."
- Kerstin Bach, Universität Hildesheim (ICCBR-09 DC participant)

FAQ

What ICCBR-11 events will take place concurrently?
The Computer Cooking Competition and Industry Day.
Can student participants skip some of the Doctoral Consortium (DC) presentations to attend these other events?
We'd prefer no; you wouldn't want someone to skip your presentation, this will give you the opportunity to learn about your peers' work and interests, they'd appreciate your feedback, and you can always attend these other events at future ICCBRs. This year is your year to attend the DC.
Can mentors skip some of the Doctoral Consortium (DC) presentations to attend these other events?
Yes; they're asked to attend only the early time slot to meet their assigned student, their assigned student's presentation, and the presentation of at least one other student. However, we warmly welcome them to attend the entirety of the DC's events (including lunch and dinner), which should interest them.
Is the DC open to all ICCBR-11 attendees?
Yes!! At any or all times during the event.
Is there any funding for participating students?
DC Chair David W. Aha is submitting proposals that, if accepted, would eliminate/waive student registration fees. This will take time to process. Any progress will immediately be mentioned here.