AAAI-Members

AAAI-Members Message

2012-05-16T14:29:16Z

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May 18: Early Registration Deadline
June 22: Hotel Reservation Deadline
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Dear AAAI Members,

The deadline to qualify for early registration rates for AAAI-12, IAAI-12, and EAAI-12 is Friday, May 18. To register, please complete the PDF or online form available at https://www.aaai.org/Forms/aaai-registration-form.php.

AAAI has reserved a block of rooms at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel (http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2012/aaai12hotel.php). To qualify for the discounted rate, your reservation must be completed no later than Friday, June 22, 2012. Please note that space is limited and the block will fill fast. Information about student accommodations is available by writing to aaai12@aaai.org. Proof of full-time student status is required.

The AAAI-12 Program is evolving and several new features have been added.

*** NEW! ACM A.M. Turing Award Lecture ***
The Mechanization of Causal Inference: A "Mini Turing Test" and Beyond
Judea Pearl, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles
July 24, 2012, 10:20 - 11:20 AM, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel
Directions (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/area/directions.html?propertyID=271)

Judea Pearl was recently named the recipient of the 2011 ACM A.M. Turing Award for fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning. Professor Pearl has chosen AAAI-12 as the venue to deliver his Turing Award Lecture. This lecture is open to all conference participants and ACM members.

Please watch the AAAI-12 website for other exciting Turing Centenary events.

*** New! Subarea Spotlights Track ***
AAAI-12 has also added a new track on Subarea Spotlights. Talks will be presented in three categories: 1) "What's hot in ..." talks, summarizing the state of the art in a particular area. Talks will explain the main research trends of the last 5-10 years; 2) Best-paper talks from a broad cross-section of area conferences, highlighting recent strong research results in each area; and 3) "Challenges in ..." talks, summarizing important challenges in a particular area. Talks will outline a vision on where the area should evolve. For more information about the line-up of speakers representing over 10 ares of research, please see http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2012/aaai12spotlight.php.

*** NEW! AAAI-12 AI and Robotics Multimedia Fair ***
AAAI is pleased to present the inaugural AI and Robotics Multimedia Fair at AAAI-12 in Toronto. The program will consist of contributions to be presented as an illustration of the combination of AI and Robotics. The goal is twofold: for researchers and developers to showcase how they view the use or need of AI techniques in robotics systems; and for AI researchers to understand how their interests can reach out to robotics platforms. For more information on how to submit your poster, demo, or video, write to aaai12@aaai.org.

AAAI will also feature the following slate of invited presentations at AAAI-12, IAAI-12, and EAAI-12. For more information, please see http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2012/aaai12speakers.php.

Henry Kautz: AAAI Presidential Address
NEW! Judea Pearl: ACM A.M. Turing Award Lecture
Christos Papadimitriou: AAAI Inaugural Turing Lecture
Regina Barzilay: AAAI-12 invited talk
Ross King: AAAI-12 invited talk
Josh Tenenbaum: AAAI-12 invited talk
Luis von Ahn: AAAI-12 invited talk
NEW! Steven Minton: Robert S. Engelmore Award Lecture
Sebastian Thrun: IAAI-12 invited talk
Andrew Ng: EAAI-12 Invited talk

Please take a moment to check out all the great programs at AAAI-12, including 12 tutorials, 9 workshops, student programs, and competitions. The technical program will feature 294 presentations in oral and poster format, as well as the concurrent "Sub-Area Conference Spotlights" track. The detailed program schedule will be available in late May.

For complete information on the conference, please see the AAAI-12 conference site at http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai12.php or contact AAAI at aaai12@aaai.org.

We look forward to seeing you in Toronto, July 22-26!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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NEW! AAAI-12 AI and Robotics Multimedia Fair

2012-05-11T16:20:39Z

Dear AAAI Members,

AAAI is pleased to announce a new event to be held in conjunction with the AAAI-12 Conference in Toronto. The AI and Robotics Multimedia Fair will be held July 24-26, 2012. The full Call for Participation is included below. Please note that the submission deadline is June 10, 2012.

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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AAAI-12 AI and Robotics Multimedia Fair
July 24-26, 2012
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Call for Participation

AAAI is pleased to present the inaugural AI and Robotics Multimedia Fair at AAAI-12 in Toronto. The program will consist of a series of demonstrations/posters to be presented as an illustration of how AI and Robotics has been or can be combined. The goal is twofold: for researchers and developers to showcase how they view the use or need of AI techniques in robotics systems; and for AI researchers to understand how their interests can reach out to robotics platforms.

There will be three types of participation: (i) real robot demonstrations; (ii) videos; and (iii) posters. You can submit your contributions in any or all of the three types. The posters will be displayed throughout the conference. The videos and real robot demonstrations will be shown during an evening poster session. Each contribution (in any combinations of the three types listed above) will be peer-reviewed and authors will be notified of the submission results. Accepted contributions will be presented in two primary forms. Videos will be presented in a video session within the AAAI-12 program.

A video or poster submitted for the Robotics Multimedia Fair is expected to be a stand-alone contribution, which must be self-explanatory. In particular, a video contribution should make all the typical aspects of a written scientific contribution available to the viewers by exploiting a video format instead of a traditional paper format. Please note, contributors are not required to attend AAAI-12 in person if their submissions are accepted, although AAAI welcomes and encourages their participation in the conference. Creative formats and contributions that can foster scientific dissemination of robotics research, particularly those leveraging methods in AI, are encouraged.

Submission Guidelines
Include an English narration or subtitle text.
Video size should not exceed 100 megabytes, and duration should be limited to a maximum of 5 minutes.
For video submissions, the authors must have clear copyright of the audio and visual content. If experiments on humans and/or animal models are reported in the video, the corresponding author must declare under her/his sole responsibility that the experimental protocol was compliant with International Ethics regulation.
It is mandatory to use the MPEG-4 video format. Any other extensions will be blocked. Only freely available players (e.g., QuickTime, RealPlayer, Microsoft Windows Media Player, MPlayer, VLC) should be required for viewing the video. Providing video portability is a responsibility of the authors, also in their interest. The AAAI-12 Organizing Committee reserves the right to reject without review video contributions that do not comply with these guidelines and/or contain inappropriate material (e.g. commercial or unethical content).
Include a brief description of background and explain research objectives.
Describe adopted approach and present the main outcomes.
Present experimental tests, as evidence of the presented results.
Include a link to the project's website, if there is one. If the video demonstrates published work, include a hypertext link to the actual paper on the web.
* Posters must be in PDF or PPT format, and be no larger than 44"(width) x34" (height) when printed.

Submission Information
Please send an http link to your submitted file to junaed@cs.ubc.ca before the posted deadline. To reiterate, the submitted video files must adhere to the guidelines stated above (i.e., size and format). In case of multiple files (video accompanied by a poster and/or paper), the contributors are requested to combine everything in a ZIP archive, and send an http link to the archive file to the address above.

Important Dates
June 10, 2012 (11:59:59 PM PDT): Submission deadline
June 23, 2012: Acceptance with suggestions for improvement, if needed
June 30, 2012: Authors submit final revised version for inclusion in the AAAI program
July 24-26, 2012: Bring final version of the contribution to AAAI in Toronto

Discounted Registration Fee for Robotics Program Participants
A discounted registration fee of $250 is being offered to authors of accepted posters or videos who attend the conference to present their work.

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AIIDE-12 Deadline Extended: May 22

2012-05-10T10:58:00Z

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May 22, 2012: Research papers/Industry Track abstracts due
May 22, 2012: Demonstration abstracts due
June 15, 2012: Doctoral Consortium applications due
June 29, 2012: Notifications to authors
July 6, 2012: Workshop papers due
http://www.aiide.org
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Dear AAAI Members,

AIIDE-12 has extended its paper submission deadline to May 22! To submit your paper or demo, please consult the full Call for Papers at http://www.aiide.org and open your author account at http://aiide.confmaster.net.

The Eighth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE-12) will be held October 8-12, 2012 at Stanford University, Stanford, California. AIIDE-12 is intended to be the definitive point of interaction between entertainment software developers interested in AI and academic and industrial AI researchers. AIIDE-12 will include invited speakers, research and industry presentations, project demonstrations, interactive poster sessions, workshops, product exhibits, and a doctoral consortium. While traditionally emphasizing commercial computer and video games, we invite researchers and developers to share their insights and cutting-edge results on all topics at the intersection of all forms of entertainment and artificial intelligence, including serious games, entertainment robotics, art, and beyond. AIIDE-12 is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

The AIIDE Conference Committee is delighted to announce the following invited speakers:

Zoran Popovi (University of Washington), the principle investigator on the Foldit game, in which thousands of players deciphered an HIV-causing virus's structure in 10 days.
Marek Michalowski, of BeatBots, the intelligent robotic toy.

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Research/Industry Tracks
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AIIDE-12 will consist of two tracks, the Research Track and the Industry Track. Research Track papers will describe AI research results that make advances towards solving known game AI problems or enabling a new form of interactive digital entertainment. The Industry Track will include presentations of AI techniques, issues, or case studies from the perspective of implementing a product in the current commercial environment. Because AIIDE-12 crosses disciplinary boundaries, submissions will be evaluated based on their accessibility to both commercial game developers and researchers in addition to their technical merit. Full submission instructions are available at http://www.aiide.org. AIIDE-12 Research Papers and Industry Track abstracts are due May 22, 2012.

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Demonstrations
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AIIDE-12 also invites participation in its Demonstration program. Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to share insights and cutting-edge results from a wide range of topics with demonstrations of (a) research systems in the context of existing commercial games, (b) new games authored by researchers, (c) contributions demonstrating the adoption and/or extension of AI research results in published games, (d) completely new forms of interactive digital entertainment made possible by AI research, and e) other relevant work. Demonstration authors should submit 2-page abstracts and a link to demonstration materials by May 22, 2012.

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Workshops
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AIIDE-12 will continue its very successful workshop program, including the following topics:

Human Computation
Intelligent Narrative Technologies 5
Musical Metacreation
Real Time Strategy Games
* Serious Games

The paper submission deadline is July 6, 2012.

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NEW!! DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM
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AIIDE-12 will feature a Doctoral Consortium in which Ph.D. students will be invited to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established researchers in AIIDE related fields. Ph.D. students selected for the Doctoral Consortium will have the opportunity to present their research proposals at the DC session and/or at the poster session. Additionally, each student will be paired with a mentor, a senior member of the AIIDE community. Application packages are due on June 15, 2012.

The full Call for Participation, including formatting instructions and a list of example topics, is available at http://www.aiide.org. Please mark your calendars now for AIIDE-12, and feel free to contact us at aiide12@aaai.org with any inquiries. We hope to see you at Stanford!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

on behalf of the

AIIDE-12 Conference Committee
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General Chair: Mark Riedl (Georgia Tech)
Program Chair: Gita Sukthankar (UCF)
Workshops Chair: Santiago Ontanon (Drexel University)
Doctoral Symposium Chairs: Arnav Jhala (UC Santa Cruz) and Jichen Zhu (Drexel University)
Starcraft Competition: Michael Buro (University of Alberta)

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ICWSM-12 Late Registration: May 4

2012-04-27T16:08:42Z

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ICWSM 2012
Late Registration Deadline: Friday, May 4
http://www.icwsm.org/2012/
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Dear AAAI Members,

Please note that the ICWSM-12 late registration deadline is on Friday, May 4. This unique forum brings together researchers from computer science, linguistics, communication, and the social sciences. The broad goal of ICWSM is to increase understanding of social media in all its incarnations. Though relatively new, ICWSM has become one of the premier venues for social scientists and technologists to gather and discuss cutting-edge research in Social Media.

The program features an impressive line-up of keynote speakers, including Lada Adamic, Associate Professor at University of Michigan; Robin Dunbar, Head of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at University of Oxford; and Andrew Tomkins, Engineering Director at Google+.

There will also be a Workshops and Tutorials program. These programs will be held on the first day of the conference, Monday, June 4.

Five tutorials will be presented, including the following:

MA1: How to Analyze Massive Social Network Datasets without a Cluster (Derek Ruths)
MA2: Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Creating Maps and Measures with NodeXL (Marc Smith)
MP1: Evidenced-Based Social Design of Online Communities: Getting to Critical Mass and Encouraging Contributions (Paul Resnick and Robert Kraut)
MP2: Sentiment Mining from User Generated Content (Lyle Ungar and Ronen Feldman)
* MP3: Information Extraction for Social Media Anaylsis (Denilson Barbosa)

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with a selected focus - providing an informal setting for active exchange among researchers, developers and users on topics of current interest. The Workshop Program includes the following workshops:

Real-Time Analysis and Mining of Social Streams (RAMSS)
Full Day
http://www.ramss.ws/

Social Media Visualization Workshop (SocMedVis)
Full Day
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie

When the City Meets the Citizen Workshop (WCMCW)
Full Day
<http://bit.ly/wcmcw>http://bit.ly/wcmcw

The Potential of Social Media Tools and Data for Journalists in the News Media Industry
Half-Day
http://www.arcomem.eu/icwsm-2012-workshop/

For more information about the conference and to register, please visit the conference website at http://www.icwsm.org/2012/ or the online registration form at http://www.aaai.org/Forms/icwsm-registration-form.php.

We look forward to seeing you in Dublin in June!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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AAAI FSS-12 Submissions: May 25

2012-04-27T09:39:36Z

Dear AAAI Members,

On behalf of the AAAI Symposium Committee, we invite your participation in the 2012 AAAI Fall Symposium Series, to be held November 2-4 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, Virginia. The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 25. The full Call for Participation is available at http://www.aaai.org/Symposia/Fall/fss12.php.

Interested individuals should submit a paper or abstract by the deadline directly to the chair of the individual symposium. See the appropriate section in each symposium description, as well as their supplemental web sites, for specific submission requirements. For AAAI formatting guidelines, please see http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/author.php.

The program will include the following eight symposia:

AI for Gerontechnology
Artificial Intelligence of Humor
Discovery Informatics: The Role of AI Research in Innovating Scientific Processes
Human Control of Bio-Inspired Swarms
Information Retrieval and Knowledge Discovery in Biomedical Text
Machine Aggregation of Human Judgment
Robots Learning Interactively from Human Teachers
Social Networks and Social Contagion

We look forward to your participation this fall!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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AAAI-12 Computer Poker Symposium and Travel Grants

2012-04-20T12:45:15Z

Dear AAAI Members,

We are pleased to announce the 2012 Computer Poker Symposium and Computer Poker Travel Grants for attending AAAI-12.

The Computer Poker Travel Grants, sponsored by Steve Kuhn of Pine River Capital, are available to anyone associated with or interested in research in Computer Poker or other games of imperfect information. The grants will cover airfare, hotel, and conference registration at AAAI-12 in Toronto. Applicants are strongly encouraged to concurrently submit papers to the 2012 Computer Poker Symposium and are required to register for and attend the symposium. For more information, visit http://www.ualberta.ca/~archibal/travel_grants.html, or send an email to grants@computerpokercompetition.org. The application deadline is May 31, 2012.

The Computer Poker Symposium is designed to be a forum where researchers studying Computer Poker and other games of imperfect information can share current research and gather ideas about how to improve the state of the art and advance AI research in these areas.

In recent years, poker has emerged as an important, visible challenge problem for the field of AI. Just as the development of world-class chess-playing programs was considered an important milestone in the development of intelligent computing, poker is increasingly being seen in the same way. Several important features differentiate poker from other games: the presence of imperfect information (due to hidden cards), stochastic events, and the desire to maximize utility instead of simply winning. Hence, traditional AI game-playing techniques do not apply and novel methods are required.

Topics of interest include anything related to the computer version of poker or other games of imperfect information. This includes descriptions of novel competitors or components of competitors from recent or future AAAI Annual Computer Poker Competitions, as well as research on any topics related to games of imperfect information.

Each submission will be in the form of a 2-8 page paper. Oral presentations and poster session participants will be selected from among the submissions. Submissions will go through a light review process. The submission deadline is May 31, 2012.

For more information, please visit http://www.ualberta.ca/~archibal/symposium.html, or send email to symposium@computerpokercompetition.org.

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

on behalf of

Chris Archibald
AAAI Computer Poker Competition Symposium Chair

Jonathan Rubin and Eric Jackson
AAAI-12 Computer Poker Competition Cochairs

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AAAI-12 Early Registration: May 18

2012-04-18T15:41:25Z

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AAAI-12
Early Registration Deadline: Friday, May 18
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Dear AAAI Members,

It's time to register and reserve your hotel room for AAAI-12 and IAAI-12, to be held July 22-26 at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto. AAAI-12 registration information and forms are available at http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai12.php. The early registration deadline is Friday, May 18, 2012.

AAAI has reserved a block of rooms at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. Please connect through the URL above or go directly to the hotel reservation link at https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/booking/reservation?id=1112095541&key=1F400 to make your reservation. To qualify for the discounted rate, your reservation must be completed no later than Friday, June 22, 2012. Please note that space is limited and the block will fill fast. Information about student accommodations is available by writing to aaai12@aaai.org. Proof of full-time student status is required. This information has been circulated to student volunteer applicants and other student conference participants.

AAAI is pleased to announce the slate of invited presentations for AAAI-12, IAAI-12, and EAAI-12. We are also delighted to announce that Judea Pearl, winner of the 2011 ACM A.M. Turing Award, has selected AAAI-12 for the presentation of his award lecture. Detailed descriptions of all the talks are being posted at the AAAI Conference website as they become available (http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/2012/aaai12speakers.php).

Henry Kautz: AAAI Presidential Address
NEW! Judea Pearl: ACM A.M. Turing Award Lecture
Christos Papadimitriou: AAAI Inaugural Turing Lecture
Regina Barzilay: AAAI-12 invited talk
Ross King: AAAI-12 invited talk
Josh Tenenbaum: AAAI-12 invited talk
Luis von Ahn: AAAI-12 invited talk
NEW! Steven Minton: Robert S. Engelmore Award Lecture
Sebastian Thrun: IAAI-12 invited talk
Andrew Ng: EAAI-12 Invited talk

Please take a moment to check out all the great programs at AAAI-12, including 12 tutorials, 10 workshops, student programs, and competitions. The technical program will feature 294 presentations in oral and poster format, as well as a dynamic "Sub-Area Conference Spotlight" program -- new for 2012! The detailed program schedule will be available in late May.

Please feel free to contact us at aaai12@aaai.org if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you in Toronto!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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AIJ Funding Opportunities: May 13

2012-04-18T10:22:46Z

Artificial Intelligence Journal:
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES for PROMOTING AI RESEARCH
Deadline for proposals: May 13, 2012

Background

The Artificial Intelligence Journal (AIJ) is one of the longest established and most respected journals in AI, and since it was founded in 1970, it has published many of the key papers in the field. The operation of the Editorial Board is supported financially through an arrangement with AIJ's publisher, Elsevier. Through this arrangement, the AIJ editorial board is in the unique position of being able to make available substantial funds, (of the order of 175,000 Euros per annum), to support the promotion and dissemination of AI research. These funds are made available through a series of competitive open calls. This document relates to the sixth call for funding, with a deadline of May 13, 2012.

What are the goals of this funding?

In providing this funding, AIJ aims to:
-- promote & raise awareness of AI research & practice;
-- encourage the timely and widespread dissemination of AI research results, techniques, and tools;
-- promote interaction and exchange of ideas between AI researchers, practitioners, and students;
-- promote the exploitation of AI research results, techniques, and tools.

We strongly encourage the submission of proposals for activities that are fundamentally new, and likely to lead to the establishment of a new research community or new direction for AI research.

What activities will AIJ consider funding?

Broadly speaking, any activity that achieves the goals described above. For example:
-- student travel scholarships for a conference or workshop;
-- funds for an invited speaker to present at a conference or workshop;
-- funds to support a web site to disseminate proceedings of an AI related conference or workshop;
-- start up funds for a workshop in a promising new area of research;
-- funding to organise a summer school on some aspect of AI.

This list is absolutely not intended to be exhaustive, and we strongly encourage you to consider innovative ways in which the goals set out above can be achieved.

What activities does AIJ prefer not to fund?

-- We prefer not to fund individuals. By preference, requests will come from organisations such as a foundation, charitable body, or the organising committee of an event. AIJ does not exclude the possibility of funding individuals, but this is likely to be exceptional. Note that AIJ will not support individual requests for travel funds.

-- We prefer not to fund research projects. Research projects involving staffing costs would probably not, in our view, be a cost effective use of the funds.

-- We won't fund duplicate activities. For example, if there is already an established, successful, and well-regarded conference in the area of X, then in all likelihood we would not provide seed funds to set up a duplicate, competitor conference.

-- We prefer not to fund activities where alternative sources of funding are readily available.

-- Activities are funded on a not-for-private-profit basis. AIJ will not fund activities that lead directly to profit for the organization or individuals involved. However, we recognise that with some events, (e.g., large conferences) it is necessary to budget for a surplus; in this case, proposals should describe what will happen to the surplus.

There is no hard and fast rule about how much you can ask for: you should ask for what you need to make your activity successful. However, here are some broad principles; as ever, these are only guidelines. First, if you are applying on behalf of a large (> 80 participants), successful, and scientifically strong conference, then please bear in mind that several such conferences applied for funding for student travel grants and invited speakers in the December 2011 round of AIJ funding, and typically received about Euro 7000 each. Although, as always, there may be exceptions to this, it may be helpful to use this amount as a guideline. Note that we would be reluctant to spend more than Euro 35K on an individual activity. Proposals may include the possibility of AIJ underwriting an activity (to an agreed limit) in the event of a loss. Finally, we urge you to investigate whether it is possible to leverage AIJ funding, for example by obtaining matched funding from elsewhere. In t
his case, the value of every euro spent by AIJ is effectively doubled, which makes for a compelling funding case.

How can I bid for funds?

A proposal should contain the following sections:

-- What?
Describe exactly what activity funding is requested for. Please note that AIJ funds specific activities. For example, we request funds to support a conference on X� is not a specific request, while we request travel funds to bring invited speaker X to conference Y � is a specific request. Provide any contextual information that you think is relevant.

-- How Much?
A (high level) budget, in Euros, which: clearly states the amount requested; provides details of the use of requested funds; describes how the requested amount fits into an overall budget for the activity/event; and clearly states what will happen to funds in the event of a surplus.

-- Why?
Brief justification for funding; note that priority will be given to activities for which no alternative funds are available.

-- Who?
Describe who will benefit from the proposed activity.

-- When?
Dates of the proposed activity, and date by which funding would be needed.

-- Where?
Location of the proposed activity.

-- Contact details.
Name, affiliation, contact details for the responsible party (postal address, email, telephone number, fax), web address of event if available.

Proposals should under no circumstances exceed more than two pages in total. Proposals should be submitted in PDF via the Easychair web review system at the following URL: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aij6

NB: PLEASE GIVE ALL COSTS IN EUROS

How will proposals be evaluated?

We anticipate issuing calls for proposals approximately two or three times per annum, with MAY 13, 2012 being the deadline for this call. Further calls will be issued later� watch the AIJ web site for details (http://www.aijd.org/). The AIJ sponsorship committee will assess proposals on the basis of:
-- scientific quality of proposed activities;
-- likely level of impact on the international AI community;
-- cost effectiveness/value for money.

All bidders will be informed by email of the outcome of their proposal as soon as an outcome is known. If a proposal is approved for funding, then please be aware it may take time to transfer funds: if you are bidding for funds to support an event, then we suggest your proposal should be submitted at least 6 months before the event takes place.

Where a proposal is felt to have merit but is not fundable in its submitted form, we may return to bidders to discuss possible modifications; where this is felt to be necessary, we will try to do this practicably and expeditiously. A summary of successful proposals will be made publicly available on the AIJ website.

My proposal was rejected � can I appeal?

The decision of the AIJ sponsorship committee with respect to funding decisions is final, and we will not enter into any correspondence with respect to unsuccessful proposals.

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AAAI SSS-13 Call for Proposals: April 20

2012-04-13T12:03:17Z

Dear AAAI Members,

AAAI invites you to submit a proposal for the 2013 AAAI Spring Symposium Series, to be held March 25-27, 2013 at Stanford University. The complete Call for Proposals is included below and also available at http://www.aaai.org/Symposia/Spring/sss13.php. Please note that the deadline for proposals is April 20, 2012. Proposals should be directed to Matthew Taylor (Lafayette College), AAAI Symposium Committee Chair, at the address below.

We look forward to your participation!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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Call for Proposals
2013 AAAI Spring Symposium Series
March 25-27, 2013
Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

AAAI invites proposals for the 2013 Spring Symposium Series, to be held March 25-27, 2013 at Stanford University, California.

The Spring Symposium Series is an annual set of meetings run in parallel at a common site. It is designed to bring colleagues together in an intimate forum while at the same time providing a significant gathering point for the AI community. The two and one half day format of the series allows participants to devote considerably more time to feedback and discussion than typical one-day workshops. It is an ideal venue for bringing together new communities in emerging fields.

The symposia are intended to encourage presentation of speculative work and work in progress, as well as completed work. Ample time should be scheduled for discussion. Novel programming, including the use of target problems, open-format panels, working groups, or breakout sessions, is encouraged. AAAI Technical Reports will be prepared, and distributed to the participants. Most participants of the symposia will be selected on the basis of statements of interest or abstracts submitted to the symposia chairs; some open registration will be allowed. All symposia are limited in size, and participants will be expected to attend a single symposium.

Proposals for symposia should be between two and five pages in length, and should contain:

A title for the symposium.
A description of the symposium, identifying specific areas of interest, and general symposium format.
The names and addresses (physical and electronic) of the organizing committee: preferably three or more people at different sites, all of whom have agreed to serve on the committee.
A list of potential participants that have been contacted and that have expressed interest in participating. A common way of gathering potential participants is to send email messages to email lists related to the topic(s) of the symposium. Note that potential participants need not commit to participating, only state that they are interested.

Ideally, the entire organizing committee should collaborate in producing the proposal. If possible, a draft proposal should be sent out to a few of the potential participants and their comments solicited.

Approximately eight symposia on a broad range of topics within and around AI will be selected for the 2013 Spring Symposium Series. All proposals will be reviewed by the AAAI Symposium Committee, (Chair: Matthew E. Taylor, Lafayette College; Cochair: Gita Sukthankar, University of Central Florida; Alan Schultz, Naval Research Laboratory; and Kate Larson, University of Waterloo).

The criteria for acceptance of proposals include:

Perceived interest to the AAAI community. Although AAAI encourages symposia that cross disciplinary boundaries, a symposium must be of interest to some subcommunity of the AAAI membership. Symposia that are of interest to a broad range of AAAI members are also preferred.

Appropriate number of potential participants. Although the series supports a range of symposium sizes, the target size is around 40-60 participants.

Lack of a long-term ongoing series of activities on the topic. The Spring Symposium Series is intended to nurture emerging communities and topics, so topics that already have yearly conferences or workshops are inappropriate.

An appropriate organizing committee. The organizing committee should have (1) good technical knowledge of the topic, (2) good organizational skills, and (3) connections to the various communities from which they intend to draw participants. Committees for cross-disciplinary symposia must adequately represent all the disciplines to be covered by the symposium.

Accepted proposals will be distributed as widely as possible over the subfields of AI, and balanced between theoretical and applied topics. Symposia bridging theory and practice and those combining AI and related fields are particularly solicited.

Symposium proposals should be submitted as soon as possible, but no later than April 20, 2012. Proposals that are submitted significantly before this deadline can be in draft form. Comments on how to improve and complete the proposal will be returned to the submitter in time for revisions to be made before the deadline. Notifications of acceptance or rejection will be sent to submitters around May 18, 2012. The submitters of accepted proposals will become the chair of the symposium, unless alternative arrangements are made. The symposium organizing committees will be responsible for:

Producing, in conjunction with the general chair, a Call for Participation and Registration Brochure for the symposium, which will be distributed to the AAAI membership
Additional publicity of the symposium, especially to potential audiences from outside the AAAI community
Reviewing requests to participate in the symposium and determining symposium participants
Preparing working notes for the symposium
Scheduling the activities of the symposium
Preparing a short review of the symposium, to be printed in AI Magazine

AAAI will provide logistical support, will take care of all local arrangements, and will arrange for reproducing and distributing the working notes. Please submit your symposium proposals by electronic mail (no postal submissions), and inquiries concerning symposia, to:

Matthew E. Taylor
Lafayette College
Easton, Pennsylvania, USA
taylorm@lafayette.edu

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AAAI AIIDE-12 Conference: October 8-12

2012-04-13T09:35:16Z

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May 15, 2012: Research papers/Industry Track abstracts due
May 15, 2012: Demonstration abstracts due
June 15, 2012: Doctoral Consortium applications due
June 29, 2012: Notifications to authors
July 6, 2012: Workshop papers due
http://www.aiide.org
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Dear AAAI Members,

AAAI invites you to participate in the Eighth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE-12) will be held October 8-12, 2012 at Stanford University, Stanford, California.

AIIDE-12 is intended to be the definitive point of interaction between entertainment software developers interested in AI and academic and industrial AI researchers. AIIDE-12 will include invited speakers, research and industry presentations, project demonstrations, interactive poster sessions, product exhibits, and a doctoral consortium. While traditionally emphasizing commercial computer and video games, we invite researchers and developers to share their insights and cutting-edge results on all topics at the intersection of all forms of entertainment and artificial intelligence, including serious games, entertainment robotics, art, and beyond. AIIDE-12 is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

The AIIDE Conference Committee is delighted to announce the following invited speakers:

Zoran Popovi (University of Washington), the principle investigator on the Foldit game, in which thousands of players deciphered an HIV-causing virus's structure in 10 days.
Marek Michalowski, of BeatBots, the intelligent robotic toy.

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Research/Industry Tracks
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AIIDE-12 will consist of two tracks, the Research Track and the Industry Track. Research Track papers will describe AI research results that make advances towards solving known game AI problems or enabling a new form of interactive digital entertainment. The Industry Track will include presentations of AI techniques, issues, or case studies from the perspective of implementing a product in the current commercial environment. Because AIIDE-12 crosses disciplinary boundaries, submissions will be evaluated based on their accessibility to both commercial game developers and researchers in addition to their technical merit. Full submission instructions will be available at http://www.aiide.org after March 15. AIIDE-12 Research Papers and Industry Track abstracts are due May 15, 2012.

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Demonstrations
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AIIDE-12 also invites participation in its Demonstration program. Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to share insights and cutting-edge results from a wide range of topics with demonstrations of (a) research systems in the context of existing commercial games, (b) new games authored by researchers, (c) contributions demonstrating the adoption and/or extension of AI research results in published games, (d) completely new forms of interactive digital entertainment made possible by AI research, and e) other relevant work. Demonstration authors should submit 2-page abstracts and a link to demonstration materials by May 15, 2012.

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Workshops
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AIIDE-12 will continue its very successful workshop program, first launched in 2011. The list of workshops will be available soon, and paper submissions are due July 6, 2012.

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NEW!! DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM
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AIIDE-12 will feature a Doctoral Consortium in which Ph.D. students will be invited to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established researchers in AIIDE related fields. Ph.D. students selected for the Doctoral Consortium will have the opportunity to present their research proposals at the DC session and/or at the poster session. Additionally, each student will be paired with a mentor, a senior member of the AIIDE community. Application packages are due on June 15, 2012.

The full Call for Participation, including formatting instructions and a list of example topics, is available at http://www.aiide.org. Please mark your calendars now for AIIDE-12, and feel free to contact us at aiide12@aaai.org with any inquiries. We hope to see you at Stanford!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

on behalf of the

AIIDE-12 Conference Committee
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General Chair: Mark Riedl (Georgia Tech)
Program Chair: Gita Sukthankar (UCF)
Workshops Chair: Santiago Ontanon (Drexel University)
Doctoral Symposium Chairs: Arnav Jhala (UC Santa Cruz) and Jichen Zhu (Drexel University)
Starcraft Competition: Michael Buro (University of Alberta)

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ICWSM 2012 Early Registration: April 13

2012-04-06T11:28:39Z

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ICWSM 2012
Early Registration Deadline: Friday, April 13
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Dear AAAI Members,

Please join us for the Sixth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM 2012), to be held June 4-7, 2012 at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Registration is now open (http://www.aaai.org/Forms/icwsm-registration-form.php) and the deadline to qualify for the early registration date is Friday, April 13. This unique forum brings together researchers from computer science, linguistics, communication, and the social sciences. The broad goal of ICWSM is to increase understanding of social media in all its incarnations. ICWSM has become one of the premier venues for social scientists and technologists to gather and discuss cutting-edge research in social media.

The program features an impressive line-up of keynote speakers, including Lada Adamic, Associate Professor at University of Michigan, Robin Dunbar, Head of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at University of Oxford, and Andrew Tomkins, Engineering Director at Google+.

There will also be a Workshops and Tutorials program on the first day of the conference, Monday, June 4.

Five tutorials will be presented, including the following:

MA1: How to Analyze Massive Social Network Datasets without a Cluster (Derek Ruths)
MA2: Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Creating Maps and Measures with NodeXL (Marc Smith)
MP1: Evidenced-Based Social Design of Online Communities: Getting to Critical Mass and Encouraging Contributions (Paul Resnick and Robert Kraut)
MP2: Sentiment Mining from User Generated Content (Lyle Ungar and Ronen Feldman)
* MP3: Information Extraction for Social Media Anaylsis (Denilson Barbosa)

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with a selected focus - providing an informal setting for active exchange among researchers, developers and users on topics of current interest. The Workshop Program includes the following workshops:

Real-Time Analysis and Mining of Social Streams (RAMSS)
Full Day
http://www.ramss.ws/

Social Media Visualization Workshop (SocMedVis)
Full Day
http://socmedvis.ucd.ie

When the City Meets the Citizen Workshop (WCMCW)
Full Day
<http://bit.ly/wcmcw>http://bit.ly/wcmcw

The Potential of Social Media Tools and Data for Journalists in the News Media Industry
Half-Day
http://www.arcomem.eu/icwsm-2012-workshop/

For more information about the conference and to register, please visit the conference website at http://www.icwsm.org/2012/ or the online registration form at http://www.aaai.org/Forms/icwsm-registration-form.php.

We look forward to seeing you in Dublin in June!

Regards,

Carol Hamilton
Executive Director, AAAI

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