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Based on the AAAI-UC 2020 official page
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AAAI-20 Undergraduate Consortium

Description

The Undergraduate Consortium (AAAI-UC) hosted at the 2020 AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-20) will include a mentoring program for undergraduates attending AAAI and offer undergraduate students an opportunity to enrich their conference experience by (1) presenting and receiving critical feedback about their work in a professional, academic setting; (2) meeting prospective graduate advisors; (3) receiving mentoring about the advantages (and disadvantages) of pursuing graduate studies in AI as well as practical early career advice; (4) expanding their professional network to include both AI experts, current graduate students, and undergraduate peers; and (5) providing advice, tools, and resources for successfully applying to and attending graduate school in an AI-related research.

The inaugural AAAI-UC will be held on February 7, 2020, the first day of the AAAI-20 conference. Note that students do not need to be accepted into the Undergraduate Mentoring Program to attend the Undergraduate Consortium. The UC is open to all undergraduate student attendees of the conference, pending room/space constraints. Registration for the UC will be part of the AAAI conference registration process. Instructions for applying to the Undergraduate Mentoring Program can be found below.

Program of Events

The tentative schedule of events for the first AAAI Undergraduate Consortium hosted on Friday, Feb. 7 is available here!

Mentoring Program Proceedings

All mentees participating in the AAAI Undergraduate Mentoring Program will present research summaries during the Sunday, Feb 9, 7:30 – 9:30pm poster session. The proceedings containing all mentee research summaries is available here.

Important Dates

Student Funding

We are excited to announce that we will be able to provide participants who are accepted into the Undergraduate Mentoring Program as part of the UC with limited travel scholarships to attend AAAI-20, including the AAAI-UC. AAAI will separately provide students an opportunity to apply for travel support through the Student Scholar and Volunteer Program. Students are not required to apply for the Mentoring Program to be considered for the Student Scholar and Volunteer Program.

Call for Applications

Application Instructions for the Undergraduate Mentoring Program

Our application process is largely inspired by our sibling event, the AAAI Doctoral Consortium. Applicants to the Undergraduate Consortium must submit the following materials via the AAAI easychair submission site. Please combine the following four documents into one PDF document, formatted for US letter paper (8.5 x 11″). Please submit your application materials via the online Undergraduate Consortium easychair submission site. Be mindful of the page limits, 5 pages in total (1-page cover sheet, 2-page thesis summary, 1-page CV, 1-page personal statement).

The deadline for the full application package is Nov. 15. If you are interested in applying for the Undergraduate Mentoring Program, please register your interest via the easychair submission site by Nov. 10. At this time, you need to provide your name, university affiliation, contact information, research summary title and key words (to help us match you with reviews/mentors; example keywords available here, and your advisors name and contact information.

1. Cover Sheet

A one-page information sheet that includes the following:

Your full name
Contact details (mailing address, email address, daytime phone number)
Affiliation: department, university, country
In which degree program are you enrolled?
Expected graduation date
Optional: URL to personal and/or AI project home page (URL)
Please describe any available sources of funding to support your attendance.
Please provide an estimate of your total travel costs to and from NYC (e.g., flight, local transport, etc.)
(Optional) Your gender identity
(Optional) Country of Citizenship
(Optional) Are you a member of an underrepresented minority ethnic group? If so, please specify.
Do you have any work that you submitted and/or was accepted to AAAI-20? Please note that this deadline falls after the AAAI acceptance notification, so please update your application after receiving notification.
If so, please list the title, program (e.g., main technical, student abstract, etc., and list of authors.
Your research advisor’s full name
Your research advisor’s contact details (title, department, affiliation, mailing address and email address)
List of 3 – 5 keywords to help us select reviewers for your application (example keywords available at https://aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI-20/student-abstract-call/)

2. AI Research Summary

A two-page extended abstract that summarizes a significant AI project that you have been involved in including the research questions being investigated, a highlight of important related work, a description of your personal contributions to the project as well as the impact these contributions might have on the broader AI community, and finally a brief prospective description of next steps that should be taken in the project including a brief timeline. Be mindful of the following:

Clearly identify which work is done by you, and which work is done by collaborators, such as your research project supervisor and/or other students in your research group (if there are any). It is okay to use the first person voice in the thesis summary. Students are free to submit research summaries based on the work reported in a regular paper submitted to the AAAI-20 or another conference. Research summaries will be reviewed by a separate program committee, and will be accepted or rejected for the Undergrad Consortium regardless of the outcomes of related full-paper submissions. However, authors are encouraged to revise to clearly highlight their particular contributions to the project.

Include a title for your work (please do not title it “Research Summary”).

Remember that the audience for your research summary includes people who are knowledgeable about AI, but are not necessarily experts in the narrow topic of your project. Introduce the content at a high enough level so that the general AAAI audience can understand your story, but also include enough low-level detail so that the experts will appreciate your unique contribution.

The research summary MUST be 2 pages, in AAAI 2-column format, including references. Yes, this is tricky to do — but learning how to produce a concise statement of your research interests is very important!

3. Resume

Include a resume (at most 1 page) that describes your background and relevant experience (research, education, employment). Include a list of your publications, if you have any. Also include any pending submissions at AI conferences (such as AAAI-20) and journals.

4. Personal Statement

A short (1 page or less) statement of what you expect to gain from presenting and participating in the UC, as well as what you think you can contribute to the UC. Indicate if you have previously attending any other academic conferences (if so, which ones and when). Please also discuss your interest in pursuing a career in AI research.

Advisor’s Supplementary Information Form

A request will be emailed to your research advisor asking them to provide supplementary information about you by completing a separate form. The form will contain short questions about your contributions to the research and your progress through your undergrad program, why your advisor would like you to participate in the UC, what your advisor believes you can contribute to the UC, and what other opportunities are available to you. Note that a letter of recommendation is NOT required (and none will be accepted).

Review Process

The Undergrad Consortium organizing committee solicits applications covering any topic area and methodology within Artificial Intelligence. Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria: clarity and completeness of submission packet, stage of progress through undergraduate degree program (applicants must be actively enrolled in their first post-secondary, undergraduate degree program at the time of submission), evidence of significant personal contributions to an AI research project, assessment of contribution to and benefit from participating in the UC, advisor’s input, and availability of a good mentoring fit.

Acknowledgments

Support for the 2020 Undergraduate Consortium is graciously provided by AAAI, with additional participant travel support generously provided by the Artificial Intelligence Journal and NSF.

Mentors

We would like to thank the AAAI-UC 2020 mentors: Anita Raja, Ayanna Howard, Christian Kroer, Jorge Ortiz, Judy Goldsmith, Kartik Talamadupula, Maria Gini, Scott Sanner, Sven Koenig, Tom Williams, Wheeler Ruml, Yolanda Gil

Undergraduate Consortium co-chairs

Jim Boerkoel, Harvey Mudd College
Memo Ergezer, Wentworth Institute of Technology,
aaai20ucchairs@aaai.org