International Conference on Cognitive Modeling 2010 Doctoral Consortium

Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

This is funding to support a doctoral consortium (workshop) of approximately 10 graduate students along with distinguished research faculty. The event will take place on Thursday, August 5, 2010, immediately preceding the 2010 International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (ICCM) to be held August 6-8, 2010, at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Cognitive modeling has emerged over the last twenty years as an important discipline, both for advancing our understanding of the mind and for developing real-world applications that save money and lives. Using computers to model the mind has also opened up the application of our theories of the mind to real world applications, from being able to better design human-computer interfaces, to evaluating task workload and predicting human performance in mission-critical roles, to creating simulations of humans that participate in large-scale training exercises. ICCM is the premier international forum for research on computational models and computation-based theories of human behavior. It fills a critical niche between other related conferences, in that conference topics span the complete spectrum of cognitive models including connectionism, symbolic modeling, dynamical systems, Bayesian modeling, and cognitive architectures. ICCM includes basic and applied research across a wide variety of domains, ranging from low-level perception and attention to higher-level problem-solving and learning. More information about the conference is available at http://iccm2010.cs.drexel.edu. The doctoral consortium will bring together the top graduate students in cognitive modeling from around the world. Each student will have about 20-30 minutes to present his/her thesis research. Students will get feedback from the other students, as well as comments and mentoring from three senior leaders in the field. The mentors will be picked for their ability to work with students, as well as for their breadth of expertise (cognitive modeling is a broad field with many different methodologies, and the workshop organizers plan to ensure that the mentors represent the breadth of the field). At the conclusion of the daylong consortium sessions, the entire group (students and mentors) will enjoy a dinner at a local restaurant for less formal but still valuable discussions and interaction. The conference proper begins the following day, at which the students can now mingle with the larger community both in the conference sessions and at the conference reception. Drexel University has graciously agreed to contribute space, audio/visual, and networking facilities for the doctoral consortium as part of their support for the ICCM conference, and will not charge overhead on the NSF funding. Broader Impacts: To keep refreshing and renewing research, it is necessary to continually bring new investigators into the field. The doctoral consortium is an important avenue for helping graduate students successfully transition to independent researchers. Thus, a primary objective of the consortium is to serve as a first step in creating a diverse cohort of students and future researchers, by bringing them together so that they can build up a network of contacts, both with senior leaders in the field and with other students who will be active in the field for years to come. Participants will be encouraged to create a social network both among themselves and with senior researchers at a critical stage in their professional development, to form collaborative relationships, and perhaps to generate new research questions to be addressed during the coming years. The workshop organizers will make a particular effort to recruit students from under-represented groups (including women, minorities, and persons with disabilities), as well as students from smaller schools and/or schools with less established research centers.