Student Support for the Tenth International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This is funding to support attendance by approximately 25 advanced doctoral students from the United States and abroad at the 10th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS 2010), which will take place June 14-18, 2010, in Pittsburgh. The first ITS conference was held in 1988 in Montreal, and they have continued every two years for the past 12 years in locations that include Brazil, Taiwan, France, and Canada as well as the United States. The ITS conferences offer a rare professional opportunity for interdisciplinary researchers from around the world to converge and present cutting-edge results from the fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive and learning sciences, psychology, and educational technology. The goal is to promote studies in advanced systems in computer science applied to education, cognitive science and human learning for learners of all ages. To that end, the series provides a forum for the interchange of ideas in all areas of computer science and human learning, a unique environment in which researchers and practitioners exchange ideas, theories, experiments, techniques, applications and evaluations of initiatives supporting new developments relevant for the future. Comments and feedback from each previous ITS conference indicate that the carefully structured conference format continues to be professionally rewarding and stimulating to all who attend. ITS conferences are highly refereed international events and serve as reference guidelines for the research community; each paper is generally reviewed by 4 referees so that having a paper published at ITS is a reference of quality for any researcher evaluation. The conferences operate under the auspices of an independent nonprofit organization and are funded entirely by registration fees. More information about the conference is available at http://www.cmu.edu/its2010. Students supported by NSF funds will have the opportunity to attend sessions with papers, posters, tutorials, workshops, and informal interactions with accomplished researchers, the latter within the framework of a Young Researchers Track that includes special sessions for the students to present their research ideas, meet peers who have related interests, and receive feedback and mentoring from senior members of the ITS community. A structured program will be provided in which each student is matched with a mentor who will be encouraged to offer feedback and support to students as they prepare their presentations, during the doctoral consortium sessions, and in at least one 1-on-1 meeting. The doctoral consortium will be situated within the main conference program in order to encourage maximal community involvement. Its structure will facilitate as much discussion and feedback as possible. With this goal in mind, students will present their work at lunchtime poster sessions open to all attendees. To avoid competition with other events and to maximize attendance, no other talks will be scheduled at this time and posters will be in the same rooms as the buffet lunch for all conference attendees. To acquaint attendees with student work, student poster sessions will be immediately preceded by "fire-hose" sessions where students summarize their work very briefly. To enable poster presenters to see and discuss each other's posters, poster presentations will span all 3 days of the main conference so as to give students one day to present their posters and two days to see others. Space and logistics permitting, presenters will be able to leave their posters up all 3 days of the conference, affording additional opportunities to discuss them with other researchers, for example during coffee breaks. Broader Impacts: This activity supports one of NSF's core missions, to train more advanced professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Participating in the conference will provide the selected students with a unique opportunity to be exposed to current research directions in different research communities both domestic and foreign. This is important for the field, because it has been recognized that transformative advances in research tend to derive from the melding of cross-disciplinary knowledge and multinational perspectives. 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 to generate new research questions to be addressed during the coming years. The PI will place high priority on supporting young researchers (intermediate and advanced doctoral students) from degree-granting institutions that lack the funding necessary to support attendance by their students at international conferences such as ITS.