WORKSHOP: Doctoral Consortium at AAAI Conference on Human Computation & Crowdsourcing (HCOMP 2018)

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

This grant supports participation of 8 promising doctoral students from U.S.-based educational institutions in a Doctoral Consortium (workshop), along with about 6 distinguished research faculty, to be held in conjunction with the 6th AAAI Conference on Human Computation & Crowdsourcing (HCOMP 2018), which will take place July 5-8 2018, in Zurich, Switzerland, and which is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. HCOMP is the premier venue for disseminating the latest research findings on crowdsourcing and human computation. While artificial intelligence (AI) and human-computer interaction (HCI) represent traditional mainstays of this cross-disciplinary conference, HCOMP believes strongly in inviting, fostering, and promoting broad, interdisciplinary research. More information about the conference is available online at http://www.humancomputation.com/2018/. The Doctoral Consortium will be a research-focused full-day meeting immediately following the conference technical program on July 8. It will enhance the scientific workforce in this emerging research area by nurturing a group of promising young investigators interested in human computation and crowdsourcing, allowing them: to attend the conference; to learn of potential career paths within academia and industry; to access an international network of researchers who can support their professional development; and to see firsthand the interdisciplinary nature, diversity and interrelationships of research in human computation. The faculty mentors also will serve as the review committee for student applications. The organizers will promote diversity by selecting no more than one or two students from any one school, and by prioritizing the selection of women and underrepresented minorities. The full-day Doctoral Consortium will include activities to guide the research of these promising young researchers. The Consortium will allow participants to interact with established researchers and with other students, through presentations, question-answer sessions, panel discussions, and invited presentations. Each participant will give a short presentation on their research and will receive feedback from at least one faculty mentor and from fellow students. The feedback will be geared toward helping the student participants understand and articulate how their research is positioned relative to other work on human computation and crowdsourcing. Activities led by the faculty will include a panel discussion to give students more information about the process and lessons of research and life in academia and industry. To further integrate the Doctoral Consortium participants into the conference itself, students will have a chance to present their work in an interactive poster session, and their papers will be posted online on the workshop webpage. These activities will benefit the participants by offering each fresh perspectives and comments on their work from researchers outside their own institution, both from faculty and other students; providing a supportive setting for mutual feedback on participants' current research and guidance on future research directions; and enabling participants to form a cohort of new researchers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.