[Please circulate among your colleagues. Apologies for multiple copies.]

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ACM Recommender Systems 2008 Doctoral Symposium, Lausanne, Switzerland
Symposium Date: October 26th
http://recsys.acm.org/doctoral.html
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Co-Chairs:

Alexander Felfernig, Klagenfurt University, Austria
Joseph A. Konstan, University of Minnesota, United States


Message from the Chairs
=======================

The Recommender Systems 2008 Doctoral Symposium provides an opportunity
for doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests in
an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of
distinguished research faculty. We invite students who feel they would
benefit from this kind of feedback on their dissertation work to apply
for this unique opportunity to share their work with students in a
similar situation as well as senior researchers in the field. The
strongest candidates will be those who have an idea and an area, and
have made some progress, but who are not so far along that they can no
longer make changes. Typically, this means they will have made their
dissertation proposal, but still be about a year from completion.

Contact us: recsys-doctoral@...


About the Doctoral Symposium
============================

The symposium has the following objectives:

1. Provide a supportive setting for feedback on students' current
research and guidance on future research directions.
2. Offer each student comments and fresh perspectives on their work
from faculty and students outside their own institution.
3. Promote the development of a supportive community of scholars and
a spirit of collaborative research.
4. Contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other
researchers and conference events.

The symposium will be held on October 26th (Sunday). About 5-8 doctoral
students and four faculty will be invited to participate. Student
participants will have their abstracts published in the conference
proceedings and will exhibit a poster of their work at the main
conference.

All participants are expected to attend the entire symposium, including
a group dinner taking place before the conference. Each student will
present his or her work to the group with substantial time allowed for
discussion and questions by participating faculty and other students.

Being accepted into the symposium is an honor, and involves a commitment
to giving and receiving thoughtful commentary with an eye towards
shaping the field and upcoming participants in the field.


Applying for the Doctoral Symposium
===================================

Submissions are invited from current graduate students pursuing a PhD
project who would benefit from detailed workshop discussions of their
doctoral research by a panel of established researchers. Selected
applicants will receive money for four night's hotel accommodations.
Additional funding will be available; please check back here or email
the chairs for updates.

Submission materials consist of:

1. An extended abstract (see below)
2. A curriculum vitae
3. A one-paragraph statement of expected benefits of participation
(see below)
4. A letter of recommendation from the student's primary dissertation
advisor

Submissions should consist of two different email messages to:
recsys-doctoral@... due by June 8, 5:00 PM (1700) Pacific
Daylight Time. One should consist of all the materials except the
recommendation letter in the form of a single PDF file. Your file should
be named lastname_ds.pdf, where lastname is your family name. The file
must be no larger than 5 Mbytes in size. The subject line of the message
should be lastname_ds_appl. The other message should contain the
recommendation letter from your advisor. Please ask your advisor to name
the file (and set the email subject) according to the convention:
studentLastName_ds_ref. We will send email acknowledgements to you when
your application is received and to your advisor when his/her
recommendation is received.


Extended Abstract
=================

Prepare a four-page extended abstract of your thesis work in the ACM SIG
Proceedings Format, including: title, author information, abstract,
keywords, thesis research summary, and references. The extended
abstract, if accepted for the Doctoral Symposium, will be published in
the Conference Proceedings. There will not be time for revision if you
are selected; therefore, your submitted version will be published if you
are selected. The extended abstract will be evaluated with regard to:

1. Originality of the work with respect to current concepts and
techniques
2. Importance of the work with respect to fundamental issues and
themes in recommender systems
3. Rigor and validity of claims, argumentation, methodology, results,
and interpretations
4. Clarity and persuasiveness of expression

Example abstracts accepted for the Recommender Systems '07 Doctoral
Symposium can be found here.

Additional factors, such as position within the doctoral process and
institutional representation, may be taken into account if the number of
applicants is particularly large. Candidates who have a developed idea
but who still have time to be influenced will receive the strongest
consideration. This typically means that the candidate will have made a
dissertation proposal but still be approximately a year away from
completion. Participants in the symposium will be selected by the
Doctoral Symposium Committee.


Confidentiality
===============

Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process.
All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All
submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential
until the start of the conference (with the exception that the
contributions will be made available to the symposium participants one
week before the event). Submissions should contain no information or
materials that are proprietary at publication time.


Doctoral Symposium Checklist
============================

Well in advance of the deadline (June 8, 5:00 PM (1700) Pacific Daylight
Time):

1. Create your submission materials:
a. Write an extended abstract according to the ACM SIG
Proceedings Format. The abstract must print to no more than 4 pages.
b. Write a curriculum vitae
c. Write a one-paragraph statement of expected benefits of
participation
d. Obtain a letter of recommendation from your primary
dissertation advisor
2. Package all materials except the recommendation into a single PDF
file. Name it according to the following convention: lastname_ds.pdf.
Email it to recsys-doctoral@.... The letter of
recommendation must be directly by your advisor, also to
recsys-doctoral@.... Please ask your advisor to name the
file (and set the email subject) according to the convention:
studentLastName_ds_ref. An email receipt of the letter will be sent to
your advisor.
3. Test that your PDF prints correctly and that is it no larger than
5 Mbytes


--
Sean M. McNee, Ph.D.
Nil Desperandum.