Call for Doctoral Mentoring Program

The Eighth International Joint Conference on
AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS (AAMAS 2009)
Budapest, Hungary
Symposium Date: May 10, 2009
Conference Dates: May 10-15, 2009
http://www.conferences.hu/AAMAS2009/

AAMAS 2009 will include a doctoral mentoring program, intended for PhD
students in advanced stages of their research. This program will
provide an opportunity for students to interact closely with
established researchers in their fields, to receive feedback on their
work and to get advice on managing their careers.

Specifically, the goals of the program are:
* To match each student with an established researcher in the
community (who will act as a mentor). The mentor will interact closely
with the student, will provide feedback on research, help form new
contacts, etc.
* To allow students an opportunity to present their work to a
friendly audience of other students as well as mentors.
* To provide students with contacts and professional networking opportunities.
* The doctoral mentoring program will consist of opportunities for
interactions between mentors and their mentorees prior to the
conference, as well as a one day doctoral symposium.

A.1 Submission Requirements

We encourage submissions from PhD students at advanced stages of their
research within the Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems field.
Based on the submissions, the organizing committee will select a group
of students that will be invited to participate in the program.
Participants will be expected to take active part in all doctoral
mentoring program activities.

Each submission should include a set of documents from the students,
and a recommendation letter from the advisor. The submission package
should include:
1. A two-page extended abstract of the student's thesis (in the AAMAS
submission format)
2. A personal research statement (one page)
3. A short (2-page) resume (CV)
4. A recommendation letter from the advisor.

Submissions of the first three items should be sent in electronic form
(PDF), to the doctoral mentoring chair (Stacy Marsella,
mentoring@aamas09.org), by January 31, 2009.

In addition, the dissertation advisor should send the last item (a
letter of recommendation) by e-mail to mentoring@aamas09.org. The
letter should address the expected benefit of attending (to the
student), the significance of the research, and the expected date for
thesis submission. This letter can be sent in either plain text or PDF
format. The student's name must be clearly pointed out in the letter.

A.2 Important Dates
* January 31: Submission package due
* February 28: Acceptance notifications
* March 12: Camera-ready copy due
* May 10: Doctoral Mentoring Symposium

The one-day symposium will be held on the first day of the conference.

Doctoral Mentoring Chair
Stacy Marsella
University of Southern California
marsella [at] ict.usc.edu

Web page:
http://www.conferences.hu/AAMAS2009/mentoring.html