IIS: IJCAI 2011 Doctoral Consortium and International Experience

The purpose of this proposal is (1) to support the participation of a select group of US based graduate students to the doctoral mentoring consortium at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) that will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain), July 16-22, 2011 and (2) to support extended visits (preferably 6-8 weeks) of students to selected European AI research labs, where they will work on a research project and establish the basis for long term international cooperations. Intellectual Merit The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) is a premier conference in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the only major AI conference that has been truly international since the beginning and where non-US researchers play major roles. IJCAI’11 will be held in Barcelona, Spain, July 16-22, 2011. Attending will allow a diverse group of graduate students representing a range of topic areas and methodologies to meet with and discuss their research with senior members of the community, and network with students from around the world who are working in similar research areas to share ideas and results. Broader Impact The focus of the doctoral consortium on ethics in computing research will enable the students to reflect on ethical issues in research and discuss them with their peers in a neutral and truly international environment. Attending the doctoral consortium and conference will enable students to meet and network with researchers from around the world working in similar research areas, and to discuss ideas with senior members of the community. The extended visits to European research labs will enable the students to work for an extended period of time side by side with researchers from a different country, exposing them to new research paradigms and approaches within AI, and building research bridges between the European hosts and their own research group. Creating personal connections with international researchers will help develop long term international collaborations between the groups.