Doctoral Consortium

→ program

The (42+1)rd edition of the German Conference on Artificial Intelligence (KI2020), organized in cooperation with the AI Chapter of the German Society for Informatics (GI-SIG AI), will take place September 21–25, 2020 in Bamberg, Germany. The technical program of presentations, workshops, and tutorials is complemented by a doctoral consortium.

The doctoral consortium provides young researchers from any subject area within AI with the opportunity to present their ideas and receive feedback at an early stage of their PhD research. In contrast to previous editions, we also invite young researchers that are in the last year of their PhD to present their PhD journey and connect with new researchers.

The doctoral consortium also provides an opportunity for PhD students to discuss their research interests and career objectives with established researchers in AI and network with other participants. The doctoral consortium will expose students to different areas of research within AI and help build professional connections within the international community of AI researchers.

Each presented topic will be mentored by a senior researcher. This provides the opportunity for a private discussion of the PhD topic. The goals of the doctoral consortium are:

• to provide PhD students with the opportunity to present their ongoing research and receive feedback from established researchers;
• to promote networking among PhD students and AI researchers in general, both on a national and an international level; and
• to support students with advice on academic, research, and industrial careers.

Doctoral Consortium Format

There will be a PhD workshop with a keynote and oral presentations during the KI conference, providing an opportunity for obtaining feedback. Doctoral students may also participate in a mentoring program that will connect students with experienced researchers in their field. The organizers will try to schedule personal meetings between mentors and students. Students can indicate their interest in this program when submitting their contribution, or directly by contacting the organizers. The schedule of the meetings will be announced ahead of the event. The organizers plan to publish extended abstracts as proceedings of the PhD workshop, either as part of the main conference proceedings or with CEUR (pending).

Additionally, there will be the opportunity to participate in the main conference poster session where the participants will have the chance to present their research to a larger audience.

To facilitate a fruitful exchange of knowledge and to activate interesting discussions, we want to emphasize the fact that you can also join the StudentDay track to listen to their keynote and talks. More information on the technical aspects of that will follow shortly.

Application

To apply for the KI2020 doctoral consortium, please submit the following documents (in a single pdf file) to the EasyChair submission system no later than June 19, 2020.

• An abstract of your thesis, formatted according to the KI guidelines (LNCS/LNAI), that describes the problem being addressed, the motivation for addressing the problem, related work, the proposed approach, and planned or already executed evaluation. Target length of the abstract is 3–5 pages, including references.
• A short CV that covers background (name, university, supervisor), education (degree sought, year/status in a degree, previous degrees), employment, and experience in research (publications, presentations, conferences attended) of max. 2 pages.
• Please indicate in your application if you want to participate in the mentoring program.

The extended abstract could be structured in the following way:

1. Introduction
2. Motivation
3. Research Question
4. Related Work
5. Approach
6. (Planned) Evaluation

Abstract submissions should be in English and must have a single author who is pursuing the proposed PhD.

Important Dates

• July 10, 2020: Application Deadline (extended)
• August 7, 2020: Notification of acceptance
• September 22, 2020: Doctoral Consortium

Contact

Should you have any questions regarding the doctoral consortium at KI2020, please do not hesitate to contact Tanya Braun at dc.ki2020@uni-bamberg.de.