[DL] VCLA International Student Awards

[Magdalena Ortiz]

Dear DL community,

We are announcing new awards for outstanding Master and Bachelor thesis.
Please help us spread the call and encourage your best students to apply!

The nomination deadline is November 15.
For more information, please see the attached call or visit

  http://logic-cs.at/award/

Apologies for multiple postings of the call.

Thanks!

Magdalena
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==========================================================================

                          CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

                     VCLA International Student Awards

                        http://logic-cs.at/award/

==========================================================================

The Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms calls for the nomination of authors
of outstanding scientific works in the  field of Logic and Computer Science, 
for the following awards: 

- Outstanding Master Thesis Award 
  (thesis for obtaining a Masters degree or equivalent) 

- Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award 
  (thesis or final project for obtaining a Bachelors degree or equivalent)  

In both categories, the work must make an original contribution to a research
field that can be classified as part of Logic in Computer Science,
with focus on databases and artificial intelligence, verification, and
computational logic.  

The  degree must have been awarded no earlier than November 1st, 2012. 
Students that obtained the degree at the Vienna University of Technology are
excluded from nomination.

The committee will select a winner for each category. The winners will be
invited to Vienna to present their project and participate in a festive award
ceremony. Additionally, the Outstanding Master Thesis Award category is
accompanied by a prize of 1,200 Eur, and the Outstanding Undergraduate
Research Award by a prize of 800 Eur. The decisions of the committee are not
appealable.

For more information, please see http://logic-cs.at/award/ 


IMPORTANT DATES 
------------------

Nomination deadline:		November 15, 2014 (AoE)
Notification of decision: 	Mid January 2015
Award ceremony: 		Spring 2015 (precise date to be announced)


TOPICS OF INTEREST 
------------------

Both awards recognize the author of an original contribution to a research 
field that can be classified as part of *Logic in Computer Science*, understood
broadly as the use of logic as a tool that enables computer programs to reason
about the world. 

The main areas of interest are:

- Databases and artificial intelligence, including subjects like answer-set
  programming and Datalog, query languages based on logical concepts (such as
  SQL, current XML-based languages), optimization of queries, novel
  database-theoretical methods (like schema mappings, information integration,
  querying ontologies), logic programming, description logics, knowledge
  representation and reasoning (belief change, abductive reasoning,
  multi-context systems, inconsistency handling, incomplete knowledge,
  diagnosis), and AI formalisms (argumentation, planning, preferential
  reasoning, decision support systems).


- Verification, concerned with logical methods and automated tools for
  reasoning about the behavior and correctness of complex state-based systems
  such as software and hardware designs as well as hybrid systems. It ranges
  from model checking, program analysis and abstraction to new
  interdisciplinary areas such as fault localization, program repair, program
  synthesis, and the analysis of biological systems.


- Computational logic, covering theoretical and mathematical foundations such
  as proof theory (cut elimination, proof mining, interpolants), automated
  deduction (resolution, refutation, theorem proving), non-classical logics
  (multi-valued logics, juridical reasoning, deontic logics, modal and
  temporal logics), computational complexity (complexity analysis,
  parameterized complexity, decomposition methods) and constraint satisfaction
  (SAT, QSAT, CSP).


NOMINATION INSTRUCTIONS 
------------------

Nominations must include:

* A cover page with the name and contact details of the nominated person, the
  title of the work for which the person is being nominated, category, date on
  which the degree was awarded (or if not applicable, the date on which the
  work was submitted), and name of the university. 

* An English summary of the thesis or project of maximum 3 pages, excluding
  references (A4 or letter page size, 11pt font min.). The summary must
  clearly state the main contribution of the work, its novelty, and its
  relevance to some of the aforementioned areas of interest.

* CV of the nominated person, including publication list (if applicable)

* An endorsement letter from a supervisor or another endorsing person,
  preferably affiliated to the university to which the work was submitted. The
  letter must clearly state what was the independent and novel contribution
  done by the student and why the endorser believes the student deserves the
  award.

* The full thesis/project

All documents should be in English, with the exception of the thesis or
project. In case the thesis or project is in a different language, it must be
accompanied by a research report in English with a maximum length of 12 pages
excluding references (A4 or letter page size, 11pt font min.). This report
should be sufficient for the committee to evaluate the merit and quality of the
submitted work. In case such a report is provided, the 3-page summary is
optional.

Nominations should be submitted electronically via EasyChair:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vcla2014

All documents except the full thesis should be combined (in the order they are
listed) into a single pdf file, to be submitted as "paper" in Easychair. The
full thesis should be submitted as attachment.

The submission must be accompanied by a plain text electronic abstract of the
thesis or project of at most 400 words, and three keywords.


The nominated student must always be listed as first and corresponding author
in the Easychair form. The supervisor or endorser may optionally be included
as second author (for example, in case (s)he does the electronic submission).


AWARD COMMITTEE
------------------
Ezio Bartocci
Simone Bova
Michael Fink
Robert Ganian	
Igor Konnov	
Tomer Kotek
Roman Kuznets
Magdalena Ortiz (chair)
Revantha Ramanayake
Mantas Simkus
Daniel Weller
Florian Zuleger