Recommender Systems 2008 Doctoral Symposium

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@ifit.uni-klu.ac.at

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 three 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@ifit.uni-klu.ac.at 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 Doctorial 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.

Doctorial Symposium Checklist

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

1. Create your submission materials:
   1. Write an extended abstract according to the ACM SIG Proceedings Format. The abstract must print to no more than 4 pages.
   2. Write a curriculum vitae
   3. Write a one-paragraph statement of expected benefits of participation
   4. 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@ifit.uni-klu.ac.at. The letter of recommendation must be directly by your advisor, also to recsys-doctoral@ifit.uni-klu.ac.at. 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