This award supports the participation (travel, lodging, registration) of doctoral students from U.S. universities in the Doctoral Consortium of the 21st International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS-11) to be held in Freiburg, Germany, June 11-16, 2011. The Doctoral Consortium will be comprised of two parts: (1) a one-day session the day before the conference begins that will include invited talks on research skills and career development, student presentations, and mentor-led focus groups; and (2) a poster session to be held during the conference. This award will support the participation of approximately 9 US-based students. Participants will be selected through an application process that includes review of submitted materials including an extended dissertation abstract and CV, an assessment of the benefit of participation to the applicant, and the stage of the participant's doctoral research.
This funding was used to support 9 students in the US graduate schools to attend the doctoral consortium at the 21st International Conference on Planning and Scheduling, held at Freiburg, Germany, during June 11-16, 2011. The grant covered the participant's travel and partial lodging costs. The participants were selected by an open call soliciting applications for participation. The applications, including 2-page research abstracts, and letters from the students' research advisors were carefully evaluated by the doctoral consortium committee to select the invitees. The chosen participants were asked to submit camera-ready research abstracts, as well as prepare a poster for presenting their work at the doctoral consortium. The participants heard a talk about the industrial applications of automated planning technology, given by Prof. Jana Koehler. They also met in small groups with senior researchers to present their thesis research and get feedback. Each group had 4-5 students and 2 senior researchers.Each student would present their research findings and the remaining students as well as the mentors will discuss/comment on them. Additionally, the participants also actively participated in the conference by presenting a poster on their research. A survey of the participants at the end of the conference revealed that all the participants felt that they benefited from the participation in the doctoral consortium.
