[agents] [ICAPS 2016] Call for Workshop and Tutorial proposals

[Eva Onaindia]

Apologies if you receive multiple copies. Please distribute this call to 
interested parties.

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ICAPS 2016 - Call for Proposals -- Workshop and Tutorial Program --

London, UK, June 12-17, 2016


The Organizing Committee for the 26th International Conference on
Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 2016) invites proposals for
its workshop and tutorial programs. The workshops are intended to
provide a forum to discuss research advances on a selected topic in an
informal setting and to promote dissemination and collaboration on new
P&S challenges.

Proposals in all areas related to AI planning and scheduling are
welcome. This year, ICAPS is looking forward to expanding its
traditional workshop offerings to new topics, and thus we strongly
encourage proposals of new workshops. For example, we encourage
workshops and tutorials that promote building bridges to other
research communities working with similar technologies (e.g.
verification, diagnosis, operations research) or on related
application problems (e.g. robotics or security).

Tutorials offer the attendees first-hand experience with
state-of-the-art trends in research and applications by leading
experts. The workshop and tutorial programs will comprise several
concurrent events held in the two days before the plenary sessions of
the conference. Registration is free for ICAPS participants.

ICAPS aims for integration of the workshop and tutorial programs. We
therefore particularly (but not exclusively) welcome workshops
including an integrated related tutorial. We encourage the ICAPS
community to consider how to creatively use this opportunity. Two
possibilities are:

- Workshops beginning with an introductory tutorial to serve as a
   bridge to those who may be less familiar with the topic(s) covered
   in the workshop.

- A more specialized tutorial that might not normally be part of the
   ICAPS program but suitable for the more specialized audience of the
   workshop.

We envisage that a full-day workshop might contain a quarter-day
tutorial. Note that there is also a later deadline for submission of
proposals for tutorials that are not linked to workshops.

The preferred length for a workshop is one full day, but half-day (or
more than one-day) workshops may be accepted if justified. The format
of the workshop is open, and may include oral presentations, talks by
invited speakers, a poster session, a demo session, and others
activities. Workshop chairs are encouraged to take initiatives that
foster interaction and debate within the community.

To minimize the workload on tutorial speakers and encourage more
submissions we particularly solicit proposals for short high-quality
tutorials of quarter-day duration (approx. 90 minutes) or half-day
tutorials. For half-day tutorials, we encourage the proposers to
divide them into loosely coupled quarter-day tutorials such that one
is not the prerequisite of the other.


== Workshop Proposals ==

Workshop proposals should be no more than 3 pages (plus tutorial
details if applicable) and should provide:

- A description of the workshop topic.

- A brief discussion of why the topic is of interest to ICAPS at this
   time, and why the topic is not adequately addressed by other
   meetings or conferences.

- A description of the tutorial to be attached to the workshop, if
   relevant, including details of the speaker. See information below on
   tutorial proposals for what to include.

- A brief description of the proposed workshop length (if other than
   one day) and format. Innovative formats that aim to increase
   opportunities for discussion and interaction are encouraged.

- Names and full contact information for the organizing committee,
   plus short descriptions of their relevant expertise. Strong
   proposals include organisers who bring differing perspectives to the
   workshop topic and who are actively connected to the communities of
   potential participants.

- An estimate of the expected number of workshop speakers (including
   invited, presenters, panelists, etc.) and the expected number of
   workshop attendees. Optionally, a list of proposed attendees that
   have indicated potential (non-binding) interest.

The organizers of accepted workshop proposals are responsible for:

* Producing a Call for Participation (CfP) and contributing materials
   for setting up a web page for the workshop by December 18, 2015.
   The web page and the CfP will be linked to the ICAPS 2016 Web site.

* Additional publicity, such as distributing the CFP to relevant
   newsgroups and electronic mailing lists (through liaison with the
   ICAPS 2016 publicity chairs) and especially to potential audiences
   outside the ICAPS community.

* Organizing the review process for submissions and issuing
   invitations to participate in the workshop.

* Formulating the detailed technical program for the workshop and
   making it available to be uploaded on the ICAPS 2016 web site well
   in advance of the conference. A list of accepted papers for the
   workshop should be ready to be placed on the web site by April 20,
   2016.

* Assembling a camera-ready copy for the workshop proceedings in close
   interaction with the workshop program chairs. The workshop
   proceedings will be made available on the ICAPS 2016 web site.


== Tutorial Proposals ==

Tutorial proposals should include the title, summary, outline, and
expected length (quarter or half-day) of the tutorial, as well as a
short CV of the proposer(s), including a list of significant
publications.


== Submission Procedure ==

Workshop proposals should be submitted by email, in plain text or in
PDF, to both the Workshop Chairs with subject "Workshop Proposal for
ICAPS-16" no later than November 23, 2015. For workshops including a
tutorial please also copy in the Tutorial Chairs. Workshop organizers
will be notified by email of the acceptance or rejection of their
proposal by December 7, 2015.

Tutorial proposals not linked to workshops should be submitted by
email, in plain text or in PDF, to both the Tutorial Chairs with
subject "Tutorial Proposal for ICAPS-16" no later than February 1,
2016. Organizers of independent tutorials will be notified by email of
the acceptance or rejection of their proposal by February 19, 2016.


== Summary of Important Dates ==

* Deadline for submission of workshop proposals: November 27, 2015.
* Notification of workshop acceptance (including acceptance of
   integrated tutorials): December 7, 2015.
* Workshop Call for Papers and material for the web site:
   December 18, 2015.
* Deadline for submission of tutorial proposals (for non-workshop
   tutorials): February 1, 2016.
* Notification of (non-workshop) tutorial acceptance:
   February 19, 2016.
* Workshop/Tutorial dates: June 13 and 14, 2016.


== Workshop Program Chairs ==

* Ariel Felner (Ben Gurion University, Israel)
   felner at bgu.ac.il

* Jorge Baier (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile)
   jabaier at gmail.com


== Tutorial Program Chairs ==

* Dan Bryce (SIFT, USA)
   dbryce at sift.net

* Malte Helmert (University of Basel, Switzerland)
   malte.helmert at unibas.ch

-- 

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Eva Onaindia
Dept. Sistemas Informáticos y Computación
Universitat Politècnica de València
Camino de Vera s/n
46022 Valencia, Spain

Telef. 34-963877755
Fax: 34-963877359
email: onaindia at dsic.upv.es
http://users.dsic.upv.es/grupos/grps/

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