[DMANET] Fwd: VCLA International Student Awards

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
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