Nominations are invited for the 2011 Artificial Intelligence Dissertation Award sponsored by ECCAI, the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence. Please take a moment to nominate your students, or to recommend to your colleagues to nominate their students.

This Award includes a certificate signed by the ECCAI Chair and 1.500 Euros (which includes the travel grant for the Award ceremony). Nominations are due to Toby.Walsh@nicta.com.au by March 1st, 2012.

Eligible doctoral dissertations are those defended after December 1, 2010 in the general area of Artificial Intelligence. The dissertation must have been defended at a European university and the author must be a personal member of an ECCAI member society. In case a thesis is nominated for another national or international award before or during its review for the ECCAI dissertation award, the author is requested to inform the ECCAI dissertation award committee about this fact.

To be considered, a dissertation must be nominated by the thesis supervisor, who must submit the following items:

• a link to the final version of the thesis (preferred) or 5 hard copies,
• a link to an extended abstract of 3 to 5 pages (preferred) or 5 hard copies in English,
• if the thesis was not written in English the nomination must include an English paper describing the core ideas of the thesis that has been submitted for publication in an international journal or a prestigious conference. The nominee must be the lead author of this paper.
• nomination letters from two referees selected by the dissertation supervisor, supporting the submission and stating their assessment of why the thesis should win the award.

The selection will be based on the originality, impact, and written quality of the work. Work that has been submitted to and/or accepted at workshops, conferences, or journals will be considered more favourably. Work that is primarily attributed to the student's own initiative will also be considered more favourably. Finally, the quality of the written document will be considered.

The deadline for receipt of submissions is March 1st, 2012.

The Award will be presented during ECAI 2012 in Montpellier.