Amsterdam Data Science (ADS) is seeking nominations for the ADS Thesis Award 2022 for the academic year 2021-2022. Winners of the awards will receive a cash prize as well as present their thesis work at the ADS Highlights Event on the 8th of December 2022.

Read the Summary of 2021 and 2020 winners and their thesis work. 

Call for Nominations is Open

We are looking for thesis nominations that present exciting and innovative work in the area of Data Science and/or AI research. We take a broad view of applicable research, including, but not limited to:

• computer systems
• artificial intelligence
• data management
• life sciences
• social sciences
• digital humanities
• business intelligence and processes

We specifically encourage nominations for thesis work by women and underrepresented minorities. The work will be evaluated by members of the selection committee who will be affiliated with the ADS Gold Partners.

Submit your nomination now at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=2022adsthesisawards (the submission portal is now open!)  Deadline: 23rd of September 2022.

The goals of the ADS Thesis Award are to:

1. Reward and champion high-quality thesis work;
2. Promote women and underrepresented minorities and encourage them to continue their education;
3. Encourage diversity in Data Science and AI research;
4. Advance Amsterdam and the ADS network as an innovation hub by showcasing excellent theses.

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline: 23rd of September 2022
• Award Decision: November 14th (Monday), 2022 (a minimum of 3 weeks before the ADS Highlights Event in December)
• Award Ceremony: ADS Highlights Event, December 2022

Classes of the Award

The awards for the best theses are given in the two categories, BSc and MSc. Both categories have two awards each (a total of four awards), where at least one of the winners (out of the two) in both BSc and MSc categories must be a woman or someone from an underrepresented minority. Each award is accompanied by a cash prize and a certificate given at the annual ADS Highlight event (held in December). The winners will have the opportunity to present their thesis work at the ADS Highlight event.

Evaluation Criteria

All thesis submissions will be judged on how they advance Data Science and/or AI through:

1. Innovative scientific and technical contributions;
2. High societal and/or economical impact from the findings and results of the thesis;
3. Promotion of open science via FAIR data principles, and the availability of high-quality open-source code, results, traces, frameworks, etc.

Please see the nomination letter template for how to provide such information in the most accessible manner for the selection committee to access. 

Eligibility and the Selection Process

Eligibility criteria are: 

1. The thesis work must have been supervised and supported by a faculty member of one of the ADS university partners (AUAS (HvA), UvA, or VU).
2. The thesis must have been completed in the preceding 12 months before the submission deadline. Hence, for this award cycle, it must have been completed between September 17th, 2021 and September 16th, 2022.
3. Must have a grade 8.0 or above. 

Who can nominate and how
The thesis supervisor will directly nominate the thesis with an accompanying letter articulating its merits. Each supervisor is only allowed to submit one BSc and one MSc thesis nomination for the award.

Tip: Please be in contact with the student, if you submit their thesis. In case they are awarded the ADS Thesis prize, they are expected to prepare a short presentation and join the award ceremony at the ADS Highlight Event in December 2022. 

We specifically encourage nominations for thesis work by women and underrepresented minorities. We take a broad and diverse view which includes (but not limited to) race, gender, different abilities, socioeconomic, cultural, and immigration backgrounds.

Should your nominated candidate fall within these groups please provide a paragraph within your nomination letter stating as such. Please see the nomination letter template for the required details. 

The required documents for a valid nomination are:

1. The final thesis (PDF), which shows:
   • name of the student and the supervisor
   • the official date of completion or defense
2. Nomination letter (PDF, a template provided see below), mentioning:
   • the grade of the thesis
   • the percentile in the course (if available) 
   • how the thesis meets the evaluation criteria (see above for criteria)
   • if your candidate falls within an underrepresented group

The template for nomination letter is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EuovMMU7Tppu_PaNipdlHFaO-lXyBgvrl90TvuOqP5s/edit?usp=sharing 

The thesis with the nomination letter can be combined as a single PDF and can be submitted at EasyChair (submission site is open): https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=2022adsthesisawards   

Guidelines for the EasyChair submission portal

• The supervisor of the thesis should upload these two documents as a single PDF in the submission portal.
• The student and the supervisor should enter their details as the authors of the nomination (Easy Chair asks about the author information). 
• In the keywords section, please mention if it is a BSc or MSc thesis, with appropriate technical keywords. 

The selection committee will follow a conference paper-style reviewing process to evaluate the submitted thesis nominations. Each submission will be evaluated and scored by a subset of the members of the selection committee. Our committee members come with a diverse expertise and background, see https://amsterdamdatascience.nl/researcher/. The selection committee will inform the steering committee and the ADS management of the award winners three weeks before the ADS Highlight event.

If the selection committee lacks expertise in a specific area, they will ask additional external expert members to evaluate the nominations.

Privacy and Confidentiality Note
All thesis nominations and details provided in the ADS Thesis Award selection process are kept confidential. For example, personal information about the students (in case of underrepresented groups) is strictly accessible by the selection committee members for the purpose of the award selection only. In case you have further concerns or questions regarding how the information is shared and used, feel free to contact the chair of the steering committee. 

If you have any questions or remarks then please contact the chair of the Steering committee, Animesh Trivedi (a.trivedi@vu.nl).

Steering Committee

• Paola Grosso (IvI, UvA)
• Evangelos Kanoulas (IvI, UvA)
• Animesh Trivedi (CS, VU) – Chair
• Saskia Robben (HvA) 

Selection Committee

• [Chair] Dr. Charlotte Gerritsen, Social AI group, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• [Chair] Dr. Ana M. Oprescu (she/her) Assistant Professor Informatics Institute Universiteit van Amsterdam
• The rest of the selection committee – TBC