Call for Nominations is Open – Amsterdam AI Thesis Awards

Amsterdam AI is seeking nominations for the Amsterdam AI Thesis Award 2023 for the academic year 2022-2023. Winners of the awards will receive a cash prize as well as present their thesis work at the Amsterdam AI Highlights Event in November 2023.

Check out a Summary of 2022, 2021 and 2020 winners and their thesis work. 

We take a broad view of applicable research, including, but not limited to:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Data sciences
• Data and AI/ML workflow management
• Computer systems and infrastructure support for AI/ML 
• 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 Amsterdam AI Partners.

 

The goals of the Amsterdam AI 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 AI and Data Science;
4. Advance Amsterdam and the Amsterdam AI ecosystem as an innovation hub by showcasing excellent theses.

Classes of the Award

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

Highlights from the 2022 event: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amsterdam-data-science_at-last-weeks-highlights-event-we-congratulated-activity-7009500371546955776-z33C/ 

Evaluation Criteria

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

1. [50%] Innovative scientific and technical contributions;
2. [25%] High societal and/or economical impact from the findings and results of the thesis;
3. [25%] Promotion of responsible and 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 who will have broader expertise. 

Eligibility and the Selection Process

Eligibility criteria for the 2023 awards are: 

1. The thesis work must have been supervised and supported by a faculty member of one of the Amsterdam AI 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 14th, 2022 and September 14th, 2023.
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.

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/1-p1LDhhFu1Btbpawa4s8qqmLZyRtvUFMQODlK6cNKXY/edit?usp=sharing 

The thesis with the nomination letter can be combined as a single PDF and can be submitted at: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=2023-ams-ai-awards   

Guidelines for the submission

• The supervisor of the thesis should upload these two documents (letter +thesis) as a single PDF in the submission portal.
• The student and the supervisor should enter their details as the authors of the nomination. 
• In the keywords section, please provide appropriate technical keywords to help aid the reviewers in the bidding process. 

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).

Selection Committee

• [co-chair] TBA
  [co-chair] TBA
  Selection committee members – TBA