<div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><h1 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 6pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">ACII2021 - Call for Doctoral Consortium Participation</span></h1><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Affective Computing aims at the study and development of systems and devices that use emotion, in particular in human-computer and human-robot interaction. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer science, psychology, and cognitive science. At the biennial gathering of the </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Association for the Advancement Of Affective Computing</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">’s (AAAC) </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:italic;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Conferenc</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">e (ACII 2021), the Doctoral Consortium (DC) will serve as a forum for PhD students to share ideas about their research, developments, and applications in the area of affective computing. The goal is to provide PhD students with an opportunity to present their work to a group of mentors and peers from an international community, to receive feedback on their doctoral research plan and progress, and to build a cohort of young researchers interested in affective computing. We invite students from all PhD granting institutions who are in the process of forming or carrying out a plan for their PhD research in the area of affective computing to apply for participation in the ACII 2021 DC.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:18pt 0pt 4pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Who should apply?</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Students from any PhD granting institution whose research falls within the area of affective computing are encouraged to apply. Whereas we encourage applications from students at any stage of doctoral training, the DC will most benefit students who are in the process of forming or developing their doctoral research. These students will have passed their qualifiers or have completed the majority of their coursework, will be planning or developing their dissertation research proposal, and will not be very close to completing their dissertation research.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:18pt 0pt 4pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Submissions guidelines</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">PhD students in an area related to affective computing are invited to submit the following materials:</span></p><ol style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:20pt;list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Extended Abstract (4 pages + 1 page for references): A description of the PhD research plan and progress. The submissions should not be anonymous. In particular, it should cover:</span></p></li><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The key research questions and motivation of the research,</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:9.0234pt 0pt 0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Background and related work that informs the research,</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">A statement of hypotheses or a description of the scope of the technical problem,</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The methodology to achieve the objectives and the proposed solution(s),</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">A description of the work done so far and a tentative plan for future work,</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">A statement of research contributions to date (if any) and expected contributions of the PhD work to affective computing,</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:39pt;list-style-type:circle;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Reference list.</span></p></li></ul><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:20pt;list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:9.3984pt 0pt 0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">CV: A curriculum vitae of the student.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:20pt;list-style-type:decimal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Authorship and Statement from Advisor: Students are expected to be the sole authors on their submission. The application needs to be accompanied by a note from their PhD advisor confirming student status and endorsement of the submission. The note should clearly indicate the student’s progress in the PhD program (e.g., qualifiers passed; pre-proposal stage, and so on). The advisor can simply email the note to the DC chairs (see below for contact information).</span></p></li></ol><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 4pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Submission topics, instructions, and proceedings</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Paper topics should be related to the conference topics, which are given in the general call for papers (see <a href="http://acii-conf.org/2021/" target="_blank">http://acii-conf.org/2021/</a>). The Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium will be published as part of the main Conference Proceedings. Papers should be submitted through the conference submission system.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:18pt 0pt 4pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Review process</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Doctoral Consortium submissions will be evaluated on a number of factors including: (1) the quality of the submission, (2) the expected benefits of the DC towards the student’s PhD research, and (3) the student’s contribution to the diversity of topics, backgrounds, and institutions, in order of importance. More particularly, the quality of the submission will be evaluated based on the potential contributions of the research to the field of affective computing and its impact on the field and beyond. Finally, we hope to achieve a diversity of research topics, disciplinary backgrounds, methodological approaches, and home institutions in the ACII 2021 Doctoral Consortium cohort.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:18pt 0pt 4pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Attendance</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">All authors of accepted submissions are expected to register, attend the virtual conference and present their work at the Doctoral Consortium. They will also have to identify a mentor (from a list provided by the chairs) and schedule a one-to-one online meeting with the mentor during the conference. Information about this process will be provided in due course.</span></p><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:4pt;padding:18pt 0pt 0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Important Dates</span></h2><ul style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:20pt;list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Submission deadline: May 25, 2021</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:20pt;list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Acceptance notifications: June 30, 2021</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="margin-left:20pt;list-style-type:disc;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Camera-ready deadline: July 26, 2021</span></p></li></ul><h2 dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;margin-top:18pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 4pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Doctoral Consortium Contacts</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">For questions and comments, please contact the Doctoral Consortium co-chairs: </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:-webkit-standard;line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,255);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Grace Ngai and Tanaya Guha</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);background-color:transparent;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">.</span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>