[ecoop-info] NASSLLI 2018 - Announcement and call for course proposals

[Will Nalls]

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North American Summer School in Logic, Language and Information
NASSLLI 2018
June 23 - 29 2018
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA
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The eighth North American Summer School for Logic, Language, and
Information (NASSLLI) will be hosted by Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, PA, from June 23 - June 29, 2018. The summer school is aimed at
graduate students and advanced undergraduates in the fields of Linguistics,
Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Logic, Philosophy, and other related
areas. NASSLLI brings these disciplines together with the goal of producing
excellence in the study of how minds and machines represent, communicate,
manipulate and reason with information. The NASSLLI community recognizes
that advances in modeling and analyzing these processes requires the
contributions of multiple inter-related disciplines. NASSLLI provides a
venue where students and researchers from one discipline can learn
approaches, frameworks and tools from related disciplines to apply to their
own work. Courses offered at NASSLLI range from intensive, graduate level
introductory courses to inter-disciplinary workshops featuring prominent
researchers presenting their work in progress.

NASSLLI 2018 will consist of a series of courses and workshops, most
running daily from Monday June 25 - Friday June 29.  In addition, there
will be intensive training in a small set of foundational topics the
weekend prior to the start of courses (Saturday June 23 - Sunday June 24).
Students will have the opportunity to present work at student sessions
throughout the event; the call for student submissions will be circulated
in early 2018.

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CALL FOR COURSE & WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
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We invite proposals for courses and workshops that address topics of
relevance to NASSLLI's central goal. We particularly encourage submissions
which illustrate cross-disciplinary approaches, especially courses showing
the applicability of computational methods to theoretical work, and the use
of theoretical work in practical applications. Courses involving a hands-on
component (e.g. actual experience with NLP tools, coding, or machine
learning algorithms) will be very welcome. We also welcome proposals from
researchers and practitioners working on relevant areas in the technology
industries. NASSLLI welcomes a variety of approaches and methodologies
(logics, cognitive and computational modeling, machine learning,
experimental approaches) as long as the material is relevant to language,
information or communication. All courses should be accessible to a
heterogeneous audience of motivated graduate students. By default, courses
and workshops meet for 90 minutes on each of five days. Classes may be
co-taught by up to two people. (See below for more information on workshop
organization.)

We encourage potential attendees and instructors to check out previous
NASSLLI programs at:


   - Rutgers University, New Brunswick 2016
   <http://nasslli2016.rutgers.edu/>
   - University of Maryland, College Park 2014
   - University of Texas, Austin 2012 <http://www.nasslli2012.com/>
   - Indiana University, 2010 <http://www.indiana.edu/~nasslli/>
   - UCLA 2004
   - Indiana University 2003
   <http://www.indiana.edu/~nasslli/2003/program.html>
   - Stanford University 2002 <http://web.stanford.edu/group/nasslli/>

Courses and workshops should aim to be accessible to an interdisciplinary,
graduate level audience. Courses may bridge multiple areas, or focus on a
single area, in which case instructors should include introductory
background, try to avoid specialized notation that cannot be applied more
widely, and spend some time discussing how the topic is relevant to other
fields.

Workshop schedules are identical to course schedules, but usually consist
of a series of presentations by different researchers; they may also
include panel discussions. A workshop will be more accessible if its
program is bracketed by broader-audience talks that introduce and summarize
the week's presentations. Please note that NASSLLI cannot provide
reimbursement for travel and accommodation for workshop presenters.
Workshop proposals must include information about how the organizers expect
these expenses to be covered.

Course and workshop proposals from women and underrepresented minorities
are particularly encouraged.

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SUBMISSION DETAILS
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Submissions should be submitted using EasyChair
<https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nasslli2018> and should indicate:


   1. Person in charge of the workshop/course and affiliation(s).
   2. Type of event (one week course or workshop).
   3. Course/workshop title.
   4. An outline of the course/workshop up to 500 words.
   5. Special equipment (if any) needed to teach the course.
   6. A statement about the instructor's experience in teaching (including
   in interdisciplinary settings).
   7. Anticipated travel costs.

Workshop proposals *must* include (a) acknowledgement of the organizers'
understanding that NASSLLI will not provide reimbursement for invited
participants and (b) an explanation of how these costs will be covered.

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IMPORTANT DATES
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September 30, 2017:   Course and Workshop Proposals are Due
October 1, 2017:         Review of Course and Workshop Proposals Begins
December 1, 2017:     Decision Notifications are Sent

The final program will be circulated in December 2017.

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FINANCIAL AND PRACTICAL DETAILS
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Course instructors and workshop organizers
All instructors and workshop organizers will receive a reduced rate for
registration. We will aim to reimburse reasonable travel expenses for *at
most two* instructors per course, and *at most two* organizers per
workshop. In addition, we will make available appropriate accommodation for
participating faculty, and will aim to cover the accommodation costs for
instructors/organizers utilizing this accommodation, subject to the
two-person per course/workshop limit. The availability of reimbursement
will depend on available funding, which is still uncertain. We encourage
all instructors/workshop organizers to fund their own travel and
accommodation if this is feasible, since this will allow us to use more of
our funding for students scholarships and for reimbursement for instructors
without funding sources.

Please note that reimbursable travel is restricted to direct travel to and
from Pittsburgh. (Instructors with more complex travel plans must contact
the organizing committee before booking.) Due to federal mandates, we can
only reimburse air travel booked on US-based airlines.

Additional information for workshop organizers
NASSLLI2018 cannot reimburse travel, accommodation or registration expenses
for lecturers/speakers invited by workshop organizers. Registration for
these invitees will be at reduced cost. Workshop proposals should include a
plan to obtain funding for reimbursement of invitees, or should state that
all invitees will fund their own travel and accommodation.

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CONTACT INFORMATION
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For questions relating to proposals and proposal submission, please email*
nasslli2018 at easychair.org <nasslli2018 at easychair.org>*. For questions
relating to local organization, please email *nasslli2018 at gmail.com
<nasslli2018 at gmail.com>*. More information to come on our website
*nasslli2018.com
<http://nasslli2018.com>*.


*Please circulate this email to students and faculty in your department!*