Thirteenth Annual AAAI/SIGART Doctoral Consortium

Guidelines for Mentors

Students will have 25 minutes to present their research, followed by 20 minutes of discussion. You are encouraged to review the student presentation guidelines.

Mentors should think of themselves as moderators for the discussion of that student's presentation/work. The goals are to:

  1. Control the direction of the conversation toward constructive criticism.
  2. Provide the students with feedback about the direction of their research
  3. Suggest related work they may not have encountered
  4. Let them know of potential methodological flaws in their evaluation plans
  5. Give them ideas about how to resolve open problems
  6. Provide brief feedback on their presentation (content and delivery)
Other than opening comments, the role of the moderator can take a backseat to an enthusiastic crowd. If this is the case, please feel free to email and/or meet with your student at a later time. NSF has provided funding for mentor/student lunches if you are interested.

Our goal is to establish a friendly, supportive environment for the discussions, with a focus on constructive input that focuses on ways that the student's dissertation work can be strengthened.