AAAI-13 Special Track on Computational Sustainability and AI

Computational Systainability and AI Special Technical Track Paper Submission Site

Timetable for Authors

December 3, 2012 – January 19, 2013: Authors register on the AAAI web site
January 19, 2013: Electronic abstracts due
January 22, 2013: Electronic papers due
March 11 – March 13, 2013: Author feedback about initial reviews
March 26, 2013: Notification of acceptance or rejection
April 9, 2013: Camera-ready copy due at AAAI office

Computational sustainability is a new interdisciplinary field that aims to apply techniques from computer and information science and related disciplines (for example, operations research, applied mathematics, and statistics) to the balancing of environmental, economic, and societal needs, in order to support sustainable development and a sustainable future. Research in computational sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary: It brings together computational fields and a variety of fields with a long tradition in the study of sustainability problems, such as environmental sciences, biology, economics, and sociology. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, can play a key role in addressing challenges in computational sustainability.

Sustainability domains and areas include the following:

Natural resources and the environment (for example, atmosphere, water, oceans, forest, land, soil, biodiversity, species, and so on.)
Economics and human behavior (for example, human well-being, poverty, infectious diseases, over-population, resource harvesting, and so on.)
Energy resources (for example, renewable energy, smart grid, material discovery for fuel cell technology, and so on.)
Human-built systems and land use (for example, transportation systems, cities, buildings, datacenters, food systems, agriculture, and so on.)
Climate (for example, combining the predictions of climate model ensembles, impact of climate change on land use, data assimilation, and so on.)

This special track invites the submission of research papers on novel concepts, models, algorithms, and systems, in order to address problems in computational sustainability. We are looking for a broad range of papers ranging from formal analysis to applied research. Examples include papers explaining how the research addresses specific computational problems, opportunities, or issues underlying sustainability challenges and papers describing a sustainability challenge or application that can be tackled using AI methods. Papers proposing general challenges and competitions for computational sustainability are also welcome.

All AI topics that address computational sustainability issues are relevant. Examples of AI topics include the following:

Modeling and prediction of dynamic and spatiotemporal phenomena and systems. Examples include bird migration, invasive species diffusion, ocean spatial impacts of climate change, and poverty mapping.
Control and optimization of dynamic and spatiotemporal systems. Examples include constraint reasoning and optimization, MDPs/POMDPs, stochastic programming, model-based reasoning, and optimal control of hybrid dynamical systems for management and control of complex systems ranging from ecosystems and natural resources, to human-built systems such as transportation and energy networks, communities, and cities, to social-economic phenomena.
Network modeling, prediction, and optimization. Examples include transportation networks, power grid, food networks, epidemic networks, and social networks.
Modeling and control of complex high-dimensional systems by combining physics-based models, model-based reasoning, optimization and control methods, and machine learning models built from sensor data. Examples include global and regional climate models, ecosystems models, models of operation of office buildings and data centers.
Modeling the interactions of agents with different and often conflicting interests: multiagent systems, multiagent equilibrium models, game theory, and design of effective mechanisms and policies for the exchange of goods.
Sensor networks for monitoring environments: data collection, analysis, synthesis, and inference in large-scale autonomous sensor networks.
Support for public engagement and decision making by the public; collecting, modeling, and presenting relevant information via usable interfaces; preference elicitation and automated decision making for power purchases (managing the timing of appliance loads to minimize cost while maximizing preferences); crowd-sourcing and citizen science; computer games and intelligent tutoring systems; and models, methods and tools for dissemination and increasing awareness of sustainability practices.

Papers will be reviewed by qualified reviewers that are drawn from a special track committee, in addition to the general program committee. Submissions to this special track that are deemed not relevant to the track may be considered for review for the general technical papers track, at the discretion of the track and conference cochairs.

Data Challenge Papers

The AAAI-13 Special Track on Computational Sustainability is also pleased to invite the submission of papers introducing the AI community to new computational sustainability problems and datasets. These are short papers (up to three pages) describing a challenge problem and a corresponding dataset that is made available to the community. Please indicate that your paper is a Data Challenge paper by selecting this "Paper Type" at the AAAI-13 Computational Sustainability and AI paper submission site. Keyword selection should follow the same model as that for full papers.

Computational Sustainability Awards

AAAI-13 is joining with the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) to promote work at the intersection of computing and sustainability on principles and applications that address environmental, economic, and societal needs in support of a sustainable future. An AAAI-13 awards subcommittee will identify best papers in this area and provide travel awards provided by CCC to authors of the best papers.

Author Registration

Authors must register at the AAAI-13 Computational Sustainability and AI technical paper submission site (available December 3, 2012) before they submit their abstracts and papers. The software will assign a password, which will enable the author to log on to submit an abstract and paper. In order to avoid a rush at the last minute, authors are encouraged to register as soon as possible after December 3, and well in advance of the January 19 abstract deadline.

Registration will close at 11:59 PM PST on January 19, 2013.
Abstract submission will close at 11:59 PM PST on January 19, 2013.
Final paper submission will close at 11:59 PM PST on January 22, 2013.

Abstract and Paper Submission

Papers must be formatted in AAAI two-column, camera-ready style; see the author instructions page for details. Please note that these formatting instructions are for final, accepted papers; no additional pages can be purchased at the review stage. Papers (submitted and final) may be no longer than 7 pages, where page 7 must contain only references, and no other text whatsoever. Papers must be in trouble-free, high-resolution PDF format, formatted for US Letter (8.5" x 11") paper, using Type 1 or TrueType fonts. In addition, the copyright slug may be omitted in the initial submission phase. Please also refer to the instructions on how to prepare your paper for blind review.

Electronic abstract and paper submission through the AAAI-13 Computational Sustainability and AI Track paper submission site is required on or (preferably) before the deadline dates listed above. We cannot accept submissions by email or fax. Authors will receive confirmation of receipt of their abstracts or papers, including an ID number, shortly after submission. AAAI will contact authors again only if problems are encountered with papers. Inquiries regarding paper receipt must be made no later than January 28, 2013.

Blind Review Instructions

Reviewing for the AAAI Conference is blind to the identities of the authors. The first page, on which the paper body begins, should include the title, abstract, content areas, and ID number (if available), but not the acknowledgments and names or affiliations of the authors. The references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, but should not include unpublished works.

When referring to one's own work, use the third person, rather than the first person. For example, say "Previously, Newell (Newell 1996) has shown that...," rather than "In our previous work (Newell 1996) we have shown that...." Try to avoid including any information in the body of the paper or references that would identify the authors or their institutions. Such information may be added to the final camera-ready version for publication.

Policy Concerning Submissions to Other Conferences or Journals

AAAI-13 will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also required not to submit their papers elsewhere during AAAI's review period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and without archival proceedings. Authors will be required to confirm that their submissions conform to these requirements at the time of submission.

Review Process

Program committee members will identify papers they are qualified to review based on the information submitted electronically (the paper's title, keywords, and abstract). Their reviewing will be done blind to the identities of the authors and their institutions. Authors will have a limited opportunity to respond to initial reviews. This author feedback will then be taken into account in the final recommendations and reviews may be changed accordingly. The program committee's reviews will make recommendations to the track cochairs. Although the track cochairs will formally make all final decisions, in practice almost all will be made earlier in the process.

Publication

Accepted papers will be allocated seven (7) pages in the conference proceedings (with page 7 restricted to references); up to two (2) additional pages may be used at a cost to the authors of $275 per page. Final papers found to exceed page limits and or otherwise violating the instructions to authors will not be included in the proceedings. Authors will be required to transfer copyright of their paper to AAAI.

Questions and Suggestions

Concerning author instructions and conference registration, write to aaai13@aaai.org.

Concerning suggestions for the program and other inquiries, write to the special track cochairs.

Special Track Cochairs

Carla Gomes (Cornell University, USA)
Doug Fisher (Vanderbilt University, USA)

A complete listing of conference track organizers, associate chairs, and senior program committee members will be available at the conference website.

AAAI-13 Special Track on Computational Sustainability and AI