[alife] AAAI Video Competition 2012 - Call For Videos

[Rehan O'Grady]

Dear Colleague,

AAAI is pleased to announce the continuation of the AI Video Competition,
now entering its sixth year. The video competition will be held in
conjunction with the AAAI-12 conference in Toronto Canada, July 22-26 2012.
At the award ceremony, authors of award-winning videos will be presented
with "Shakeys", Oscar-like trophies named in honour of SRI's Shakey robot
and its pioneering video. Award winning videos will be screened at this
ceremony.

The goal of the competition is to show the world how much fun AI is by
documenting exciting artificial intelligence advances in research,
education, and application. View previous entries and award winners at
http://www.aaaivideos.org/past_competitions. Last year's winning entry has
been viewed 315,000 times!

The rules are simple: Compose a short video about an exciting AI project,
and narrate it so that it is accessible to a broad online audience. We
strongly encourage student participation.


VIDEO FORMAT and CONTENT

Either 1 minute (max) short video or a 5 minute (max) long video, with
English narration (or English subtitles). Consider combining screen shots,
interviews, and video of a system in action. Make the video self-contained,
so that newcomers to AI can understand and learn from it. We encourage a
good sense of humor, but will only accept submissions with serious AI
content. For example, we welcome submissions of videos that:

 * Highlight a research topic - contemporary or historic, your own or from
another group
 * Introduce viewers to an exciting new AI-related technology
 * Provide a window into the research activities of a laboratory or senior
researcher
 * Attract prospective students to the field of AI
 * Explain AI concepts - your video could be used in the classroom

Please note that this list is not exhaustive. Novel ideas for AI-based
videos, including those not necessarily based on a "system in action", are
encouraged.  No matter what your choice, creativity is encouraged! (Please
note: The authors of previous, award-winning AI Videos typically used
humor, background music, and carefully selected movie clips to make their
presentations come alive.)


SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Submit your video by making it available for download on a (preferably
password-protected) ftp or web site. Once you have done so, please fill out
the submission form (
http://www.aaaivideos.org/aaaistatic/submission/aaai_video_comp_2012_submission_form.txt)
and send it to Rehan O'Grady by email (rogrady at ulb.ac.be). All submissions
are due no later than May 31, 2012. All authors of accepted videos will be
asked to sign a distribution license form.


Review and Award Process:

Submitted videos will be peer-reviewed by members of the programme
committee according to the criteria below. Videos that receive positive
reviews will be accepted for publication in the AAAI Video Competition
proceedings, published on the dedicated website (http://www.aaaivideos.org).
The best videos will be nominated for awards. Winners will be revealed at
the award ceremony during AAAI-12.


Review criteria:

  1. Relevance to AI (research or application)
  2. Excitement generated by the technology presented
  3. Educational content
  4. Entertainment value
  5. Presentation (cinematography, narration, soundtrack, production values)


Award Categories:

Best Video, Best Short Video, Best Student Video, Most Jaw-Dropping
Technology,
Most Educational, Most Entertaining and Best Presentation.
(Categories may be changed at the discretion of the chairs.)


Awards:

Oscar-like trophies ("Shakeys").


KEY DATES:

  * Submission Deadline: May 31, 2012
  * Reviewing Decision Notifications & Award Nominations: June 15, 2012
  * Final Version Due: June 22, 2012
  * Screening and Award Presentations: TBD


We look forward to your participation in this exciting event!

Best regards,

Marco Dorigo, Mauro Birattari and Rehan O'Grady
Co-Chairs, AAAI Video Competition 2012