Award Opportunities

• SIGMM Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications
• SIGMM Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions to Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications
• ACM TOMCCAP Nicolas D. Georganas Best Paper Award

SIGMM Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications

More info: http://sigmm.org/Awards/thesisaward

Award Description

This award will be presented at most once per year to a researcher whose PhD thesis has the potential of very high impact in multimedia computing, communication and applications, or gives direct evidence of such impact. A selection committee will evaluate contributions towards advances in multimedia including multimedia processing, multimedia systems, multimedia network protocols and services, multimedia applications and interfaces. The award will recognize members of the SIGMM community and their research contributions in their PhD theses as well as the potential of impact of their PhD theses in multimedia area. The selection committee will focus on candidates' contributions as judged by innovative ideas and potential impact resulting from their PhD work.

The award includes a US$500 honorarium, an award certificate of recognition, and an invitation for the recipient to receive the award at a current year's SIGMM-sponsored conference, the ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM Multimedia). A public citation for the award will be placed on the SIGMM website, in the SIGMM Records e-newsletter as well as in the ACM e-newsletter.

Funding

The award honorarium, the award plaque of recognition and travel expenses to the ACM International Conference on Multimedia will be fully sponsored by the SIGMM budget.

Nomination Applications

Nominations will be solicited by the 1st May 2012 with an award decision to be made by August 30. This timing will allow a recipient to prepare for an award presentation at ACM Multimedia in that Fall (October/November).

The initial nomination for a PhD thesis must relate to a dissertation deposited at the nominee's Academic Institution between January and December of the year previous to the nomination. As discussed below, some dissertations may be held for up to three years by the selection committee for reconsideration. If the original thesis is not in English, a full English translation must be provided with the submission. Nominations for the award must include:

• PhD thesis (upload here)
• A statement summarizing the candidate's PhD thesis contributions and potential impact, and justification of the nomination (two pages maximum);
• Curriculum Vitae of the nominee
• Three endorsement letters supporting the nomination including the significant PhD thesis contributions of the candidate. Each endorsement should be no longer than 500 words with clear specification of nominee PhD thesis contributions and potential impact on the multimedia field.
• A concise statement (one sentence) of the PhD thesis contribution for which the award is being given. This statement will appear on the award certificate and on the website.

The nomination rules are:

• The nominee can be any member of the scientific community.
• The nominator must be a SIGMM member.
• No self-nomination is allowed.

If a particular thesis is considered to be of exceptional merit but not selected for the award in a given year, the selection committee (at its sole discretion) may elect to retain the submission for consideration in at most two following years. The candidate will be invited to resubmit his/her work in these years.

A thesis is considered to be outstanding if:

• Theoretical contributions are significant and application to multimedia is demonstrated.
• Applications to multimedia is outstanding, techniques are backed by solid theory with clear demonstration that algorithms can be applied in new domains - e.g., algorithms must be demonstrably scalable in application in terms of robustness, convergence and complexity.

The submission process of nominations will be preceded by the call for nominations. The call of nominations will be widely publicized by the SIGMM awards committee and by the SIGMM Executive Board at the different SIGMM venues, such as during the SIGMM premier ACM Multimedia conference (at the SIGMM Business Meeting) on the SIGMM web site, via SIGMM mailing list, and via SIGMM e-newsletter between September and December of the previous year.

Submission Process

• Register an account at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/SIGMM2012/ and upload one copy of the nominated PhD thesis. The nominee will receive a Paper ID after the submission.
• The nominator must then collate other materials detailed in the previous section and upload them as supplementary materials, except the endorsement letters, which must be emailed separately as detailed below.
• Contact your referees and ask them to send all endorsement letters to sigmmaward@gmail.com with the title: "PhD Thesis Award Endorsement Letter for [YourName]". The web administrator will acknowledge the receipt and the submission CMT website will reflect the status of uploaded documents and endorsement letters.

It is the responsibility of the nominator to follow the process and make sure documentation is complete. Thesis with incomplete documentation will be considered invalid.

Selection Committee

For the period 2010-2012, the award selection committee consists of:

• Professor Svetha Venkatesh (svetha.venkatesh@deakin.edu.au) - Chair (Deakin University, Australia)
• Professor Dick Bulterman (Dick.Bulterman@cwi.nl) (CWI, The Netherlands)
• Professor Abed El Saddik (abed@mcrlab.uottawa.ca) University of Ottawa, Canada

SIGMM Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions to Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications

More info: mailto:lienhart@informatik.uni-augsburg.de

2012 Call for Nominations of Multimedia Researchers for the SIGMM Award for Outstanding Technical Contributions to Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications

Deadline for Nominations: May 31, 2012

Submit Nomination Material to Awards Committee Chair: Rainer Lienhart (lienhart@informatik.uni-augsburg.de)

AWARD DESCRIPTION

This award is presented every year to a researcher who has made significant and lasting contributions to multimedia computing, communication and applications. Outstanding technical contributions through research and practice are recognized. Towards this goal, contributions are considered from academia and industry that focus on major advances in multimedia including multimedia processing, multimedia content analysis, multimedia systems, multimedia network protocols and services, and multimedia applications and interfaces. The award recognizes members of the community for long-term technical accomplishments or those who have made a notable impact through a significant technical innovation. The selection committee focuses on candidates' contributions as judged by innovative ideas, influence in the community, and/or the technical/social impact resulting from their work. The award includes a $1000 honorarium, an award certificate of recognition, and an invitation for the recipient to present a keynote talk at a current year's SIGMM-sponsored conference, the ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM Multimedia). A public citation for the award will be placed on the SIGMM website.

FUNDING

The award honorarium, the award certificate of recognition and travel expenses to the ACM International Conference on Multimedia is fully sponsored by the SIGMM budget.

NOMINATION PROCESS

Nominations are solicited by May 31, 2012 with decision made by July 30 2012, in time to allow the above recognition and award presentation at ACM Multimedia 2012. Nominations for the award must include:

1. A statement summarizing the candidate's accomplishments, description of the significance of the work, and justification of the nomination (two pages maximum);
2. Curriculum Vitae of the nominee;
3. Three endorsement letters supporting the nomination including the significant contributions of the candidate. Each endorsement should be no longer than 500 words with clear specification of nominee contributions and impact on the multimedia field;
4. A concise statement (one sentence) of the achievement(s) for which the award is being given. This statement will appear on the award certificate and on the website.

The nomination rules are:

1. The nominee can be any member of the scientific community.
2. The nominator must be a SIGMM member.
3. No self-nomination is allowed.
4. Nominations that do not result in an award can be resubmitted.
5. The SIGMM elected officers as well as members of the Awards Selection Committee are not eligible.

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS

• 2011: Shi-Fu Chang
  for pioneering research and inspiring contributions in multimedia analysis and retrieval"
• 2010: Ramesh Jain
  "for pioneering research and inspiring leadership that transformed multimedia information processing to enhance the quality of life and visionary leadership of the multimedia community"
• 2009: Lawrence A. Rowe
  "for pioneering research in continuous media software systems and visionary leadership of the multimedia research community"
• 2008: Ralf Steinmetz
  "for pioneering work in multimedia communications and the fundamentals of multimedia synchronization"

Call for Nominations: ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications Nicolas D. Georganas Best Paper Award

More info: http://tomccap.acm.org/

The Editor in Chief of ACM TOMCCAP invites you to nominate candidates for the ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications Nicolas D. Georganas Best Paper.

The award is given annually to the author(s) of an outstanding paper published in ACM TOMCCAP within the previous legal year from January 1 until December 31. The award carries a plaque as well as travel funds to the ACM MM conference where the awardee(s) will be honored. Nominations for the award must include the following:

• A statement describing the technical contributions of the nominated paper and a description of the significance of the paper. The statement should not exceed 500 words. No self-nomination is accepted.
• Two additional supporting statements by recognized experts in the field regarding the technical contribution of the paper and its significance to the respective field.

Nominations will be reviewed by the Selection Committee and the winning paper will finally be voted by the TOMCCAP Editorial Board.

Deadline for nominations of papers published in 2011 (Volume 7) is the 15th of June 2012. Only papers published in regular issues (no Special Issues) can be nominated.