Student Best Paper Finalists

Like every year, the Seventh ICC will give out the Best Student Paper Award to recognize excellence in a conference paper contribution whose primary author is a student.

Who is eligible to be nominated?
To be eligible, the primary and first listed author of the paper must be a student at the time of original submission, and the paper must have been accepted for presentation at the Seventh ICC.

What is the last date for submitting nominations?
Nominations can be uploaded between October 3-10, 2021. No nominations will be accepted after October 10, 2021.

What should the nominator check for before submitting a nomination?
A nomination is likely to be unsuccessful if

1. The nominated paper simply applies an existing technique to a known application.
2. The nominated paper make only an incremental contribution over existing results (for example, an easy extension of SISO to MIMO).
3. The nominated paper falls short on basic writing quality (language, typos, precision, clear definitions and statements of results, proper citations to previous results, explanations for figures and tables).
4. The nomination reads more like a “best student” nomination, rather than a “best student paper” nomination.
5. The nomination does not describe the contribution of the student, or of the paper.
6. The nomination form is incomplete (see below), or has been submitted by the student.

What criteria will the final selection of the awardee be based on?
A team of anonymous reviewers will judge the nominated submissions on

1. Originality: Is the paper attempting a new problem, or posing a new question? Is it using a new, original idea to solve an existing problem?
2. Clarity and organization: Is the paper written clearly? Does the introduction explain the problem, its importance, and how it has been approached in the existing literature? Does it clearly state the challenges in solving the problem, and clarify how the present work is able to overcome those challenges? Does the paper explain the contribution clearly, and emphasize why it is significant? Does it explain the structure of the paper, what its different parts are, and how they are related? Is the writing clear enough to enable a clear assessment of its technical correctness?
3. Technical correctness: Are the results correct? Are the proofs, if any, correct? Have previous results been applied correctly? Do the experimental procedures, if any, appear to be correct from the description provided?
4. Potential impact: What is the likely impact of this paper on practical applications, or theoretical foundations of control?

What inputs will the reviewers bases their assessment on?
The reviewers will base their assessment on

1. their own reading of the version of the paper originally submitted,
2. the nomination form submitted by the nominator,
3. reviews of the original submission that were used for the acceptance decision,
4. the presentation video that will be uploaded by the authors nearer to the conference.

What is the procedure to nominate a student paper?
Nominations must be made by the student’s faculty advisor or research guide through the Papercept conference management system.

1. Fill out the nomination form for Best Student Paper Award and save it as a PDF file.
2. Create a PIN for the nominator on the conference management system if the nominator does not already have one. This can be done by following the link for “PIN” at http://controls.papercept.net
3. Submit the nomination form by following the link “Submit a contribution to 7th ICC” against 7th ICC at http://controls.papercept.net and selecting “Award Nomination”. On the next screen, enter the submission number of the paper being nominated, enter the number of proposers as 1, and enter the PIN of the nominator. The form must be uploaded as a PDF document containing no more than two pages.

What information should the nominator provide?
The nominating form must be filled out in full giving the following information:

1. A certification that the nominee is the main author of the paper, was a student at the time of the nomination.
2. A brief description of the contribution of the paper and the main reason why the paper is being nominated for the award.
3. A brief description of the specific contribution made by the student nominee.
4. The nominator’s telephone number and e-mail address.
5. Original submission number assigned by Papercept along with title.
6. Contact information for the student.
7. The university or institute where the nominee was a student at the time of the original submission.

Anything else to keep in mind?

1. The nomination must be filled out and uploaded by the student’s guide or advisor, and not by the student himself.
2. If shortlisted as a finalist, the nominee must register for the conference (with or without support from the student support program), upload a presentation video, attend the conference, and be present at the scheduled time of his/her talk.
3. The presentation video must feature the nominated student author as the sole speaker.