Supporting Students Attending the User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization 2012 Conference

适应可用用户信息（如特殊需要或个人偏好）的用户界面变得越来越重要，以至于适应性已经成为软件产品的卖点。具有构建和咨询用户模型（特定用户或用户组属性的显式表示）能力的系统可以适应其性能的不同方面，并在各种情况下增强其有效性、可用性和/或可接受性（例如，减少信息过载，提高信息检索、过滤和注释的质量，并生成有用的信息可视化）。用户建模的应用程序范围从电子商务和智能学习环境到医疗保健和辅助技术。用户建模的相关平台包括移动和可穿戴系统和智能环境，以及个人桌面系统、群件、自适应超媒体和其他基于web的系统。一年一度的用户建模、适应和个性化国际会议（UMAP）提供了一个重要的论坛，来自所有这些领域的学术和工业研究人员可以在这个论坛上交流他们对用户建模问题的互补见解。UMAP是长期成功的用户建模国际会议（UM, 1986-2007）和最近重要的自适应超媒体和自适应基于web的系统会议（AH, 2000-2008）的合并。这笔资金将支持大约10名研究生前往加拿大蒙特利尔，在UMAP系列第20届活动的博士联盟上展示他们被接受的论文和海报，以及/或展示他们的研究计划。有关会议的更多信息，请访问http://umap2012.polymtl.ca/en。UMAP-12将包括一个博士联盟会议，从而延续UMAP-09以及之前在UM和AH会议上建立的传统。生动而有益的讨论使学生们能够获得有关他们正在进行的研究的建议，并使更有经验的参与者听到一些新鲜的想法，并看到该领域的一些新趋势。被选为博士联盟演讲的学生将被邀请撰写一篇论文，发表在UMAP-12会议论文集上。他们将有15分钟的时间来展示他们的作品（如果合适的话，可能包括一个简短的演示），然后是额外的15分钟的提问和讨论。在提问/讨论期间和随后的非正式互动中，组委会成员和其他参与者将对每个学生的工作提供建设性的意见，并尝试解决学生要求建议的方面。更广泛的影响：参加UMAP（该领域的顶级会议）并展示他们的工作，将对未来一代用户建模、适应和个性化研究人员的职业生涯产生重大影响。参加博士联盟的学生也将在几个方面受益于这种经历。首先，他们将有机会向知识渊博的听众展示他们的工作，并在研究的早期阶段获得有用的评论，因为这是最有用的。同样重要的是，他们将有机会见到从事类似工作的知名研究人员和其他研究生，交换意见，并建立对他们在科学事业上取得进步的宝贵联系。通过提供新的观点和新的想法，与年轻的研究人员互动对更有经验的研究人员也很有用。因此，博士联盟对参与的学生来说是一个很好的信心建设者，对参与的研究人员来说是一个很大的激励。组织者重申了UMAP长期以来对多样性的承诺。为此目的，它们将作出特别努力，从接受财政支助的候选人中征聘妇女和代表性不足的群体的成员，它们将确保机构的多样性，从任何一个机构中支助不超过一名学生。

User interfaces that adapt themselves to available user information (such as special needs or individual preferences) are becoming increasingly important, so much so that adaptability has become a selling point for software products. A system with the ability to construct and consult a user model (an explicit representation of properties of a particular user or group of users) can adapt diverse aspects of its performance and enhance its effectiveness, usability and/or acceptance in a variety of situations (e.g., to reduce information overload, to improve the quality of information retrieval, filtering and annotation, and to generate useful information visualizations). Applications for user modeling range from electronic commerce and intelligent learning environments to health care and assistive technologies. Relevant platforms for user modeling include mobile and wearable systems and smart environments, as well as individual desktop systems, groupware, adaptive hypermedia, and other web-based systems. The annual International Conferences on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP) provide the premier forum in which academic and industrial researchers from all of these fields can exchange their complementary insights on user modeling issues. UMAP is a merger of the long-running and successful International Conferences on User Modeling (UM, 1986-2007), and the more recent important series of Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-Based Systems Conferences (AH, 2000-2008). This is funding to support travel by approximately 10 graduate students to present their accepted papers and posters and/or to present their research plans at the Doctoral Consortium associated with the 20th event in the UMAP series, to be held July 16-20, 2012, in Montreal, Canada. More information about the conference is available at http://umap2012.polymtl.ca/en. UMAP-12 will include a Doctoral Consortium session, thereby continuing a tradition established at UMAP-09 and before that at both the UM and AH conferences. Lively and useful discussions have enabled students to receive suggestions about their ongoing research and allowed more experienced participants to hear some fresh ideas and view some of the new trends in the field. Students whose work has been selected for presentation at the Doctoral Consortium will be invited to write a paper that will be published in the UMAP-12 conference proceedings. They will have 15 minutes to present their work (which may include a short demonstration if appropriate), to be followed by an additional 15 minutes for questions and discussion. During both the question/discussion period and in subsequent informal interactions, organizing committee members and other participants will provide constructive comments on each student's work and attempt to address aspects on which the student has requested advice. Broader Impacts: Attending and presenting their work at UMAP, the top conference in its field, will have a significant impact on the careers of the future generation of user modeling, adaptation, and personalization researchers. Students who participate in the Doctoral Consortium will also benefit from that experience in several ways. First, they will have the opportunity to present their work to a knowledgeable audience and get useful comments at an early stage of their research when it will be most useful. Just as importantly, they will have an opportunity to meet established researchers and other graduate students doing similar work, to exchange ideas, and to make contacts that will be invaluable to them as they progress in their scientific careers. Interacting with the young researchers is also useful to more experienced investigators, by providing new perspectives and fresh ideas. Thus, the Doctoral Consortium is a great confidence builder for the students involved, and highly stimulating to the established researchers who participate. The organizers have reaffirmed the long-standing and demonstrated UMAP commitment to diversity. To this end, they will make special efforts to recruit women and members of under-represented groups from among the candidates for receiving financial support, and they will ensure institutional diversity by supporting no more than one student from any single institution.