The IEEE Italy Section of the Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) is promoting initiatives to foster and celebrate academic excellence among students and researchers in the field of Computational Intelligence. In line with this commitment, we are pleased to announce the establishment of prestigious awards designed to honor the outstanding contributions of students enrolled in the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. Through these awards, we aim to recognize the efforts of young researchers while also inspiring and encouraging innovation within the Computational Intelligence community. We believe that by promoting the talent of emerging researchers and fostering their networking, we can drive the field forward and pave the way for groundbreaking advancements.

For each category, two awards will be recognized:

• Best Paper
• Best Paper Honorable Mention

Recognized students will be awarded a monetary prize and given the opportunity to present their work to a wider audience at an event sponsored by the IEEE CIS Italy Chapter. Best Papers will receive a prize of €250,00, while those receiving Honorable Mentions will be awarded a certificate.

Rules and Guidelines
To ensure fairness and transparency, the following rules and criteria have been established:

Eligibility Criteria

• Prospective candidates, at the moment of the submission, must be enrolled as Students (Master’s or Ph.D.) in the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society – Italy Chapter.
• Each candidate can apply only to one award category, either Best Journal Paper or Best Conference Paper. Duplicate submissions to multiple award categories will be rejected.
• Prospective candidates must have made primary contributions to the paper (i.e., being the most credited author).

Evaluation Criteria
Submitted works will be assessed based on the following criteria, with explicit consideration given to promoting diversity and gender equality:

• Methodological rigor: The utilization of appropriate techniques and analysis processes that are robust and transparent, ensuring that findings can be confidently interpreted and applied (up to 8 points).
• Originality of the Work: The extent to which the research presents novel concepts, methodologies, or findings that contribute to the advancement of Computational Intelligence (up to 8 points).
• Impact: The significance and relevance of the research to the broader computational intelligence community, including its potential to address existing challenges or inspire future research directions (up to 8 points).
• Online Interview: From all submissions, a limited number of students will undergo remote interviews to evaluate their contributions to the paper (up to 8 points).

These criteria will serve as the basis for the evaluation process, ensuring that the selected recipients are truly deserving of recognition for their exemplary contributions to the field of Computational Intelligence.

Prizes
Based on the above evaluation criteria, the list of winners will be published on the IEEE CIS Italy Section website (https://r8.ieee.org/italy-cis/). For each category, Best Papers will be recognized with a prize of €250,00, while Best Paper Honorable Mentions will be awarded a certificate.

Submission deadline: September 15th, 2024 November 15th, 2024.

Submit your work using this Google Form.

UPDATE (December 8, 2024)
The evaluation commission has been established and includes the following members from the CIS community:

• Angelo Ciaramella, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope”.
• Pasquale Coscia, Università degli Studi di Milano.
• Angelo Genovese, Università degli Studi di Milano.
• Francesco Marcelloni, Università degli Studi di Pisa.