The Program Committee is pleased to announce the Best Student Paper contest. The Best Student Paper Award will be given to author(s) of the paper selected by a panel of judges appointed by the Program Committee.

PAPER ELIGIBILITY

1. A paper is eligible if the first author is a full-time student (enrolled in undergraduate, Masters or Ph.D. program) at the time of submission or has completed a graduate program no more than a year before submitting a paper.
2. The student must be the first author and primary developer of the idea.
3. The student must have done the work as part of an academic degree program.
4. The author must nominate the paper for the award by following the competition guidelines (see below).
5. The paper must be presented by the author at the conference.

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

1. To enter the competition, the author must complete the usual paper submission procedure AND send an e-mail to BSPA Nominating Committee Chair, Dr. Gordan Gledec, to nominate his/her paper for the award by April 20, 2005.
   (Note: If your Subject field was not entered automatically by clicking on the above link, please put as Subject: "Candidate to the ConTEL 2005 best student paper award". Thanks.);
2. The author must provide a letter, fax or e-mail (directly to BSPA Nominating Committee Chair) from the student's Department Chair or Advisor as a proof of student status, by April 20, 2005. If the author has already sent a proof of student status together with their registration, please just note this in your nomination e-mail (there is no need to send it again!).
3. The author must present the paper at the conference and, if his/her paper is one of the finalists, be present at the Awarding Ceremony (at the conference dinner).
   [All finalists will be invited to the dinner by the IPC.]

The list of nominated papers will be announced on the Conference Web site, in early May, after the deadline for paper nomination.

The candidates who fail to follow the guidelines will be disqualified.

SELECTION PROCEDURE

Each paper has already been reviewed in a regular paper review procedure. The ratings supplied by each reviewer will be tabulated for each paper.

Prior to the conference, the Program Committee will select a panel of judges who will select the candidates for the best student paper. The judges will attend the prospective candidates' presentations at the conference. (If the student paper presentation happens to be scheduled on Friday, the judges may ask the candidate to informally present his/her paper on Thursday.) Based on both the submitted paper review ratings and the presentation, the panel will select the Best Student Paper. The winner will be announced at the Conference dinner.