The Doctoral Consortium will take place in conjunction with the 7th International Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation (IWINAC), to be held June 19 - 23 in A Coruña, Spain. The IWINAC 2017 doctoral consortium will provide an opportunity for graduate students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop, under the guidance of a panel of distinguished experts in the field.

The Doctoral Consortium on Natural and Artificial Computation is intended to bring together Ph.D. students within the fields covered by the topics of the IWINAC conference to discuss their research in an international forum. More precisely, the Doctoral Consortium will provide students with an opportunity to:

• Present their research work in a relaxed and supportive environment
• Receive feedback and suggestions from peers and experienced faculty members
• Discuss concerns about research, supervision, the job market, and other issues
• Network with peers and future colleagues

Thus, the symposium will help shape ongoing and future research projects aimed at Natural and Artificial Computation, will promote scholarship and networking among new researchers in this emerging interdisciplinary area, and will expose these promising young researchers to the larger global community.

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM REQUIREMENTS AND RULES

• It is open only to Doctoral Students who have started their research
• Each student with an accepted paper at the Doctoral Consortium must register and attend IWINAC: a special student fee applies
• Each paper must be presented by the student
• The work must not have been presented in previous editions of the Doctoral Consortium
• No videoconference is allowed for presentation
• Submissions will be judged mainly on relevance, originality, technical quality and clarity
• Paper length: 4 to 12 pages
• Papers must be written in LaTeX (LNCS template) including the following information:
  • research problem
  • outline of objectives
  • state of the art
  • methodology
  • expected outcome
  • stage of the research

Registered papers will be included in a pdf file that will be published in the IWINAC webpage. However, they will not be included in the book of proceedings as archival publications therefore they will remain free of copyright.

HOW TO APPLY TO THE DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

To apply for participation at the Doctoral Consortium, please submit your paper through the online submission platform as well as ordinary IWINAC contributions, but choosing the "Special session: Doctoral Consortium" option.

ACCEPTED STUDENTS SHOULD PREPARE:

1. An introduction of themselves and their Ph.D. project for the introductory session. 1 slide only. Duration: 60 sec max.
2. A 15 minute presentation of their Ph.D. project to be used for introducing discussion about their project and its main issues during the small group sessions.
3. Students are also invited to prepare a poster about their Ph.D. for the main conference poster session.

BEST PHD PROJECT AWARD

A "Best PhD Project Award" will be conferred to the student of a paper presented at the conference doctoral consortium, selected by the Doctoral Chair based on the combination of paper reviewing marks and the feedback of the Advisory Board. The award will be announced and bestowed at the end of the conference Official Dinner. The author of an awarded paper will be entitled to:

• A signed and stamped official award certificate
• The announcement of their achievement on a special conference webpage
• A voucher for a free Standard Registration (as author of one paper) for the next IWINAC2017 conference.

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM CHAIR

Prof. Darío Maravall Gómez-Allende.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.