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Design of the NeurIPS Tutorials 2022

by Adji Bousso Dieng, Andrew Gordon Wilson and Jessica Schrouff

 

We are very excited to announce the call for tutorial proposals! We are looking forward to your submissions. In this post, we will outline some of our considerations in designing the tutorials this year, and highlight the differences and similarities compared to previous years.

Contributed only

Every year at NeurIPS, we like to try something new, so that events each year are complementary, providing a fresh experience, and helping us gather information to refine our approach. In 2019 and 2020, there was a mix of contributed and invited tutorials. In 2021, all the tutorials were invited, minimising overlap with the rest of the program. This year, we have opted for a contributed-only tutorial program. In addition to a complimentary experience, we hope a large number of contributed tutorials will help reduce selection bias and provide opportunities to those most eager to contribute to the program — empowering speakers who may not have otherwise been readily identifiable for us to select. In general, we hope enlarging the number of contributed tutorials will increase the diversity of topics and speakers. At the same time, we wish to retain some of the features that made last year’s tutorials so successful!  To alleviate the valid concern that some researchers might self-disqualify (see Marc and Meire’s blog post from 2021), we will directly reach out to researchers from under-represented groups or working on specific topics to encourage them to submit a proposal. With this process, we hope to get the best of both worlds: an open call whereby all proposals are judged equitably while ensuring that every researcher considers themselves for this opportunity.

Panel discussion

Additionally, this year each tutorial will include a panel discussion. The panel discussion is aimed at broadening the conversation on the topic of the tutorial, bringing in multiple and diverse perspectives. We hope that the panel will provide an opportunity for more community engagement and more discussions of the open questions in the field, as well as a perspective that complements what was presented in the body of the tutorial.

Diversity

All previous editions have considered diversity across all tutorials. In addition, as we are adding a panel and the number of participants per tutorial increases, each tutorial will also be evaluated in terms of the diversity across speakers and panellists. We request each proposal to dedicate a section of their proposal to reflect on the diversity of their proposal.

Format Summary

Additionally, we provide the option for speakers either to present live or with a pre-recorded talk. In summary, tutorials will have the following format:

  • Live or pre-recorded talks by speakers
  • Questions and Answers directly related to the presentation
  • A live panel discussion on the topic with additional researchers and a moderator

Advice for Proposal Preparation

  • Don’t rely on recycling past submissions (read the updated call!)
  • Read the call for tutorials closely
  • Make a clear case that the proposal has broad relevance and accessibility to the NeurIPS community. E.g., why should the tutorial be presented at this particular NeurIPS 2022? How will your plan engage with a broad audience? How will it be effectively delivered in an online format? What materials will you provide? How will the panel complement your presentation?
    – Check past year’s tutorials and look through their abstract to define the right balance of technicality and general interest   
  • Don’t forget the diversity section
  • Make it clear in the bios how the speaker and panellists are experts in the domain.

Evaluation

We will select proposals in two phases. The first phase will aim to identify generally strong submissions. The second phase will focus on maximizing a diversity of topics and speakers.
As per last year’s objectives, we will favour speakers who would benefit most from this opportunity. To increase the quality of proposals and provide focus, we decided to limit the number of proposals to one per researcher. Also, a speaker for one proposal cannot be a panellist on another. In some cases, we might reach out during the evaluation phase to suggest improvements or modifications if we have questions or believe the proposal has potential but could benefit from adjustments.

 

Important dates:

Submission: Wednesday, June 8th AOE

Final notification: Wednesday, August 3rd AOE

 

Please support us in creating an exciting and diverse tutorial program by sharing the Call for Proposals! If you would like to suggest names or topics to invite for submission or for general questions, please contact us at tutorial-chairs@neurips.cc.

The full call for tutorials can be found at: https://neurips.cc/Conferences/2022/CallForTutorials

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