IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize
Overview
The Annual IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize is awarded to an outstanding paper published in JAIR in the preceding five calendar years. The prize committee is comprised of associate editors and members of the JAIR Advisory Board; their decision is based on both the significance of the paper and the quality of presentation. The recipient(s) of the award receives a prize of US$500 (to be split amongst the authors of a co-authored paper). Funding for this award was provided by the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence.
2011
The 2011 Prize Committee selected the following paper on mechanism design that shows that classical results in mechanism design theory often fail when naively combined with suboptimal algorithms, resulting in a mechanism that is no longer necessarily truthful. The authors also propose a way of addressing this problem, by giving agents a chance to improve the output of the underlying algorithm. This work has been highly cited and is considered one of the starting points of what has become a major research area in Artificial Intelligence and algorithmic game theory. The prize and accompanying cheque will be presented at IJCAI-11 in Barcelona.
2011 Prize: N. Nisan and A. Ronen (2007) "Computationally Feasible VCG Mechanisms" Volume 29, 19-47.
An Honorable Mention is given to the following paper which presents one of the first attempts to integrate learning techniques into modern planners. The techniques it introduced for solving the complex class of relational Markov Decision Processes had important impact on the use of learning in classical planning.
2011 Honorable Mention: A. Fern, S. Yoon and R. Givan (2006) "Approximate Policy Iteration with a Policy Language Bias: Solving Relational Markov Decision Processes", Volume 25, 75-118.
2010
2010 Prize: L. Xu, F. Hutter, H. Hoos, and K. Leyton-Brown (2008) "SATzilla: Portfolio-based Algorithm Selection for SAT", Volume 32, 565-606.
2010 Honorable Mention: S. Ponzetto and M. Strube (2007) "Knowledge Derived From Wikipedia For Computing Semantic Relatedness", Volume 30, 181-212.
2009
2009 Prize: C. Boutilier, R. Brafman, C. Domshlak, H. Hoos, and D. Poole (2004) "CP-nets: A Tool for Representing and Reasoning with Conditional Ceteris Paribus Preference Statements", Volume 21, pages 135-191.
2009 Honorable Mention: M. Helmert (2006) "The Fast Downward Planning System", Volume 26, pages 191-246.
2008
2008 Prize: G. Gottlob, G. Greco and F. Scarcello (2005) "Pure Nash Equilibria: Hard and Easy Games", Volume 24, pages 357-406.
2008 Honorable Mention: P. Beame, H. Kautz and A. Sabharwal (2004) "Towards Understanding and Harnessing the Potential of Clause Learning", Volume 22, pages 319-351.
2007
2007 Prize: Guestrin, C., Koller, D., Parr, R. and Venkataraman, S. (2003) "Efficient Solution Algorithms for Factored MDPs", 19, 399 - 468.
2007 Honorable Mention: Felner, A., Korf, R.E. and Hanan, S. (2004) "Additive Pattern Database Heuristics", 22, 279-318.
2006
2006 Prize: Darwiche, A. and Marquis, P. (2002) "A Knowledge Compilation Map", 17, 229 - 264.
2006 Honorable Mention: Ginsberg, M.L. (2001) "GIB: Imperfect Information in a Computationally Challenging Game", 14, 303-358.
2005
2005 Prize: Hoffmann, J. and Nebel, B. (2001) "The FF Planning System: Fast Plan Generation Through Heuristic Search", 14, 253 - 302.
2005 Honorable Mention: Cheng, J. and Druzdzel, M.J. (2000) "AIS-BN: An Adaptive Importance Sampling Algorithm for Evidential Reasoning in Large Bayesian Networks", 13, 155-188.
2004
2004 Prize: Ygge, F. and Akkermans, H. (1999) "Decentralized Markets versus Central Control: A Comparative Study", 11, 301-333.
2004 Honorable Mention: Fox, D., Burgard, W. and Thrun, S. (1999) "Markov Localization for Mobile Robots in Dynamic Environments", 11, 391-427.
2003
2003 Prize: Dietterich, T.G. (2000) "Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning with the MAXQ Value Function Decomposition", 13, 227-303.
2003 Honorable Mention: Littman, M.L., Goldsmith, J. and Mundhenk M. (1998) "The Computational Complexity of Probabilistic Planning", 9, 1-36.
